GITTERN OR MEDIEVAL GUITAR

Gittern is a derived word from guitar and this, same time, from greek kitara. It names a plucked chordophone of the short-neck lutes family, vastly represented during the Middle Ages in stone carvings as well as in beautiful paintings by authors like Jaume Serra, Juan Oliver or Simone Martini.

Looking at its stringing, and its plectrum technique, we can assume that it would be used mostly for accompanying the voice. It was a monoxile instrument, which could include, or not, a sickle-shaped pegbox and topped with a carved animal head. We can check how there were a large number of guitar minstrels in (mostly spanish) 15th century courts.

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We can highlight some documents found by Higini Anglés in 1970, dated in Olite in February the 2nd of 1405, and which is a Charles IIIrd's accounting receipt, showing payments to Hans de Loge and Johan de Palencia, guitar and lute players.

The same king payed, in 1414, Alfonso de Carrión, Alonso de Toledo and Martín de Toledo, guitarists in Olite all of them. Another well-known guitarist was Rodriguet de la Guitarra, who appears in documents from the Courts of Ferdinand I and Alfonso V of Aragón, in 1415, and Juan II in 1417. He's supposed to be the author of "Angellorum psallat tripudium" ballad, from Codex Chantilly.

CASTELLANO

GITTERN CANTIGA 90

Based on the miniature of the Cantiga de Sta. María nº 90, by Alfonso X "The Wise" (1275) and looking for the convenience of the repertoire, I have designed this 4-course gittern. It is carved and hollowed from a single piece of linden, with an assembled pegbox topped by an animal head. Finished with oil and wax.
SL: 400mm.
Proposed tunings: g-d'-g'-c'' / g-c'-g'-c''

​Price: €1,500

HANS OTT GITTERN

Copy of the 5-course instrument built by Hans Ott in 1450 in Nuremberg, preserved in the Wartburg Castle Museum (Eisenach, Germany), and which was carefully studied by José Ignacio Fernández (Aquel Trovar).
Body carved and hollowed from a single piece of linden, with assembled pegbox. Spruce top with 6-level parchment rose. Finished with oil-based organic varnish.
SL: 440mm.
Proposed tunings: Aa-dd'-gg-c'c'-f'f' / AaA-dd'd-ggg-c' / AaA-dd'd-gg-c'c'

Price professional: €2,700.
Price student: €1,700.