Maler's workshop inventory (copied from Stephen Barber's website) Laux Maler built lutes in a variety of sizes, and the lengthy inventory taken of the contents of his workshop in 1552, compiled a few days after his death on the 5th July, makes very interesting reading: of the 1100 finished or partly-finished lutes in the house and workshop, no less than 356 are described as 'small', 15 of 'medium' size and 635 as 'large'. Furthermore, the list of lute bellies and ribs makes astonishing reading for the modern lutemaker:
2 medium boxes of lute ribs 22 pairs of lute bellies, carved 200 pairs of lute bellies, unworked 272 lute bellies newly carved, in a box in another box: 192 lute bellies newly carved in another box: 174 lute bellies newly carved a large Venetian box: in the said box, 467 lute bellies newly carved a medium box of lute ribs a Venetian strongbox full of lute ribs eight lute bodies 27 lute bellies -----Original Message----- From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]]on Behalf Of howard posner Sent: Wednesday, September 30, 2009 9:23 AM To: Lutelist list Subject: [LUTE] Re: Lute Factories Inventories of the Tieffenbrucker's shop on Moise Tieffenbrucker's death in 1581 included 160 lutes ("ordinary" and "precious"), unfinished lutes, necks, lute bodies and bellies, sawn ribs and lots of other parts and accessories, including "800 dozen thin lute strings" and 24 dozen violin strings. The inventories are printed as an 11-page appendix to Doug Smith's "History of the Lute." On Sep 30, 2009, at 9:08 AM, Mark Probert wrote: > Does anyone know if, back in the day, there was the equivalent of the > Cremona factories for lutes? Or were lutes always a custom-built > instrument? -- To get on or off this list see list information at http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html
