Brad, Pedro Caldeira Cabral makes his argument in his book A Guitarra Portuguesa (The Portuguese Guitarra--the word "A" in Portuguese means 'The") published in 1999 by Ediclub in Lisbon. He also wrote a chapter in Instrumentos Musicais Populares Portugueses, by Ernesto Veiga de Oliveira published in 2000 where he gives his argument.
His argument is basically that there was a 12-string citola made in Portugal hundred of years before the English guittar. He argues that the stringing, shape, tuning, and playing technique used on the citola are a continuous line evolutionary line to the present Portuguese guitarra. He says that the English Guittar had an influence on the evolution of the Portuguese guitarra but that the English Guittar did not arrive into a vacuum in Portugal. In another book called A Guitarra Portuguesa which was a compilation of articles from the 2001 Universidade de Evora symposium, Manuel Morais makes some arguments against Cabral's thesis. In my opinion this matter has an interesting political subtext which has to do with cultural imperialism. Namely that the English speaking world's view of the "Portuguese" guitarra is that it was given to the Portuguese by the British--the implication being that the Portuguese were so deficit that their national instrument had to be invented for them. This view has been sold by the Grove encyclopedia for many years. The thesis of Cabral attempt to rebuke this English (anglo-centric) view of the evolution of the Portuguese guitarra and Portuguese culture. I am presently trying to prepare dozens of Spanish guitars for shipment to stores so I must drop out of this discussion for a month. Above I have given the source books, I encourage all of you to do your research on this issue. Perhaps Pedro Caldeira Cabral will express his views on this forum. Regards, Ron Fernández -- To get on or off this list see list information at http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html
