La Cetra Cornuta : the horned lyre of the Christian World

Young, R.C. (2018)

Doctoral Thesis

“La Cetra Cornuta : the Horned Lyre of the Christian World ”A musical instrument of substantial importance in the history of Christianity, specifically during the Romanesque, Gothic and Renaissance periods in Italy, the cetra was the forerunner of the stringed instrument known in English since the 16th-c. as “cittern”.This study presents a detailed examination of the chordophone,featuring an iconographical catalog assembled from the visual artsc. 1100 - c. 1540. The field of iconographical data presented in the catalog is then analyzed, together with relevant literary and musictheory sources from the same period, to give a definitive account ofthe instrument’s morphology, evolution, construction, culturalidentity, musical function and repertories. Art historians as well as music historians and players of mediëval and Renaissance instruments will find answers to questions raisedabout this uniquely Italian ancestor of the High Renaissance and Baroque cittern, as will anyone seeking to gain a more focused view of musical instrument history in Italy during the centuries that shaped Western culture; for here is a stringed instrument recalling Classical Antiquity, and one of quintessential importance to both Christians and Humanists: made in Italy

• Cetra
• Cittern
• Italian medieval and Renaissance music
• Cittern predecessor

• All authors: Young, R.C.
• Supervisor: Koopman, T.; Ruiter, F. de; Fabris, D.
• Committee: Borgdorff, H.; Cavicchi, C.; Coelho, V.; Heck, P. van; Kirnbauer, M.; Wentz, J.
• Qualification: Doctor (dr.)
• Awarding Institution: Academy of Creative and Performing Arts, Humanities, Leiden University
• Date: 2018-06-13