Cythara
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The cythara is a wide group of stringed instruments of medieval and Renaissance Europe, including not only the lyre and harp but also necked, string instruments. In fact, unless a medieval document gi
Two instruments that can be identified as a cythara. At left a cithara as lyre, on the right another type cythara, with a neck and frets. From the Utrecht Psalter, Psalm 145–146: "psallite Deo nostro in cithara" ("sing to our God upon the harp.") The manuscript is from the 9th century, but the images are thought to be copied from an earlier manuscript.
Paris, France. An instrument from the Stuttgart Psalter (France), early 9th century, labeled "cythara" in that text. Shown vertically here, most illustrations in the psalter show it played held in the arms horizontally, like a citole.
Image of transformation of cithara lyre to cythara lute. (A) base rotta (C) the first transformation (B) the cithara as lute (D) the cithara as lute. Illustrated by an Anglo-Saxon artist in Reims.
Rotta from a 1700 b.c. fresco. Strings narrowed, and adding fingerboard would create the crwth and plucked guitar fiddles.
Gittern
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The gittern was a relatively small gut-strung, round-backed instrument that first appeared in literature and pictorial representation during the 13th century in Western Europe. It is usually depicted
Five course Gittern or "Quintern" dated 1450, built by luthier Hans Oth
Gittern (right) depicted in a c. 1322 fresco scene from the life of St. Martin of Tours. The instrument on the left is a set of aulos.
Juan Oliver's c.1330 painting at Pamplona Cathedral, showing a musician playing a gittern.
By 1575, the German quintern included guitar-shaped instruments.