Dear All, My wife and I were on holiday in north west Spain recently. The group that we were with was mostly concerned with Roman remains, I was looking out for musical instruments. We visited Santiago and Leon. I was particularly interested in the cathedral of Astorga where lutes appear in prominent positions over both of the principal doorways, having always thought of lutes in Spain as non-Christion instruments. Over a doorway circa 1550 one is paired with a vielle, over tha later baroque doorway a lute is paired with a guitar or vihuela. My bus was leaving in rather less than fifteen minutes, however I made a very quick tour of the cathedral, and its museum, to look for similar pairs. There were none, however a very fine late renaissance organ case had several angels playing musical instruments. In particular two paired angels play guitars. That on the left is shallow and vihuela-like, that on the right is deeper and may well be a real, small, guitar. In particular the pegs seem clear and not sculpted. Another possible real instrument is a harp. (The organ case is quite high). I bought a guide book and caught my bus.
Looking through the guide book (printed in 1991) I found pictures of the organ but the right-hand guitar is not there. In its place is a small cittern. It is shaped like a carved Italian instrument with a guitar-like peg plate. I cannot make out any frets on the small photograph. If this should still exist, and is a real instrument, it is important - the only other Spanish cittern is just the fingerboard from the Trinidad Valencera shipwreck. Are there any musicians or instrument makers in north west Spain who could investigate further? Peter Forrester Another sculpture worth investigation at Astorga is a free-standing musician above the renaissance door playing a large bowed vihuela with a flat tied bridge as shown by Ian Woodfield but dating from later than 1550. To get on or off this list see list information at http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html
