Thank you all for this so far. I just checked out Barley (1596) which is apparently a revision of the previous English translation of le Roys instructions. It clearly calls for octaves on 4, 5 and 6. So this tuning seems to have been propagated in the tutors in late 16th century England. (Matthew Spring in his "Lute in Britain" suggests that this might not have reflected practice at this time (1596) as in 1603 Thomas Robinson already calls for unisons.) I reread the Dowland comments in the Varietie as well. It sounds to me as if he is at least saying that he prefers unisons, and that octaves were being used more in England at than elsewhere. I cannot imagine that he is only talking about the 6th course. Perhaps the style had already been changing on the continent. __________________________________________________________________
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