Below you will find a listing of historical (i.e. old) extant citterns and orpharions from museums and other collections. Clicking on the thumbnail image of the instrument will take you to a separate page of images for that instrument which may contain additional information.

For related content, see also A 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 Instruments

Citterns:

Instrument	Maker	Date / Country of Origin	Current Location / Catalog #	Other Remarks
	N. Amati(?)	17th c.?, Italy	Current location: Unknown. (Previously Museo Bardini, Florence, no. 152)	Instrument came apart in floods of 1966. Instrument briefly analyzed by Stephen Gottlieb in 1974.
	A. Rossi	1530 or 1550? Urbino, Italy	Current location unknown.	In poor condition. Possesses some unusual fretting and fret labels. See page for more information.
	Not yet determined (maker's label present, but unreadable)	circa1600, possibly English	National Music Museum (formerly the Shrine to Music Museum) at the Univeristy of South Dakota, Vermillion, USA.	Small, chromatic. Cittern auctioned at Christie's, April 2, 2007. Photos courtesy of Christie's via Andy Rutherford. See page for more information.
	anon.	16th/17th c.?, Dutch?		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.
	anon.	16th/17th c.?, Dutch?	Brussels, KM 1524	Diatonic fretting. Photos courtesy of Peter Forrester.
	anon.	16th c., France	France, Collection of the Musée des Arts Décoratifs - FR-D.32026
	Giovanni Salvatori	16th c., Italy	France, Collection of the Musée de la musique - E.543
	Francesco Plebanus	1536, Italy	France, Collection of the Musée de la musique - E.1131
	Girolamo Virchi	16th c., Brescia	France, Collection of the Musée du Louvre, département des objets d'art - D.MR.R.434
	Girolamo Virchi	1570, Brescia	France, Collection of the Musée de la musique - E.1271
	Girolamo Virchi	1574, Brescia	Kunsthistorisches Museum	Cittern built for the Archduke Ferdinand of Tyrol. The cittern head is a beautiful sculpture meant to portray the death of Lucretia.
	"Franciscus Citared. Urb."	late 16th/early 17th c., Urbino?	Current location unknown.	This instrument was auctioned at Christie's of London, July 8, 1999.

Ceterones:

Instrument	Maker	Date / Country of Origin	Current Location / Catalog #	Other Remarks
	Gieronimo Campi / Canpi	Italian, 17th c.?	Museo Bardini, Florence	12c. "ceterone". Chromatic fretting. Imitates traditional carved construction. String length 68 cm and 123 cm. Photos courtesy of Stephen Gottlieb.

Bandoras & Orpharions:

Instrument	Maker	Date / Country of Origin	Current Location / Catalog #	Other Remarks
	John Rose	1580, England.	Helmingham Hall, Suffolk, England. No catalogue number.	6c. orpharion or bandora
	Francis Palmer	1617, England..	Collection of Musikmuseet, Musikhistorisk Museum & Carl Claudius’ Samling, Copenhagen, Denmark Inv. No. CL 139	9c. orpharion

18th & 19th Century Instruments

Instrument	Maker	Date / Country of Origin	Current Location / Catalog #	Other Remarks
	?	18th C. Waldzither		Instrument was auctioned in March of 2000 on eBay. (Originally purported to be circa 1650, Swiss or German maker)
	Michael Bochum	1726, Cologne	France, Collection of the Musée du Louvre, département des objets d'art - D.OA.419
	Michael Bochum	1727, Cologne	France, Collection of the Musée de la musique - E.1538
	?	c. 1760, England	Current location unknown.	"English Guitar" (circa 1760) auctioned at Christie's, July 8, 1999.
	Johannes Bochum	1790, Cologne	France, Collection of the Musée de la musique - E.542

Sources:

• Forrester, Peter. "A Provisional List of Extant 16th and early 17th Century Citterns", supplement to Wood and Wire — A Lecture by Peter Forrester. Published in Lute News: The Lute Society Magazine (2005).
• Grijp, Louis Peter. "Fret Patterns of the Cittern." GSJ 34 (1981), pp.62-97. Also [in French] in Musique Ancienne 21 (1986), pp. 40-69.

How to cite this page: Hartig, Andrew. "Cittern Picture Gallery — Old Instruments" Renovata Cythara: The Renaissance Cittern Site. Ed. Andrew Hartig. 02 April 2023. 24 December 2024. <http://www.cittern.theaterofmusic.com/old/index.html>.