Dear Danierl, Stewart has already given a thorough answer to your question. Here is something I wrote before receving his message.
What you have is the facsimile edition of the lute book copied by Mikulás Smala z Lebensdorf (Nickolaus Schmall of Lebensdorf), scribe for Jaroslav Borita, Baron of Martinic (1589-1649), a participant in the "Defenstration of Prague." (Protestants invaded the Prague Castle in 1618 and threw Jaroslave and two companions out the Chancellery window. All three surivived the fall. Catholics claimed it was a divine miracle. The Protestants claimed they fell on a pile of horse dung.) This is really a carefully and professionally copied lute book and the ciphers are quite legible, once you become accustomed to the shapes of the letters. There is a lute fingerboard depicted on folio 37v which shows the tablature ciphers, and their shapes in relation to the frets and courses. The book was compiled for Baron Borita and the pieces are of moderate difficllty, and consist of many popular dances and songs of the time. Originally the facsimile edition came in a boxed set with a prefatory pamphlet in Czech, English, French, German and Russian by Jiri Tichota, the noted Czech lute scholar. If you are missing the preface, let me know and i'll bring my copy to Cleveland and you can Xerox it. ajn
