Tracing the roots of the piano to the very beginning of consciousness, when man first became aware of sound.
Early 1100s, Organistrum

The organistrum, an early, larger form of the hurdy-gurdy (possibly inspired by the fiddle), shaped like a guitar but with a long, wide neck for keys, requiring two players (one pulled keys in an upward motion to change the pitch of the melody string while the other cranked a small wheel to produce a continuous sound on two drone strings). Thought to be the first use of the principle of a keyboard. A 13th century treatise on the construction of an organistrum, describes an instrument having eight tangents set at intervals based on Pythagorean principles.
Page Sources
SOURCES
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[1]
JoJan. "Organistrumsantiago." Photograph. Commons Wikimedia. Wikimedia Foundation, Inc., 14 April 2006. Web. 14 Sept. 2015. GFDL, and CC BY-SA 3.0.
[2]
Haynes, Richard. "Organistrum Clip." Online Video Clip. YouTube. YouTube, 7 April 2012. Web. 14 Oct. 2015. Standard YouTube License.
[3]
rotamundi1953. "Organistrum." Online Video Clip. YouTube. YouTube, 5 March 2009. Web. 14 Oct. 2015. Standard YouTube License.