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All new updated site! For missing pages, see the OLD Renaissance Cittern Site.
Below you will find a listing of historical (i.e. old) extant citterns, bandoras, orpharions, cithrinchen, English guittars, and miscellaneous "other citterns" from museums and other collections. Instruments with a separate dedicated page of information can be found by clicking on the [More info] link.
For related content, see also my Provisional List of 16th and early 17th Century Builders of Citterns, Orpharions & Bandoras and Peter Forrester's Provisional List of Extant 16th and Early 17th Century Citterns.
16th & 17th Century Citterns, Ceterones, Bandoras, & Orpharions
16th & 17th Century Citterns, Ceterones, Bandoras, & Orpharions
Citterns
Citterns
Maker: N. Amati(?)
Date / Country of Origin: 17th c.?, Italy
Current Location / Catalog #: Current location: Unknown. (Previously Museo Bardini, Florence, no. 152)
Other Remarks: Instrument came apart in floods of 1966. Instrument briefly analyzed by Stephen Gottlieb in 1974.
Maker: A. Rossi
Date / Country of Origin: 1530 or 1550? Urbino, Italy
Current Location / Catalog #: Current location unknown.
Other Remarks: In poor condition. Possesses some unusual fretting and fret labels. See page for more information.
Maker: Petrus Rautta
Date / Country of Origin: circa1620, possibly English
Current Location / Catalog #: National Music Museum (formerly the Shrine to Music Museum) at the Univeristy of South Dakota, Vermillion, USA. Object # 13500
Other Remarks: Small, chromatic. Cittern auctioned at Christie's, April 2, 2007. Photos courtesy of Christie's via Andy Rutherford. See page for more information.
Maker: Unknown.
Date / Country of Origin: 16th/17th c.?, Dutch?
Current Location / Catalog #: Collection of the Nederlands Instituut voor Scheeps-en onderwater Archeologie (NISA) - OB 71-265 a/b
Other Remarks: These parts were recovered by from a sunken ship and represent one of only a few surviving Dutch instruments. See page for additional photos as well as pictures of a reconstruction by builder Sebastián Núñez.
Maker: Unknown.
Date / Country of Origin: 16th/17th c.?, Dutch?
Current Location / Catalog #: Brussels, KM 1524
Other Remarks: Diatonic fretting. Photos courtesy of Peter Forrester.
Maker: Unknown.
Date / Country of Origin: 16th c., France
Current Location / Catalog #: France, Collection of the Musée des Arts Décoratifs - FR-D.32026
Other Remarks: Some unusual constructional features suggest the possibility that this cittern was set up with drone stringing.
Maker: Giovanni Salvatori
Date / Country of Origin: 16th c., Italy
Current Location / Catalog #: France, Collection of the Musée de la musique - E.543
Other Remarks:
Maker: Francesco Plebanus
Date / Country of Origin: 1536, Italy
Current Location / Catalog #: France, Collection of the Musée de la musique - E.1131
Other Remarks:
Maker: Girolamo Virchi
Date / Country of Origin: 16th c., Brescia
Current Location / Catalog #: France, Collection of the Musée du Louvre, département des objets d'art - D.MR.R.434
Other Remarks:
Maker: Girolamo Virchi
Date / Country of Origin: 1570, Brescia
Current Location / Catalog #: France, Collection of the Musée de la musique - E.1271
Other Remarks: Interior contains a printed label: "Antonius Stradivarius Cremonensis / Faciebat Anno 1700," though all indications are that this cittern was originally built by Virchi and was possibly later repaired by Stradivari.
Maker: Girolamo Virchi
Date / Country of Origin: 1574, Brescia
Current Location / Catalog #: Kunsthistorisches Museum
Other Remarks: Cittern built for the Archduke Ferdinand of Tyrol. The cittern head is a beautiful sculpture meant to portray the death of Lucretia.
Maker: "Franciscus Citared. Urb."
Date / Country of Origin: late 16th/early 17th c., Urbino?
Current Location / Catalog #: Current location unknown.
Other Remarks: This instrument was auctioned at Christie's of London, July 8, 1999.
Maker: Unknown.
Date / Country of Origin: mid 16th c.? Urbino?
Current Location / Catalog #: Previously in a private collection, England. Current location unknown.
Other Remarks: Illustrated in cat. 'Made for Music' 1986, chromatic, carved. Auctioned at Christie's of London, July 6, 2023. Lot 6437486.
Ceterones / Citaras Tiorbata
Ceterones / Citaras Tiorbata
Maker: Gieronimo Campi / Canpi
Date / Country of Origin: Italian, 17th c.?
Current Location / Catalog #: Museo Bardini, Florence
Other Remarks: 12c. "ceterone". Chromatic fretting. Imitates traditional carved construction. String length 68 cm and 123 cm. Photos courtesy of Stephen Gottlieb.
Maker: Unknown.
Date / Country of Origin: late 16th / early 17th c.? Italy?
Current Location / Catalog #: France, Collection of the Musée de la musique - E.46
Other Remarks: May be a cut down ceterone. Constructed, partially diatonic.
Bandoras / Orpharions
Bandoras / Orpharions
Maker: John Rose
Date / Country of Origin: 1580, England.
Current Location / Catalog #: Helmingham Hall, Suffolk, England. No catalogue number.
Other Remarks: 6c. orpharion or bandora
Maker: Francis Palmer
Date / Country of Origin: 1617, England.
Current Location / Catalog #: Collection of Musikmuseet, Musikhistorisk Museum & Carl Claudius’ Samling, Copenhagen, Denmark. Inv. No. CL 139
Other Remarks: 9c. orpharion
Maker: Unknown.
Date / Country of Origin:
Current Location / Catalog #: Braunschweig
Other Remarks: 9c. orpharion. "...said to be damaged and poorly rebuilt" (Coakley, FoMRHI Comm 1987.)
Maker: Uncertain. (Attributed to Joachim Tielke.)
Date / Country of Origin: 17th c.?
Current Location / Catalog #: Frankfurt Historisches Museum
Other Remarks: 8c. orpharion. Short scale (41.2 / 48.4 cm mensur). See Segerman, FoMRHI Comm. 407.
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