Piper Barry O’Neill’s personal webpage, http://www.polisci.ucla.edu/faculty/boneill, has three very interesting articles he wrote for the Sean Reid Society. One of these concerns the sordellina, an Italian bagpipe of the 17th century, which shared many features with the Irish pipes: bellows-blown, keyed pipes, the potential for harmonic capabilities and extended range, aristocratic clientele, etc. Barry theorizes that the sordellina perhaps was an inspiration for the regulators. http://www.metmuseum.org has a depiction of a beautiful statue/musical mechanism which features a sordellina being played by the Greek god Polyphemus; the site also has an excellent picture of an ivory musette de ceour, among many other attractions.
It was also mentioned as a precursor to the pipes by Duncan Alexander Fraser in his book on the Bagpipe “Some Reminiscences and the Bagpipe”.
Kevin, I checked the sculpture, musical instruments and Lehman collections but couldn’t find it. Lotsa art to sift through; could you give me a pointer? Thanks.
Go to the search area at the bottom left of the page and type in Polyphemus. Then it will ask where you want to search. Click on the online collection. You can zoom in and find it on the far left of a picture of a harpsichord circa 1675. There he is.
Marc
Thanks, Marc! Three keyed chanters, and each double-reeded??? 
The Italians are more mad than I thought.
A reprint of the tutor, in Italian, for this instrument was published about six years ago. They used silver reeds.
The phagotum was another bellows-blown bagpipe with multiple-keyed chanters. They were multi-bored cylinders, like racketts or shuttle drones.
Ted
If you can make it to Pforzheim, Germany tonight, you can see and hear one of the very few, if not the only existing playable sordellina. Horst Grimm, a well-respected specialist in historical music, has built himself a sordellina after the only surviving detailed picture. I have seen him play that strange thing about two years ago. Very impressive, sweet sound. But hey, nothing can beat a concert set in full blast!