Regal (instrument)

The musical instrument known as the regal or regalle (from Middle French régale[1]) is a small portable organ, furnished with beating reeds and having two bellows.

Michael Praetorius (1618) mentions a larger regal used in the court orchestras of some of the German princes, more like a positive organ, containing reeds at 4′, 8′, and even sometimes 16′ pitch, and having two bellows behind the case.

They were often mentioned in wills and inventories, such as the list of Henry VIII's musical instruments made after his death by Sir Philip Wilder (British Library Harley MS 1415, fol.

Claudio Monteverdi scored for the regals in his operas, and the instrument was described and illustrated by Sebastian Virdung in 1511, Martin Agricola in 1528, and Othmar Luscinius in 1536.

The regal may be seen as the ancestor of the harmonium, the reed organ, and the various varieties of "squeezebox" such as the accordion, the concertina, and the Bandoneón.