An evolution on parallel lines appears also to have taken place from
the antique rectangular cithara[10] of the _citharoedes_, which was a
favourite in Romano-Christian art.[11] In this case examples
illustrative of the transitions are found represented in great variety
in Europe. The old German rotta[12] of the 6th century preserved in
the Volker Museum, Berlin, and the instruments played by King David in
two early Anglo-Saxon illuminated MSS., one a Psalter (Cotton MS.
Vesp. A. i. British Museum) finished in A.D. 700, the other "A
Commentary on the Psalms by Cassiodorus _manu Bedae_" of the 8th
century preserved in the Cathedral Library at Durham[13] form examples
of the first stage of transition. From such types as these the
rectangular _crwth_ or crowd was evolved by the addition of a
finger-board and the reduction in the number of strings, which follows
as a natural consequence as soon as an extended compass can be
obtained by stopping the strings. By the addition of a neck we obtain
the clue to the origin of rectangular citterns with rounded corners
and of certain instruments played with the bow whose bodies or
sound-chests have an outline based upon the rectangle with various
modifications. We may not look upon this type of guitar fiddle as due
entirely to western or southern European initiative; its origin like
that of the type approximating to the violin is evidently Byzantine.
It is found among the frescoes which cover walls and barrel vaults in
the palace of Kosseir 'Amra,[14] believed to be that of Caliph Walid
II. (A.D. 744) of the Omayyad dynasty, or of Prince Ahmad, the
Abbasid (862-866). The instrument, a cittern with four strings, is
being played by a bear. Other examples occur in the Stuttgart
Carolingian Psalter[15] (10th century); in MS. 1260 (Bibl. Imp. Paris)
_Tristan and Yseult_; as guitar fiddle in the Liber Regalis preserved
in Westminster Abbey (14th century); in the Sforza Book[16]
(1444-1476), the Book of Hours executed for Bona of Savoy, wife of
Galeazzo Maria Sforza; on one of the carvings of the 13th century in
the Cathedral of Amiens. It has also been painted by Italian artists
of the 15th and 16th centuries. (K. S.)