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Robbie,  Your comments about 'Orgue de Barbarie' brought me to get
out of my bookcase the book 'Drehorgeln', by Helmut Zeraschi
(published in Germany in 1976), in which on page 41 and subsequent
excellent details about the pedigree of the name Barbarien are given.

Although Zeraschi didn't end with a conclusion, he pointed out that
the names Barbarie, stranger, abroad and foreign have had more or
less the same meaning, and it is only in our days that the negative
connotation is stuck to Barbarie, the first word.

It is too difficult for me to translate the German passages into
English, but maybe you can find one to do that job.  I send you a
picture of 1737 from the book mentioned (p. 45), with the caption:
"L'orgue de Barbarie ou plutost d'Allemagne" - "Barberian organ,
or better from Germany".  Barbarian is used here also in the sense
of 'from abroad'.

Luuk Goldhoorn

 [ One wonders if the caption of the French drawing also suggests
 [ barbarity.  In this era were several battles between elements of
 [ France and many of the sovereign states comprising Germany.  The
 [ French caption is ambiguous, maybe intentionally; it ends with
 [ "or rather/instead/preferably from Germany."  Zeraschi comments
 [ that one might conclude from the caption that the crank-organ was
 [ probably not a French invention, possibly also not by Giovanni
 [ Barberi of Modena, but it might be a German invention.
 [
 [ Thanks for your letter, Luuk.  I am lucky to also have the Zeraschi
 [ book, but I grew confused reading it.  Yesterday I wrote to the
 [ French discussion forum "musiquemecanique" and asked their opinion
 [ on "Why is it called l'orgue de Barbarie?"  :-)
 [
 [ Read about Luuk's book, "The Austrian Music Box Industry of the
 [ 19th Century", in 991215 MMDigest.  -- Robbie