My university's spam filter seems to be a little overzealous at the moment. I don't seem to be picking up all of this discussion.
In addition to only archlute and mandolin, I think the few-course, lute-like thing called "mandora" in some places at some times is worthy of consideration for Vivaldi's "leuto" designation, especially given the dedications to Wrtby in Bohemia (again, see Liefeld). Another totally speculative possibility are the 5- to 7-course lute-sized things built to very deliberately mirror the aesthetics of 18th-c. 5- and 6-course mandolini. I've raised them here in the past and they have gotten some decent speculative chat; that should be archived and searchable. I'm particularly fond of Martin's speculation, and it makes a nice parallel of "leuto/liuto" as a late-baroque-but-renaissance-like incarnation of "archlute light." See: <http://www.mail-archive.com/lute@cs.dartmouth.edu/msg20311.html> Best, Eugene To get on or off this list see list information at http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html
