Here is Gerard Rebours, writing about the guitar in France, admittedly not Italy, but early in the 17th century, in alfebeto-only times (as far as publications are concerned):
"...the guitar appeared in 'charivaris', in comical and grotesque situations, associated with Spaniards or Italian characters like Harlequin, Brighella, Pantalone, the Zialartini and Salt'in Bianco. And that was not all: the guitar players sometimes came down amongst the public, moved, sang and danced.....I imagine it was fun and exciting, for both players and public, to play guitar in hand, and walk, dance the sarabande, sing and dress with extravagant costumes...and - to crown it all - striking a tambourine while strumming the guitar, or make it jingle by jumping or shaking one's body, maybe tapping one's foot as well."
Stuart To get on or off this list see list information at http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html
