The psaltery has been compared to the harpsichord and dulcimer, though some forms of the latter are not plucked, but struck with hammers. The strings of the medieval instrument were usually made of metal, unlike the finger-plucked harp, strung with catgut, and played using a plectrum or “pick.” The harp is strung with a single string for each tone, open to be plucked from either side of the instrument a psaltery may have multiple strings for each tone, strung across a soundboard. The box-zither psalteries may have a Phoenician origin. While the Greek instruments were harps, psaltery came to mean instruments that were strung across a resonating wood box. In the King James Bible 'psaltery', and its plural, 'psalteries', are used to translate several words from the Hebrew Bible whose meaning is now unknown. The word psaltery derives from the Ancient Greek ψαλτήριον ( psaltḗrion), 'stringed instrument, psaltery, harp' and that from the verb ψάλλω ( psállō), 'to touch sharply, to pluck, pull, twitch' and in the case of the strings of musical instruments, 'to play a stringed instrument with the fingers, and not with the plectrum.' The psaltery was originally made from wood, and relied on natural acoustics for sound production. The psaltery of Ancient Greece ( epigonion) was a harp-like stringed instrument.

The three sided instruments were popular in parts of the church for their symbolic three sides, reminder of the Trinity. These psalteries were known as the 'rote' or a variation of that name. They used the top-horizontal side used to hold the tuning pegs. Psalteries in a triangular shape were confused with harps at times.

Dulcimer images