The Cipher for Viola da Gamba and Lute   Page 1   Page 2   Page 3   Page 4  Page 5   Page 6       A few highlights from the previous page, viols (bowed guitars) played on the arm (or da braccio).                         . . . resume collecting arm viol iconography,  small viols in general (no matter how they were held), and more . . .       small viola with frets, viola da braccio; Abey Nicolo Dell, Italy, 1524-1571       detail of the above       below; viola da barccio, early mid 1500s etching, with visable frets on the back of the neck, lots of pegs too.       below; another viola da braccio from Nicolo Dell'Abate (see his small short necked fretted viola two pictures above). I believe this picture is from his 1540-45 period featuring the same cast of characters and costuming. I’m going out on a limb here, but I don’t think this is a violin at this date, even a three stringer. That’s a very wide chunky neck, and a very large instrument too, much of it hanging behind his shoulder while his arm is almost completely out-stretched. Even his bass viol of the same period has a short chunky neck (next picture after this).             below; viols and lutes, Abate Nicolo Dell, Italian painter working mostly in France, mid 1500s       The above was probably a sketch for the fresco below (detail of), also by Abate Nicolo Dell. Everything about the bass player and his instrument is unmistakable. A fuller string count is visable on the guitar-held tenor viol in this more finished work. The later now apears to have a round sound hole or rosette as well (unless that’s simply damage to the fresco at just the right spot). Also compare the tenor in this picture to the tenor and alto da braccio viols by Ludger Tom Ring shown a little later.       below is (no doubt) the exact same bass as Abate Nicolo Dell pianted it in 1540-46 (this one has an exact date range) in another fresco on a domed ceiling (I believe, the full image being hexagonal in shape). A few things to note: again, the short stocky neck, he manages to get 6 pegs into that seemingly too small peg-box with it’s overbearingly large scroll, he paints his frets as heavy and fat as he draws them, big fat ropes (see his small viola with frets a few pictures up. )       maybe not so far out on a limb as we thought after all, this whole da baraccio thing  ;’)             Below; another viol, a tenor,  by Nicolo Dell Abate, Concerto, mural fresco at Palazzo (Giovanni) Poggi, 1550-1552. Note the way he renders his peg-box.       below is yet another Nicolo Dell Abate drawing, a detail from Apollo and the Muses at Parnasus. Pay special attention to how shallow the body and ribs of this instrument are, and the minimalist way he renders his peg-box and scroll. It wouldn’t be surprised if this is for real, and essentially of-a-set or of a kind with the shallow ribbed arm viol in the previous drawing. Perhaps this is a basso viola da braccio, i.e. take your  narrow ribbed small viola and scale it up from there, sort of designing in reverse of comming from it from both ends. I’m seeing enough of these very narrow ribbed viols, and narrow ribbed waist-cut guitars for that matter, that I’m starting to believe them in any event. Actually, if you look at everything in this section, many if not most viols are narrow ribbed, anything large than bass sized and even then the basses are also often narrower than we might expect. We’re all so used to seeing deep ribbed 17th century bass viols that  that’s what we expect to see, or think we’re seeing, in 16th century instruments.       below; narrow ribbed guitar, from Apollo and the Muses, Gaspar ab Avibus (Osella) or Giorgio Ghisi, 1557       Below; again, that German thin ribbed waist-cut viola-vihuela de penola, 1567.       Here’s an example of what I mean -- about narrow ridded waist-cut viols and guitars. This is a detail from Lorenzo Lotto’s Sleeping Apollo and the Muses. This is either a viol or a guitar. If it’s a guitar, then it’s a comparitively rare event, i.e. seeing Apollo or Orpheus playing a plucked guitar or lute in early iconography. (But we opened this section with just that, now that I recall, the 1496 Practica Musicae front piece, and I’ll insert another famous one below in a minute). The neck on this instrument is too long to be a lira da braccio, and even mentiioning violins here would be plain rediculous. I don’t have a date for this picture but Lorenzo lived from 1480 to 1556, so he’s contemporary with Nicolo Dell’s 1545 period.     Below; Lorenzo Lotto’s Sleeping Apollo and the Muses       below, again, Apollo and the Muses at Parnassus play the same shallow ribbed guitars or viols. Which is it?  Primaticcio Francesco 1504-1570, Italian. There are three guitar/viols in this detail. The one in the lower right, back to us, seems more likely to be the rest or playing posture of a bower rather than a plucker. The two other players, both with extended index fingers, are probably bowing (bows simply omitted from the sketch). If Apollo is at top left, he’s either restringing his instrument or bowing -- and the former would seem odd, i.e. Apollo and the Muses back-stage tuning up or something ;’). Seeing the back of this instrument, compare it again to the one-size-smaller fretted arm viola of Nicolo Dell.       So you know what, I think it’s time we looked at Martin Agricola’s 1529 plates again, soley as graphic representations of reality. Are they accurate or not. I’ve always though these look primative and weird largely because of the way the waist-cuts looked. Now I see he really DID mean bowed guitars, not simply bowed lutes in the generic, and the illustrator drew the instruments exactly as they truly did look! We moderns haven’t seen enough of the waiste-cut line of 16th century guitars in our lives, nor isolated from the iconography, to even recognize a guitar when we see one. Those waist-cuts really are key. But more, what I’m going to call the angel-wing waist-cuts, are even more specific and revealing. Those deeply inturned shoulders (of the upper bouts, where they join the neck), and the flared then deep-undercut waist-cuts, and the shallow ribs as shown (not as we might project our modern notion of deep ribs, and think the artist just did a bad rendering), not to mention sound-hole and rosette and the definate guitar/lute bridge, all of those features exactly describe at least one style of early guitar, and nothing else. There is no mistaking it. He illustrated a bowed guitar, period. Look at the Ghisi guitar again. That’s for real, those angel-wing waist-cuts, not some artist’s flight of fancy (although they’re certainly not above such things).       Sebastian Virdung’s illustrations in his 1511 treatice, Musica Getutscht, were the same.       Below; unidentified (by me) early 16th century vihuela-viola with shallow ribs and very interesting shape overall.       Below plucked vihuela-viola, c.1520, Girolamo Libri, Madonna enthrowned with Angels and Saints, Altarpiece, detail.       below; another waist-cut Viola/Vihuela/Guitar, very shallow ribbed, Nicolo Pisano, 1525, Italy.       below; another Apollo with a similar shallow ribbed viol, Orazio Sammacchini, 1532-1577       Below; a plate from Hans Gerle’s 1532 treatice, Musica Teutsch, illustrating five and six string viols. Once again, there’s very little rib-depth indicated -- and this may well be intentional.       and  below, another very narrow ribbed viol, and very early as well. Drawing by Francesco Mazzuola, born 1503, died 1540.       I think we can safely say we’ve established a pattern here regarding narrow ribbed viols in general, and then how that helps us identify, trust, and believe, narrow ribbed small arm viols when we see them. Speaking of Apollo and Orpeus playing guitars, here’s two more such 16th century pictures. first, Orpheus playing a vihuela on the front peice of Luis Milan’s 1536 publication of works for vihuela, El Maestro. Also note this truly is a narrow ribbed instrument, not just poor perspective drawing.       speaking of narrow ribs being the fact and the norm on 16th century guitars and small viols, see this surviving 16th century vihuela, from monastery Guadalupe. When I first saw the picture of this instrument, years ago, it looked very odd to me, being so thin bodied. Now I believe it, i.e. that it’s not a fluke, it was standard.       Below, new addition as of 9-2006, and extremely thin ribbed plucked viola from an Italian Book of Hours dated 1483. I’d call this case made! ;-).       below; Italian Etching detail: circa 1510, by Marcantonio Raimondi, vihuela de mana (appears to be 5 course). Thin ribs.       Below (again); vihuela, Luca Signorelli, 1499-1502, Paradise, San Brizio, Italy       Below; very large vihuela guitar, Juan de Juanes, 1523-79. Convento de Santa Clara, Gandia Valencia, Spain. Note the neck-up playing posture. Peg box is difficult to see but it’s actually sickle shaped.       Below; vihuela or guitar, no ID       Below; vihuela or guitar, no ID       Below; viola da mano, detail from Italian fresco, c.1510-15, Ferarra       Below; six course vihuela, stone carved facade, detail, 16th century, Spain.       Below; anon mid 16th century vihuela angel (as long as we’ve got a string of vihuela going)       Here’s the other of Apollo playing a guitar, waist-cut model as well. Contest between Apollo and Pan, where Midas’s gets the ears of an ass. Wood-cut emblom by Geffrey Whitney for the English translation of the Ovid, I believe, 1586.       may as well stick this here. Lute player as Orpheus, stone, 15th-16th century (I presume.       This is as good a place as any to insert this. This is the frontpiece from Diego Ortiz’s important 1553 publication of part music and general treatice for viols -- which it should be noted he calls Violones. The title of the work was Tratado de glosas sobre cláusulas y otros géneros de puntos en la música de violones.       Below; guitar and lute duet, Annibale Carracci, 1560-1609.       Below is another small thin-line viol (as we guitarists might call them ;’), the woman with her back to us, detail from a painting by Jan Brueghel, 1606-09, Apollo and Muses. Both the date and the thin ribs of this small instrument are important here -- for where we’re about to go.       At some point or another, everyone finds themselves citing Michael Praetorius’s 1619 treatice on music and musical instruments, Theatrum Instrumentorum, the plates therein in particular. I’ve already included two plates from that work, those showing the viol and violin families. Twelve years prior to Theatrum Instrumentorum, in 1607, Praetorius, one of the best known German composers of the day, presented as a gift to King Christian IV a large bound collection of sacred hymns, psalms, and motets, two collections, titled Musarum Sioniarum and Musae Sioniae. Lets take a look at the  front-peice plates from those two earlier publications.  We’ll start with the Musae Sioniae frontpeice. See the blowup detail and ask yourself what instrument is the kneeling figure playing, viol or violin? There are three instruments in a grouping shown, one of which he’s playing, the other two are at his feet on the ground. The two instruments on the ground are viols. See the medium sized instrument on the ground who’s tin-ribbed body is visable between the figure’s legs. Count the pegs. Thin ribbed and all, those are viols, all three of them. The alto or treble viol is held essentially horizontally, but on the arm nevertheless, and pressed into the right shoulder. The smallest instrument also has an unmustakeable small round sound hole. That is not a violin feature, but it is a very common viol feature, and particularly common in Germany and throughout the north lands. The works of music in these collection are sacred muisic, Church music, part music, the kind of music and application where a consot of viols might be used in 1607 to play (or double) parts. This is no place for violins in 1607, I believe.        Musae Sioniae, 1607, Michael Praetorius             Update; two days later -- are we getting good at this? ;’) Below, surviving 16th century five string treble viol with super thin ribs. This instrument is at the Orpheon, in Austria. Instrument has been restored, renecked. BINGO       While we’re there, at Orpheon, here’s a montage of other surviving thin-ribbed viols in their possession -- most being 17th century I imagine. There are 9 or 10 unique instruments in this picture Sometimes, I confess, the thought, “vintage guitars held captive”, comes to mind when I see these ;’). Sorry, but I can’t help myself. I know what they are -- and they’re not violins. ;’)       Next, we’ll take the Musae Sioniae frontpeice, a detail from it. In the left choir loft (means in Church) is a group of three musicians playing bowed string instruments. Needless to say, I think you know where I come down on this. I have every reason to believe, now, that those are viols, not violins. Notice even the two C holes in the lower bouts of the smaller instrument, a definate viol feature, not violin. Holding, playing, and underhanded bowing posture is also very viol-esque. The instrument in the front is actually quite large and long necked in fact. If you grew up being taught that viols always have deep ribs, and are always played da gamba, never da braccio, you might conclude that all these small instruments in both plates must be violins. I think we’re begining to know better now. Mind you, I’m quite aware that there were violins in 1607, but I don’t think these are them. This is as much a shock to me as it probably is for you, the very idea of thin-ribbed viols, and then how pervaisive they seem to have been, but look again at the last dozen or so pictures on this page. They existed, I’m not making it up.     Musarum Sioniarum, 1607, Michael Praetorius       detail of Musarum Sioniarum       another detail of Musarum Sioniarum, waist-cut, tapperd shouldered, thin-ribbed, double-course strung, guitar.       Below; da braccio viola, treble viol, Crathes Castle, Scotland, 1599.       Below; arm-viol, Wilgefortis (musician kneeling in front of statue of), Netherlands mid-late 16th       Here we go. Below, Vasco Pereira Lusitano, Coronation of the Virgin,1604, Portugal.       a little more detail of Vasco Pereira Lusitano’s arm viola       Below; Wow! This is a late-comer to my collection (8-5-2006), but what a stunner! Scene is depicting Italian popular comedy, pre-opera, mid-late 16th century. Very unusual and guitar-held shield-shape body, alto sized I believe.       below; detail of shield-shape bowed guitar.       below; very similar to the above, alto viol played da braccio, Arnout Vinckenborg, 1617, Maria Door De Heilige, Drievuldigheid, Church of St. Paulus, Antwerp.       below; similar again, Antonio Tempesta, The Concert, Italian, Image is undated but Antonio lived from 1555 to 1630. The peg box looks early to me, and the harp is also getting a little dated, so I’d go as early as possiible within that date-range, say c.1580 (I’d go earlier if I could). We do seem to have a pattern going here of bass or tenor viol working in tandom with an alto viol (i.e. viola sized viol).       detail of Antonio Tempesta viola       Below; Apollo and the Muses, Hendrik Van Balen, Antwerp, 1575-1632 (born died)       detail of Hendrik Van Balen’s arm viola, treble viol -- bowed guitar       Below; viol-consort, 1614, Prague (Czech Republic), detail from a painted wooden ceilin in the former Pauline Monastery. The book I got this image from actually described this scene as a consort of viols -- not batting an eye that the treble viol is played on the arm!. The full image includes a lute player off to the right.Cute tenor there too.       Below; detail of Pauline Monastery arm viol. The comparitively long and wide neck of this instrument says descant (or treble/soprano) viol to me. A violin neck would be about half that long and half that wide.       Below; ok, here’s the lute too ;’)       below, arm viol, , Four Seasons, Spring, detail of, Pieter De JodeI, after, Maarten De Vos, c.1600       below, guitar-held tenor viol, early-mid 16th century, anon painting on the lid of a Harpsicord (Clavecin), Italian       Below; another guitar-held tenor viol on painted lid of an Italian Spinet,  c.1600, depicting Arion (close-up detail follows).       Below; close-up detail of guitar-held tenor viol on painted lid of an Italian Spinet,  c.1600, depicting Arion. There’s actually a second one of these instruments and players in the upper left of the larger scene, a separate second scene of dancers actually, see above.             Below; just to remind you that images and instruments like the above are not pure fantasy, here again is Marco Palmezzano’s da braccio viola, bowed guitar.       Below, small viol in a fresco unidentified (by me) -- looks to be c. 1560-80 by my reckoning. Nice curvatious guitar shape, no sharp waist-cuts. Update; painting is by Orazio Sammachini,  born/died 1532-1577, church of Saint Abbondio in Cremona, Italy. [Thanks to luthier Federico Lowenberger for the identification]       Below; guitar shaped viol with smooth-curved sides (no sharp waist-cuts). The peg box is interesting too -- a design we’ll see often in 16th century pictures, but going all the way back to the Cantigas de Santa Maria depictions (1260 Spain) as well. Lattanzio Gambara, Italy, c.1560-70.       Below; If you haven’t seen 16th century bell-shaped guitars yet,  you wiil. In the meantime, here’s it’s counterpart bowed guitar. Guitar shaped Viol with smooth curved sides. Painting by Camillo Boccaccino, The Prophet David, 1530, Italy.       Below; one example of 16th century bell shaped vihuela-guitar, plucked.       below; another smooth-curve guitar shaped viol. Composite of illustration details ranging from 1547-71 (or there abouts), from editions of publications by Pierre Phalese, France.       below, another mid century relatively short chunky neck Bonifacio Veronese (Paolo’s father?), 1540-50, Italy       another mid century short stubby neck, also has body type normally associated with lira da braccios, but it’s a mid-sized viol. Angelo Bronzino, 1502-1563, Italy         Below, another viola da braccio, not likely a violin, among a consort of viols plus lute in mid-late 16th cent Elizabethan England.       below; another probable viola da braccio viol, Stadtgeiger, Grazer Schutzenbuch, 1569, German. This instrument iis another short and subby necked and viola sized, it has 3 pegs visible on the viewers side, has 5 strings etched at the tail, has distinctive small sound holes in all four courners, which I’ve only ever seen in vihuela/viola family instruments, it’s also quite large. I’ll call it a small 5 string viol played da braccio.       Stadtgeiger, 1569, German     detail of Stadtgeiger. There even appears to be a couple of deliberate fret-lines scored across the upper part of the neck.       Below; “viola” sized viola da braccio, Jost Amman, German, 1586. Frets are visible, 5 or 6 string by the looks of it.       small narrow bodied viola, Hans Baldung Grien, Music, 1529       below, long neck alto viola da braccio and matching bass viol, Ludger Tom Ring (the elder), 1511-47             braccio viol, Hans Mielich, Le Banquet, 1548