On the frontpage of Corbetta's book from 1639 there are two guitars depicted. The one at the right is clearly a guitar with the strings fixed at the end of the corpus. The strings go over the bridge. Maybe strings of wire. Mimmo Peruffo pointed out an inventory of the deceased luthier Lorenzo Filzer from Rome, from 1657, that mentiones 'dodici chitarre con corde de Cetra'. The trouble with these things is that instruments can be changed quite easily in this respect. The examples by Sellas from Nurnberg and Oxford are now set up with wire strings. They differ from other instruments with folds and shortened necks. The chord charts for battente guitars (5 course...) could be in every alfabeto book from the 17th c. (like in Corbetta's, from 1639).
Lex > With no attempt to convince you but there is hardly any point to look for > chitarra battente much further beyond mid-18th century (i.e. chronologically > coinciding with the arrival of Neapolitan mandoline). Perhaps this can also > suggest what sort of strings it could be strung with ... > > The most comprehensive research on surviving battente guitars was made, as > far as I know, by Valentina Ricetti around mid-80s and published in the > Liuteria magazine (in two subsequent issues). I corresponded with her at the > time and supplied information on the three original battente guitars from > the St-Petersburg collection (she reproduced the picture of one of them in > her article). She also send me what in her words was _supposedly_ the > earliest surviving tablature for battente guitar which, if I remember it > right, looked like a chart of chords written out on six lines. > Unfortunately I don't have neither the magazines not the tablature fragment > with me at the moment, otherwise I could have given you more precise > information. > To get on or off this list see list information at http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html
