>As establishing frequencies was yet to come, I think establishing frequencies goes back at least as far as Mersenne's time but I've no idea how they did it.
I can't think of any other explanation for the figures accompanying his illustration of the various sizes in the violin family, which appear to suggest that the strings went up in fifths starting from what would be something like a low Bb in modern terms. i.e. the bass would be tuned Bb-F-C-C, the next one up F-C-G-D and so on. This may be totally incorrect, so if anyone with in-depth musicological knowledge can explain these figures (what they indicate and how they were arrived at?) I would be eternally grateful. I can (illegally, probably) send you a scan of the pages in question. (I haven't got the complete work - just an extract in a Fuzeau facsimile of historical viola and pardessus methods). CB To get on or off this list see list information at http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html
