Friday, January 5, 8170

Anonymous English (c. 1170) - Dance - Citole


England (b. c. 1170) - Dance (1200) (Citole)










Citole, also spelled Sytole, Cytiole, Gytolle, etc. (probably a French diminutive form of cithara, and not from Latin cista, a box), an archaic musical instrument of which the exact form is uncertain. It is generally shown as a four-string instrument, with a body generally referred to as "holly-leaf" shaped.

The citole is frequently mentioned by poets of the 13th to the 15th centuries, and is found in Wycliffe's Bible (1360) in 2 Samuel vi. 5: "Harpis and sitols and tympane." The Authorized Version has psaltiries, and the Vulgate lyrae. It has been supposed to be another name for the psaltery, a box-shaped instrument often seen in the illuminated missals of the Middle Ages.