> > Just for clarification: when recommending the re-entrant tuning doesn't Sanz (1674) remark that earlier guitarists (esp in Italy) used it? Presumably this from his earlier time in Rome where he met Colista, Corbetta, Granata and thus, one supposes, based his observation on a direct recollection of the practice at that time. How does his observation fit with your view of use of low basses pre-1671?
I don't think we can say that he met Corbetta or Granata in Rome. Sanz thought very high of Corbetta and he may even have heared him somewhere. (Interesting thought) I think both the re-entrant tuning and the tuning with bourdons were in use in Italy. The re-entrant tuning was used by certain Maestros: '...en Roma aquellos Maestros solo encordan la guitarra con cuerdas delgadas, sin poner ningun bordon, ni en quarta , ni en quinta.' It's a pity that Sanz didn't tell anything about the rest of Italy. Sanz' book is published long after people like Bartolotti and Corbetta had left for France (and Britain). We should bear in mind that much of the guitar world in Italy was really amateuristic at the time. One of the Maestros he met was Lelio Colista. The few pieces that we have of him are not at all of the standard of the music of Foscarini, Bartolotti or Corbetta. I would not speak of just one practice, we are looking at almost a century of Italian guitar music, composed and played in a large country, devided in different states. L. To get on or off this list see list information at http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html
