Hi: This instrument (or others with similar appearances) have also been called gitterns. It is difficult to determine exactly what they may have been, how they were tuned or played, and how they may relate to the development of instruments played today. Certainly in appearance there is nothing to suggest any similarity between it and the modern Portuguese guittarra (or 18th C. "English" guittar). However, as per our previous discussion (guitar/bouzoukis, banjo/ukes, etc) what emphasis should be placed upon outward appearance, as opposed to tuning, string materials, etc. Brad
"Roger E. Blumberg" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > From: Stuart Walsh > Date: Mon, 23 Oct 2006 22:54:29 +0200 > To: ron fernandez , [email protected] > Subject: [CITTERN] Re: Origin of the Portuguese guitarra > > (the citola is isn't meant meant to predate the Renaissance cittern is it?) The "citole" does predate the cittern. Here's a medieval Portuguese citole (or what most people would call a citole these days in any even). I'd imagine it's late 13th to mid 14th cent. I don't think anyone knows for sure if they were wire or gut strung. http://www.TheCipher.com/Portuguese_medieval_citole.jpg There's a similar instrument in the Cantigas de Santa Maria (c.1265, Spain), 5 string http://www.TheCipher.com/cantigas-guitar-detail-5str_det.jpg Roger To get on or off this list see list information at http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html --------------------------------- How low will we go? Check out Yahoo! Messenger's low PC-to-Phone call rates. --
