Robert Bruce Armstrong (1838-1913) was an archaeologist living in Edinburgh, where he also practiced music and art. He wrote two volumes on Musical Instruments and for our purposes the most important was the first, published in 1904. Well illustrated with photographs and his own beautiful drawings of the harps, it also includes many accurate measurements of the instruments he inspected.
Following is the text of an Errata that Armstrong added to his book after its initial publication. It is included here as it is not immediately apparent.
Errata
P. 7, 14th line, for (1581) read (1581)5.
P. 52, Note 5, for Cevil read Ceoil.
P. 83, 7th line, for unquestionably read quite possibly.
P. 86, 10th line, for evidently read perhaps.
P. 100, 8th line from bottom, for believed read supposed.
If you prefer, you may follow this link (which will open a new tab in your browser) to Armstrong's The Irish and the Highland Harps where it is hosted by www.archive.org. You may download the book in various forms on that site, including PDF and Kindle.
Please follow this Catalogue link to connect to the author index on the Library page.
If you came to this page from the Historic Harps please follow this link to return.
Armstrong's Volume 2 of "Musical Instruments", published in 1908, was entitled English and Irish Instruments and contains interesting information on other types of harps, such as the dittal harp, as well as lyres, guitars, and lutes, with musical examples, instruction, and copious illustrations.