Hi Donatella, I'll forward your mail or ask Markus to forward it (if I should not find the correct eMail addresses). Vieux Gaultier is called Abbé in a ms. but we don't have evidence he had a any ecclesial function. The idea I got from the lecture is that it possibly depicts a french person travelling to italy to buy such a bolognese lute. Anyhow nothing seems clear. By the way: The title of the piece in the painting says "Gigue" but it resembles a Canarie. Is Gabbiani surely the painter? I seem to recall from the lecture that this is not clear yet.
Best wishes Thomas To get on or off this list see list information at http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html