Dutch Cittern Reconstruction by Sebastián Núñez
Collection of the Nederlands Instituut voor Scheeps-en onderwater Archeologie (NISA) - OB 71-265 a/b

Last updated Sunday, April 02, 2023.
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A note about the instruments from Sebastián Núñez (comments in brackets [ ] are editorial - A.H.):
The cisters (because they are two equal cisters) were found in a ship which traveled perhaps between Amsterdam and Zwolle (the last city +/-90 km north- east of Amsterdam). They are from about 1630 and the only real Dutch cisters existing like you find on Dutch paintings from the XVIIth c. They are so good [i.e. in such good condition] that it was possible to reconstruct everything. The fingerboard shows the typical meantone distribution of these kind of cisters and there were also little pieces of brass strings which were analyzed and give the good proportions of copper (70%) zinc (25%) and unknown (5%). The string length is 17 Amsterdam inch (+/- 44 cm).

We made also a drawing of everything and reconstructed one (the two for sale for Fl 120,-(Dutch guilders) ex sending and package). Next year [2002] together with Louis Grijp (Camerata Trajectina) we will write a little book about them.



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