Quite a number of people have raised the question, Will there be banjos in heaven? Which comes up because of several paintings from the Middle Ages which without a shadow of a doubt show angels playing banjos.

In fact the origins of the banjo are imperfectly understood. Contrary to nearly all modern belief, the banjo was known to the ancient Romans, who called it manus panda, or simply panda (Late Latin banda or banja), from the shape of the typical crescent formed on the head, or tympanum, after long use. This crescent normally consisted of dirt, accumulated over time, and in the case of a coated transparent head (tympanum transparens), provided a view of the dowel stick or rods (apparatus pandae internus). It is thought that this dirt often became so thick that various seeds actually sprouted in it, giving rise to the much misunderstood expression, fertile crescent.

That the use of the banjo was common in the first few centuries A.D. is known from its explicit prohibition by a series of imperial edicts. After Rome fell, Europe was swamped with barbarians, who brought with them their own musical instruments, such as they were, and there followed many centuries of darkness when the banjo was not heard. Some of the instruments must have survived, however, if we are to explain the occurrence of a few late graffiti showing suspiciously dirty sundials with five strings.

Much later, St. Paucibus, according to legend, brought the banjo to Armenia, where it flourished for several months. It is likely that he made them himself, but what is very obscure is where the idea came from. It is said that Roger Bacon, in the 13th century, frustrated by this insoluble mystery, composed a treatise in which he proposed to derive the banjo from First Principles. This is probably the famous Voynich Manuscript, which has so far resisted decipherment, written in an unknown language and having its margins decorated with schematics of what appears to be modern plumbing.

The banjo even played a small role in the so-called Argument from Design. St. Paucibus once asked his disciples: If you found a banjo on a lonely beach, completely assembled, strung and tuned in double-C, what would you conclude? They had no answer, but later thinkers proposed that, given enough time, absolutely anything could happen, even that it would be tuned in double-C.

The more recent uses of the loud and piercing "Blastgrass" banjo in warfare, to terrify the enemy when marching into battle, were not at first successful, as they had the same or greater effect on one's own troops. In Scotland it was eventually replaced by the Highland Pipes. However, unlike the pipes, a heavy banjo could also be used as a weapon. This is the origin of both the well-known "Prewar Gibson Mace" and the very heavy tone rings of modern times.

A manuscript from the "Blastgrass" era, discovered in the 1960s and perhaps known to some of my readers, translates as follows:

Thus the heritage has come down to us, along with such treasures as the mixodorian mode and the compensated bridge. But our contemporaries are also not wrong in positing an African origin for the banjo. The Romans were all over Africa (well, the northern part) after they conquered Carthage. That’s probably where they got it. The Carthaginians always said they would get even.