La Cetra

Cetra, a Latin word borrowed from Greek, is an Italian descendant of κιθάρα (cithara). It is a synonym for the cittern but has been used for the citole and cithara (the lyre-form) and cythara (the lyre-form developing into a necked instrument).

The cithara was a stringed musical instrument, constructed in wood and similar to the lyre, with a larger harmonic case. It was widely used in ancient times. The instrument spread from ancient Greece, where it was played by professional citaredi, to Rome and Corsica. While originally a word for a lyre in Greece, eventually the word was applied to a necked-instrument.

The name cetra was seen by musicologist and historian Laurence Wright as being synonymous with the citole, and in his entry in the New Grove Dictionary of Musical Instruments he said that cetera and cetra were Italian language words for the citole. The cetra used this way was a plucked instrument, related to the fiddle and used c. 1200-1350.In the Renaissance, the term ‘cetra’ came to signify a pear-shaped instrument with a flat sound-board and a long neck, whose pairs of metal strings were plucked. The Italian citole, known there as cetra, eventually became the cittern.

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