Citole
The citole was a string musical instrument, closely associated with the medieval fiddles and commonly used from 1200-1350. It was known by other names in various languages: cedra, cetera, cetola, cetula, cistola, citola, citula, citera, chytara, cistole, cithar, cuitole, cythera, cythol, cytiole, cytolys, gytolle, sitole, sytholle, sytole, and zitol.
Like the modern guitar, it was manipulated at the neck to get different notes, and picked or strummed with a plectrum. Although it was largely out of use by the late 14th century, the Italians "re-introduced it in modified form" in the 16th century as the cetra, and it may have influenced the development of the guitar as well. It was also a pioneering instrument in England, introducing the populace to necked, plucked instruments, giving people the concepts needed to quickly switch to the newly arriving lutes and gitterns. Two possible descendant instruments are the Portuguese guitar and the Corsican Cetera, both types of cittern.
It is known today mainly from art and literary sources. Early examples include Provençal poetry from the 12th century; however it was more widely displayed in medieval artwork during the 13th and 14th centuries in manuscript miniatures and in sculpture. The art did not show uniformly shaped instrument, but instead an instrument with numerous variations. The variety shown in art has led the instrument to be called "ambiguous". From the artwork, scholars know that it was generally a four-string instrument, and could have anything from a "holly-leaf" to a rounded guitar shaped body. While paintings and sculpture exist, only one instrument has survived the centuries.
The sole survivor, associated with Warwick Castle, was made around 1290–1300. It is now preserved in the British Museum's collection. At some point, probably in the sixteenth century, it was converted into a violin-type instrument with a tall bridge, 'f'-holes and angled fingerboard; thus, the instrument's top is not representative of its original appearance. That instrument contributed to a great deal of confusion. It was labeled a violin in the 18th century, a gittern in the early 20th century and finally a citole, beginning after 1977. That confusion is itself illustrative of the confusion about the nature of citoles and gitterns; once the instruments and their traditions were gone, scholars in later centuries didn't know which images and sculpture went with which names from poetry and other literature. Additionally, scholars have translated passages in such a way that literature itself can not always be trusted. One example cited by the 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica: a specific reference to the citole may be found in Wycliffe's Bible in 2 Samuel vi. 5: "Harpis and sitols and tympane". However, the Authorized Version has psalteries, and the Vulgate lyrae. The Britannica also supposed that the citole has been supposed to be another name for the psaltery, a box-shaped instrument often seen in the illuminated missals of the Middle Ages, also liable to confusion with the gittern. Whether the terms overlapped in medieval usage has been the subject of modern controversy. The controversy of citole versus gittern was largely resolved in a 1977 article by Lawrence Wright, called The Medieval Gittern and Citole: A Case of Mistaken Identity.
Characteristics
The citole was carved from a single block of wood and had a separate soundboard glued to the top. Everything else was a single piece of wood that included a neck, the sides, the bottom, shoulder points, and a knob on the end opposite the neck.One of the most prominent features of the earlier citoles was a deep neck, so thick that a thumb hole was carved within the neck. This feature gradually receded as the instrument was transformed into the cittern, first becoming larger and then turning into a hook on the back of the neck. The neck was generally shorter than the body, and players' hands did not have to move far to reach all the frets.
Another documented feature was the back, which was neither curved in a bowl like a lute or gittern, nor flat like a modern guitar, but instead slanted "upwards from each side to a central ridge extended in the neck." The back and the soundboard could also be slanted in relation to each other, coming closer together near the bottom of the instrument. Most artistic representations of the citole show a point at the bottom, forming a fixed point where the strings could be attached. In some examples, the pegs are shown as being mounted at the end, near vertically; in others, they are mounted in the sides of the pegbox, like a violin. Due to its modifications, the Warwick citole is not necessarily representative, and X-ray analysis reveals that it originally had six end-mounted pegs.
The overall shape of the instrument varied, but four forms were commonly illustrated: the holly-leaf shaped instruments, the T-shaped, the vase-shaped instruments and the spade-shaped instruments.
Holly-leaf citoles had an outline shaped like a holly leaf, with as many as five corners. Other examples show a rounded lower section, with points only at the shoulders and the very bottom. An illustrated example would be the mermaids from Brunetto Latini's "Li livres dou tresor". A carved example would be from the Strasbourg Cathedral.
T-shaped citoles had a prominent T-shape at the top of the instrument, where the shoulder projections, or arms stuck out, and a rounded bottom. Examples in illustration include the Queen Mary Psalter citoles. Carved examples include citoles at the Strasbourg Cathedral.
Vase-shaped citoles had a rounded bottom and a squared section with small rounded terminations at the shoulders. They could have a prominent waist like the Warwick Castle citole and the citoles in stained glass at the Lincoln Cathedral and the Évreux Cathedral in Haute-Normandie. An example, with a less-prominent waist is the Robert de Lisle citole.
Spade-shaped citoles have a rounded bottom, resembling in silhouette a spade or shovel. Some of them can overlap with the t-shaped citoles, but spade-shaped citoles lack the shoulder projections, having instead having wings pointing upwards. An example of this style is the c. 1180–1196 Parma citole sculpture by Benedetto Antelami. Art with this shape is found primarily in Italy.
Strings and tuning
Single strings and courses
Most depictions of the citole in manuscript drawings and sculpture show it strung with four strings. However, some show instruments strung in three, four, or five individual strings. The British Museum citole originally had pegs for six strings. On that instrument the neck isn't wide enough for six individual strings, as strung on a modern guitar. One possible arrangement for those six strings would be three courses of two strings. This would be similar to depictions in sculpture, including a citole sculpture mounted at the Collegiate church of Santa María la Mayor, which has been interpreted as having three courses.The strings commonly run from pins at the top of the instrument, down the length of the soundboard and over a bridge. At the bottom of the instrument there are variations. The trefoil is an anchor point, and instruments have different ways to anchor to it. Some clearly show violin style tailpieces tied to it and some citoles have a circle where the tailpiece should be, perhaps a ring to which the strings are fastened or a hole.
String materials
There have been differences of opinion between researchers concerning wire strings on the citole. One researcher, Thurston Dart, stated in 1948, that the citole was strung with wire strings. The information was included in Dart's article about the metal-strung cittern, a descendant instrument of the citole. Three decades later another researcher, Ephraim Segerman, considered the issue of wire strings versus metal strings for the citole and came up with a reason why the citole didn't use metal strings: such strings were not widely available during the citole's lifetime. Segerman said that throughout its use, the citole was likely strung with gut strings, although iron metal-strings became more commonly available in the late 14th century, thanks to water-power, when the citole was largely obsolete. Use of metal strings wasn't completely impossible as some harps in Europe had been strung with silver, gold and brass strings; however, the earlier use of strings of silver and gold and brass seem to have been confined to the Irish harp and psaltery.Bridge
In most citoles, the bridge is shown placed at the bottom of the instrument. On the Parma citole, it is positioned in the center of the soundboard. Precise details of the bridge are difficult to make out with most illustrations. The bridge on the Robert de Lisle citole is typical of many of the drawn bridges. Looking at the image is a process of determining: is the shape that of the bridge from above lying flat on the soundboard, or does it show the vertical view with the top and the bottom of the bridge and no information about the width of the bridge on the soundboard?One image that does give three dimensional information is from the Exeter Cathedral citole, done in sculpture. The sculpted instrument has a thick bridge, built like the corner of a frame, laid on the soundboard with the corner up and the two ends on the soundboard like a triangle. The strings passed over the sharp corner, which acted as a bridge.