Dear Duncan, There are several different systems.
I believe I was the first to realise this could be done and that it was probably the basis of historical lute design in my (very) brief article in The Lute Society Journal number 15 in 1973. (available via their website http://www.lutesoc.co.uk/journal.htm) This would certainly give you the outline of the method Subsequently some historical lutes were analysed in versions of this way by Kevin Coates in his book Geometry, Proportion and the Art of Lutherie (1991)and by an addendum in Mark Lindley's book Lutes, Viols and Temperaments (1984) (ISBN: 0521246709) In fact of course I was not the first, that honour falls to Arnault of Zwolle in about 1450 in his section on medieval lute design of his manuscript now in Paris which was reproduced and discussed in an article by Ian Harwood in The Lute Society Journal number 2 in 1960. The manuscript has some problematic areas which I tried to address in my talk to the Lute Society which is reprinted in their newsletter number 69 (April 2004) Best wishes, David At 06:37 +0000 5/2/08, Duncan Midwinter wrote: >Is there a method for drawing the teardrop shape of a lute soundboard using >circles? I've been messing around in Adobe Illustrator drawing different >sized circles and can almost get there -- but not quite. > >-- >Duncan Midwinter > >midwinterDesign creative website design >http://www.midwinterdesign.co.uk > >-- > >To get on or off this list see list information at >http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html -- The Smokehouse, 6 Whitwell Road, Norwich, NR1 4HB England. Telephone: + 44 (0)1603 629899 Website: http://www.vanedwards.co.uk --
