A bit more than that, no? Exact transpositions of the same pieces, I'd say. Perhaps we won't be able to tell which was first (as in Lessing's Ring Parable), but it's pretty clear that one _was_ first and the others are adaptations.
I have only been following this discussion in a desultary manner so perhaps I have missed the point. However my 2 pennyworth for what it is worth ...De Visee makes two observations in the introduction to the 1682 guitar book which are slightly contradictory. First he says
"Since my friends have found the melody of my pieces to their liking, they pressed me to include a section in staff notation for the satisaction of those who wished to play them on the keyboard, violin and other instruments. These will be found at the end of the book written out for bass and treble."
..which suggests that they were originally not for keyboard, violin or other instruments. However further on he says
"I have been obliged to transpose the pieces of music because the compass of the guitar extends only to high D la re [at the tenth fret]. One should not forget to put an octave on the fourth course because it is very necessary."
which suggests that originally they were for an instrument with a greater compass than the guitar.
Arranging music for different instrument was commonplace in the 17th century. Several of the pieces in Foscarini's book are arrangements of lute pieces.
Monica To get on or off this list see list information at http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html
