The Renaissance Cittern Site: What's New

What's New at Renovata Cythara

Last updated Sunday, April 02, 2023.

Below is a list of major updates I have made to the Renaissance Cittern pages, with the most recent updates at top. Use this as a guide to see what has been added since the last time you visited!

Also, if you would like to be notified by email of when an update has been made, follow the link provided to subscribe to the cittern updates list. Updates will be sent to this list every time the cittern site has a major update.

August 13, 2017	Substantially updated the page in the Old Instruments section on cittern D.32026: Anonymous cittern - Low Countries or France(?), end of the 17th century(?). Added a link to the "Mulliner MS" online, British Library Add. 30513.
August 8, 2017	Updated the Provisional List of Extant 16th and Early 17th Century Citterns, including linking of specific citterns with their full write up on the Old Instruments section. Added a page in the Old Instruments section on a cittern attributed to Nicolò Amati. Updated the Articles page with PDFs of several articles from my series, "The Wire Connection." Updated the Discussion Lists page. Updated the Contact page, including the creation of a new (and improved) online contact form.
June 20, 2012	Updated the Discussion Lists page. Updated the Makers & Suppliers page. Updated the Modern Editions and Facsimiles page. Updated the Articles page. Made corrections to the Period Sources of Printed Music for Cittern page. Updated the Manuscripts page, including a major update to the CH-D, "Berchtersches Tagebuch," 1623 page (now known as the "Berchtersches Chronik" page). Added new printed music to the Music Files page, including a facsimile of a section of the Berchtersches Chronik and edition of Le Roy and Ballard's Breve et facile instruction of 1565 [see 16th century diatonic 4-course music]. Added an entry to the Site Errata page.
June 30, 2010	Updated the Articles page with recent articles. Updated the About the Author page.
Jan. 9, 2010	Updated the Articles page with recent FoMRHI articles.
Jan. 4, 2010	Updated the Manuscripts page with images of title pages. Added some new works to the Artwork Gallery. Added some new articles to the Articles page. (Still need to add recent FoMRHI articles!) Updated the About the Author page.
Aug. 30, 2009	Updated information on several manuscripts (Naples MS 7664, Krawkow Mus. MS 40145, and Brno Ms. G 10,1400) on the Manuscripts page.
Aug. 21, 2009	Added a new page, Site Errata. Added a new source to the Manuscripts page. Added two new pages under the Manuscripts page: *Codice Saldívar II: Sebastían de Aguirre's Método de cítara, c. 1650* CH-D, "Berchtersches Tagebuch," 1623 Fixed some links and information on the "Possibly English" cittern page in the Old Instruments section. Added a source to the Period Sources of Treatises and Theoretical Works Mentioning Cittern page. Added a new edition to the Modern Editions page. Added several news entries to the Recordings page. Added some new articles to the Articles page. Added some new quotations to the Literary References page in the Miscellany. Updated the Acknowledgements page. Changed the interface for browsing/downloading files in the Music Files page and added several new tablature files..
June 3 , 2008	For ease of reading, I have now started to break down updates by bullet point. Made some corrections and additions to the Makers & Suppliers page. Made several additions to the Modern Editions and Facsimiles of Music page. Added more links to the the Links page. Started a new page entitled Builders' Resources. Added three new pages to the Miscellany page: Provisional List of Historical Builders of Citterns, Orpharions & Bandora Historical Prices of Citterns Literary References Regarding the Cittern, Orpharion, & Bandora Added several new instruments and photos to the New Instruments page. Added a new (old) instrument and new information to the Old Instruments page. Updated and added a new source to Period Sources of Printed Music for Cittern. Updated and added two new sources to Period Sources of Manuscript Music for Cittern. Added a new source to Period Sources of Treatises and Theoretical Works.
Jan. 10, 2008	Added two builders to the Makers & Suppliers page. Updated the Printed Sources page.
Dec. 20, 2007	Added a page About the Author / Editor of this site. Added a page about Copyright and Fair Use Policies regarding this site. Made several updates to navigation and layout.
Dec. 13, 2007	Updated the Manuscripts page. Fixed some broken links sitewide. Continued changes to site layout and navigation.
Nov. 26, 2007	Substantially updated the Links page with new performer's pages. Fixed some broken/old links.
Nov. 21, 2007	Updated the Links page. Added a builder to the Makers & Suppliers page. Added a new instrument to the New Instruments page. Updated the page on the Palmer orpharion with images kindly submitted by the National Music Museum of Denmark.
Oct. 17, 2007	I have begun a complete overhaul of the site layout and navigation for better readability and access (an example of which can be seen on this page, currently). Updates to the format of individual pages will not be noted here, but content will. The site will have some inconsistency in format over the next few months while I work on updating each of the pages. Please be patient during this transition; also feel free to report any bugs to me using the Contact form. Updated About This Site. Updated the Makers & Suppliers page. Added information to the Old Instruments page and created a page on the Palmer orpharion.
June 21, 2007	Extensively updated and assigned a new URL to a page on the recently auctioned "Possibly English" cittern in the Old Instruments section. Also added two new pages, "Plucked, fretted instruments in Medieval and Renaissance Scotland" and "The Cittern in Portugal and the Portuguese Guitar," to the Miscellany page. Updated the Manuscript Sources and Printed Sources pages. Updated the Modern Editions and Facsimiles page. Updated the Articles page. Updated the Makers and Suppliers page.
Apr. 7, 2007	Added a new page to the Old Instruments page with images of a just auctioned (and recently "discovered") cittern of possible English origin.
Mar. 23, 2007	Updated the Articles page inlcuding the fixing of some broken links. Made some corrections to the Some Observations about the Fludd Cittern..
Feb. 2, 2007	Added new pictures to the Old Instruments page. Added new files to the Audio page. Added new pieces to the Music Files page. Updated the Recordings and Modern Editions pages. Updated the Links page.
Nov. 26, 2006	Updated the Makers and Supplies page. Updated the Links page. Updated the Printed Sources page and added images of the title pages. Created the Audio page which includes MP3 files. Updated the Recordings page. Updated and added some new works to the Art page.
Oct. 14, 2006	Updated the Makers and Supplies page. Updated the Links page. Updated the Articles page. Added new works to the Art page.
Sept. 4, 2006	Added a new instrument to the New Instruments page. Added some new works to the Sound & Music Files page. Added a new source to the Articles page. Updated the Manuscript Sources page. Added contents listings for books and manuscripts on the Printed Sources and Manuscript Sources pages. Made an addition and some updates to the Makers & Suppliers page. Made additions to the Links page. Updated the lists available on the Discussion Lists page.
June 23, 2006	Added some new works to the Art page. Made minor updates to the Makers & Suppliers page. Added many recordings to the Recordings page. Added contents listings for two books on the Printed Sources page. Made some corrections to the "Wood and Wire" article and added articles to the Articles page. Added to the Acknowledgements page.
Feb. 7, 2006	Several new instruments have been added to the New Instruments page. Another maker has been added to the Makers & Suppliers page. Information about a 17th c. work of art has been added to the Art page. The Site Search page has now been reactivated following some time down because of the switch to a new server. A few more names have been added to the Acknowledgements page. Some changes have also been made to the Contact and Discussion pages, including online forms to make contacting me easier.
Jan. 12, 2006	Made a minor update to the Makers & Suppliers page.
Jan. 10, 2006	Fixed an error on the Art page.
Jan. 7, 2006	Basic site maintenance.
Jan. 2, 2006	Moved the site to a new server which should allow me to make some rather profound changes to the site in the future. (With luck one shouldn't notice any negative changes to the basic site...) Along with this, I have updated the About This Site page and have finally posted the long-awaited and substantial changes to the Art page. (I hope eventually to add a searchable/sortable database for all of the images, including the revamping and ultimate inclusion of all of the images from [what seems to me] the outdated Woodcuts page.) Created a new email list for updates to the site. Made some significant additions/changes to the Makers & Suppliers page, Links page, and the Discussion Lists page. I have also had to temporarily disable the Site Search page due to some problems with the script. I hope to have this up and running in the near future in an expanded (and more useful!) format.
Nov. 20, 2005	Add a new page, Period Sources of Treatises and Theoretical Works Mentioning the Cittern for works that discuss the cittern, but do not contain any music. Added some "conjectural" sources to the Printed Sources page, and appropriately renamed it Printed & Conjectural Sources. Made some significant changes to the Manuscripts and Printed Sources pages based on new information found in the 2001 edition of the New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians. Also made some minor structural/navigational changes.
Nov. 5, 2005	Added two publications to the Modern Editions page.
Oct. 29, 2005	Fixed some broken links.
Oct. 22, 2005	Big updates for the Miscellany page: Added some holiday picture cards by Peter Forrester, a poem about Holborne's Cittharn Schoole, the complete psalm texts for Playford's cittern book, and an article on how to make quill plectra by Kevin McDermott. Added some more information to the Manuscript Sources page and the Makers & Suppliers page, and updated the much overdue Acknowledgements page.
Oct. 16, 2005	Added articles to the Articles page, including a lecture on citterns and several additional handouts by Peter Forrester.
Oct. 2, 2005	Added several more source contents to the Printed Sources page.
Oct. 1, 2005	Added a basic Site Search Engine to facilitate looking for terms or phrases. The engine does not return descriptions or search results in context, but it does provide links to pages on the site where the particular search term(s) can be found.
Aug. 29, 2005	Added the contents of several sources on the Printed Sources page.
Aug. 28, 2005	Added several new pictures to the New Instruments page.
Aug. 27, 2005	Major overhaul to the entire site. In addition to totally redoing the Site Navigation (Javascript must be enabled on your browser for you to appreciate it!), I added many new articles to the Articles page (courtesy of Peter Forrester), fixed some problems with the Home page, fixed some broken links in the Links page, and added some links to the Recordings page.
Aug. 21, 2005	Finally updated and reformatted the long overdue Recordings page. Also added a page about the relatively new Cittern Discussion List.
Nov. 7, 2004	*** Renovata Cythara has moved once again to a new URL: http://www.theaterofmusic.com/cittern. * Also disabled the Guestbook (a.k.a. "spam page") and fixed our Contact** information (as well as erroneous email addresses on other pages). Our humblest apologies for those who may have tried to contact us, but received no response. Due to the influx of spam, the majority of the addresses listed on this site have not been functioning for most of the last year. With luck, our new address will be functional!
Mar. 10, 2003	Added some new Links.
Feb. 21, 2003	Fixed various broken links in several of the pages.
Feb. 18, 2003	Updated the Links page.
Feb. 1, 2003	Updated the Makers & Suppliers page.
Jan. 20, 2003	Brief fixes made to Guestbook pages and one link. Major overhaul to format of pages, directories, and overall navigation, including the use of frames-only to allow menu-bar navigation from any page when page is loaded outside of the main page. No changes or additions made to content.
Dec. 12, 2002	Brief fixes and updates to Links and Guestbook pages.
Sep. 11, 2002	Added to the Makers & Suppliers page.
Sep. 2, 2002	Updated the Art page with a new image and some corrections.
Aug. 31, 2002	Fixed and updated the Guestbook. Added to and updated the Makers & Suppliers page.
Aug. 21, 2002	Added Fronimo format files to the existing pieces on Sound and Music Files.
Aug. 20, 2002	*** Renovata Cythara officially moved to its new domain name, www.earlycittern.com! * Every page has been updated to more or less a degree, but major changes include major streamlining of pages, faster download times due to smaller image sizes, easier navigation via a menu frame, and the removal of the central Gallery page as a requisite for entering the picture galleries. As well, a large number of instruments have been added to the Old Instruments Page. The Art Gallery** has also been updated with an ongoing catalog of exisiting artwork in addition to the pictures currently available.
Sep. 12, 2001	Updated the Artwork page in the Gallery with one new picture. Also added some pictures of New and Old Instruments to the Gallery. Updated the Makers & Suppliers page.
Apr. 29, 2001	Updated the Recordings page.
Apr. 23, 2001	Updated Articles page and the Makers & Suppliers page.
Jan. 22, 2001	Updated the Makers & Suppliers page.
Dec. 18, 2000	Updated the Modern Editions page.
Dec. 16, 2000	Added two new pages: Miscellany (with a few interesting things, including Thomas Robinson's instructions for the cittern) and Acknowledgements (long overdue). Also added two new (old) instruments to the Old Instruments page in the Gallery. Made a few updates to the tuning diagrams in the FAQ and added more contents for the printed books in the Printed Sources page. Reformatted the Modern Editions page.
Dec. 15, 2000	Added four Praeludium by Holborne to the Sound & Music Files page. Made some general maintenance updates.
Nov. 20, 2000	Updated the Makers & Suppliers page.
Oct. 30, 2000	Added Pauane Quadro & The Galliard to the Quadron Pauan to the Sound & Music Files page.
Oct. 22, 2000	Made corrections to the Articles and Recordings pages.
Oct. 2, 2000	Made updates to the Makers & Suppliers page.
Sep. 12, 2000	A few ongoing changes over the last few months. Due to a busy schedule, it has been difficult to get all of the changes posted in a timely manner. Normally I would wait to post changes until all of the pages are as near to "perfection" as possible, but at present I am posting them as is so that at least updates are posted rather than languishing on my desktop with a few mistakes -- so please bear with! It is amazing to think that the page is nearing its one year anniversary and has come so far in this time.... Most recent changes are: Added Almande & Reprinse to the Sound & Music Files page. Added two new (old!) paintings to the Artwork Gallery (one of which I currently do not have a reference for). Made some major updates to the Recordings and Articles pages courtesy of some generous contributors. Added two more builders to the Makers & Suppliers page. Added a link for the Tromba Marina to the Links page and fixed the broken link for Fronimo.
July 25, 2000	Made updates to the Recordings page.
July 8, 2000	Made updates to the Makers & Suppliers, Modern Editions, Manuscript Sources, and Links pages. Also added some more photos to the New Instruments page.
July 4, 2000	This latest update has probably been the most extensive so far! The new additions to the page have "completed" the basic site so that all the pages are now accessible, but there are still plenty of things to add. Most notably, the following additions were made: Moved the Under Construction Sign from the Main page to the Updates page; made the Updates page available from all pages via the menu bar; added some new pictures to both the Old and New Instruments Galleries, including two huge pages of pictures of instruments that went up for sale on eBay; modified the Art Gallery for faster page-loading, and included some new pictures; enabled the Printed Manuscripts page; enabled the Sound & Music Files page with a few pieces in PS, PDF, and MIDI formats; enabled the Links page, where can be found a few links to other sites of interest; enabled the Guestbook; and lastly, did some normal maintenance and made minor additions to many of the pages previously enabled.
May 23, 2000	Another long hiatus (sigh).... Added the Frequently Asked Questions page.
Feb. 25, 2000	Just a few things to add: there is a cittern for sale at Ebay (actually there were two, and they have since been added to the Instruments pages in the Gallery) and some new comments and observations about the Fludd cittern now available for viewing.
Jan. 22, 2000	After a long hiatus some things have finally been updated. Minor webpage changes, but also the *Grand Opening of ALL* areas of the Picture Gallery, and the addition of some of the book contents in the Printed Sources** page.
Nov. 13, 1999	Made general changes to the Main page as well the *What is Renovata Cythara?* page. Enabled the Makers & Suppliers and Recordings pages.
Oct. 28, 1999	Updated the Article Index and added more woodcuts to the Picture Gallery.
Oct. 20, 1999	Updated the Picture Gallery to include more pictures from treatises. Made some minor general web-page formatting changes.
Oct. 19, 1999	Created the Updates page! Also modified Period Printed Sources and Article Index.
Oct. 17, 1999	Enabled the Period Printed Sources page. Enabled the Modern editions / Facsimiles page. Enabled the Article Index with only a portion of the existing articles.
Oct. 6, 1999	Made modifications to the main page. Enabled the First Time Visitor section (now *What is Renovata Cythara?). Enabled the Picture Gallery* with 6 pictures from Praetorius.
Sep. 29, 1999	***Renovata Cythara was born!*** Added the main page.