Stephen > I presume you are referring to the translation in "Varietie of Lute > Lessons" (1610)? Besard's "Isagoge" was published four years later > (1614); what he translated was from the "Thesaurus harmonicus" (1603).
Indeed, all correct, although Besard's Isagoge in Artem Testudinariam is even from 1617. In the 1603 publication the example is only with left hand fingering, as in Dowland's. Besard 1603 is in Latin: First he talks about 'pollice, & indicis primos duos digitos in diminutionibus', also thumb and index for 'quarta, quinta, vel sexta corda'. And later about fourth to ninth string 'omnes pollice attingi'. Like Dowland, or like Besard 1617 without the thumb and little finger part. As far as my understanding of the Latin goes, of course. Too many years ago to be sure ... May I reccomend a nice 'compact' facsimile of the prefaces of Besard's Isagoge in German (1617), Besard's Ad artem (1617 ) and Robert Dowland's Necessarie observations (1610) from Peter Päffgen (Junghänel-Páffgen-Schäffer, 1974). Good old-fashioned typed Nachwort. All on beautiful, thick, yellowish and uneven paper. Sold out by now, I'm sure, but perhaps a library will have it for you. Together with Minkoff's Thesaurus of 1603 (1975 facsimile) you can check all yourselves. David **************************** David van Ooijen [EMAIL PROTECTED] www.davidvanooijen.nl **************************** To get on or off this list see list information at http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html
