Sounds a lot like the Ukrainian national instrument, the name of which 
escapes me at the moment.

[EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
>> Subject: [CITTERN] 12-c Saxon cittern
>>
>> A builder in Germany has just contacted me about a commission they  
>> have received to build a 12-course cittern based on an existing  
>> instrument.  There are four courses on the fingerboard; the rest are  
>> free. He is looking for more information on tuning.  He's found two  
>> possibilities: [high to low] e' d' g b e a d g c f Bb es [I assume es  
>> = Eb] and g' e' c' g f e d c B A G F C [13 courses, but who's counting].
>>
>> As you can see, the former uses the Italian 4-course tuning on the  
>> finger board with circle of fifths tuning on the free basses; the  
>> latter uses an open chord with diatonic basses, similar to tunings  
>> used in 18th-century France, Germany, etc. Apparently both were still  
>> found in 20th-century Saxony.
>>
>> Does anyone have any thoughts I could pass on?
>>
>> Thanks,
>>
>> Doc
>>
> Sounds like one of those German arch-citterns of the mid-late 18th century 
> (but there seem to have been some earlier ones too) - made by Klemm and Kramm.
> 
> I'm at work at the moment but I'm sure they were tuned to GCEG and then 
> descending diatonically.
> 
> I've got some notes somewhere on these instruments and for some inexplicable 
> reason they might sometimes have been called 'mandorinas' and I think I've 
> got some music (in tablature, not ordinary music notation like in Britain and 
> France etc) for them.
> 
>  
> 
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