John,

All the citterns that I've measured from the 16th and 17th centuries have a
meantone fretting, both with complete and partial frets.  Starting from
numbers, as we do today, these seem frequently inaccurate, but doubtless
fitted their usage perfectly,  or perhaps only the badly fretted ones
survived?  Fret positions approximate one sixth  or one fifth comma meantone
- less extreme than the theoretical quarter comma used on some keyboards.
You'll have to look at later citterns to find the change over to equal
temperament - Broadwood pianos and some organ tuners were using unequal
temperaments well into the 19th century.  Some figures are in my article on
Andrew Hartig's website:   www.theaterofmusic.com/cittern        Later
citterns on Andreas Michel's.

Peter



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