Both. Whike French theorboes tended to be single strung, only the largest Italian ones (stopped string length near 100 cm) were single; the vast majority of Italian theorboes (and the ones corresponding to the sizes we tend to play, 80 cm and up) almost always double. This can be seen in both surviving instruments, historical sources and iconography. I refer you to the excellent thesis of Lynda Sayce for an in depth review of the material and surviving instruments.
Sent from my iPad > On 14 Aug 2014, at 22:01, "R. Mattes" <[email protected]> wrote: > > On Thu, 14 Aug 2014 19:00:24 +0200, Benjamin Narvey wrote >> Of course! I meant courses, not strings. Single stringing is >> mainly a modern phenomenon... > > Where did you get this idea from? Is this statement based on > _historic_ evidence or on surviving instruments? > > Cheers, Ralf Mattes > > > > To get on or off this list see list information at > http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html
