Craig: Some information is available within the Lautenweltadressbuch. http://bit.ly/S4CPmB
If you put 15 into the Date field, it will pull up all the instruments made in the 16th century (as well as those made or repaired in 1615, 1715, etc.). In the Material field you will often see the material of which the back is made and occasionally some other portion of the instrument, though not likely the material for the pegs. You will see a lot of yew, maple and ivory backs. You do have to allow for the presence of a few forgeries in the list, and not every museum report is likely to be completely accurate, so you have to be a bit skeptical of things like mahogany, for example. Regards, Daniel -----Original Message----- From: lute-...@cs.dartmouth.edu [mailto:lute-...@cs.dartmouth.edu] On Behalf Of co...@medievalist.org Sent: 28 September, 2013 19:49 To: Lute List Subject: [LUTE] Ebony Pegs Collected Wisdom, I know that today we know there's too much silica in ebony to use as tuning pegs, but I'm curious as to whether using ebony for pegs was a period practice pre-1600? Can anyone point me to appropriate documentation on the types of woods used on stringed instruments prior to 1600? Thank you as always. Regards, Craig To get on or off this list see list information at http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html
