Assyrian Ketharah Persian Rebab ____________|_____________ : | | : Persian and Arabic Greek Kithara Arab Rebab Kithara | : | | : Moorish Guitra, Roman Cithara European Rebec Cuitra or Guitarra or Fidicula : | : Cithara in transition or Rotta : ___________________________|________________________: | | | Cithara in transition Guitarra Latina _Cittern_ or Guitar or Vihuela de Mano | | Spanish Guitar Ghittern
The cittern has retained the following characteristics of the archetype. (1) The derivation of the name, which after the introduction of the bow was used to characterize various instruments whose strings were twanged by fingers or plectrum, such as the harp and the rotta (both known as _cithara_), the citola and the zither. In an interlinear Latin and Anglo-Saxon version of the Psalms, dated A.D. 700 (Brit. Mus., Vesp. A. 1), _cithara_ is translated _citran_, from which it is not difficult to trace the English _cithron, citteran, cittarn_, of the 16th century. (2) The construction of the sound-chest with flat back and sound-board connected by ribs. The pear-shaped outline was possibly borrowed from the Eastern instruments, both bowed as the rebab and twanged as the lute, so common all over Europe during the middle ages, or more probably derived from the _kithara_ of the Greeks of Asia Minor, which had the corners rounded. These early steps in the transition from the _cithara_ may be seen in the miniatures of the Utrecht Psalter,[9] a unique and much-copied Carolingian MS. executed at Reims (9th century), the illustrations of which were undoubtedly adapted from an earlier psalter from the Christian East. The instruments which remained true to the prototype in outline as well as in construction and in the derivation of the name were the ghittern and the guitar, so often confused with the cittern. It is evident that the kinship of cittern and guitar was formerly recognized, for during the 18th century, as stated above, the cittern was known as the English guitar to distinguish it from the Spanish guitar. The grotesque head, popularly considered the characteristic feature of the cittern, was probably added in the 12th century at a time when this style of decoration was very noticeable in other musical instruments, such as the cornet or _Zinck_, the _Platerspiel_, the chaunter of the bagpipe, &c. The cittern of the middle ages was also to be found in oval shape. From the 13th century representations of the pear-shaped instrument abound in miniatures and carvings.[10]