Acknowledgments

My sincere and heartfelt thanks goes to the following people for their various contributions to this web site:

• My wife — for putting up with my obscure hobbies (including this one), and for her continued support, love, and encouragement to continue this project.

• My parents — for starting me on my crazy hobbies in the first place and for their continual love and support.

• My children — who have never known a "me" before this site and these hobbies. They give me continual strength and inspiration in their curiosity about the world in which we all live, and they inspire me to leave something greater than myself for future generations.

• Gian Luca Lastraioli — for assistance with the ideas for this web site and constant encouragement.

• Temmo Korisheli — for his expert library help and hours of assistance helping me to find numerous articles and microfilms.

• Christopher Burgon — for his most generous and unselfish contribution to the Articles page.

• Kevin McDermott — for his enthusiasm and gigantic contribution to the Recordings and Miscellany pages.

• James Stimson — for his contributions and ideas about the Fludd cittern.

• Nick Kremenek of Dream Forger Studios — for his help with scanning and editing many pictures and musical examples for the site, and for his continued expertise and help regarding all questions and issues pertaining to images and their electronic manipulation. A secondary special thanks is also due for his assistance in scanning and cleaning up photos of new instruments for the New Instruments Gallery as well as for his continued friendship.

• Peter Forrester — for his extensive contributions in more areas of this site than can be mentioned, but especially in the Articles, New Instruments, and Recordings pages. Also, for his continued friendship, encouragement, lutherie advice, and continual liberal sharing of new and old information in order to advance the field of knowledge related to early, wire-strung, plucked instruments. 

• Professor Dana Sutton — for his permission to reprint his translation and footnotes on the poem about Anthony Holborne's Cittharn Schoole.

• Rainer aus dem Spring — for his continued help in tracking down obscure literary sources (including the above mentioned poem) regarding the cittern, as well as his contribution of the concordance list for MS. Dd.4.23.

• Arthur Ness — for his extensive notes on John Ward's cittern manuscripts.

• Unknown person — for notification about the Sebastian de Aguirre Mexican cittern manuscript. (My apologies for not knowing who you are—I lost your emails in a major computer crash...)

• Ron Banks — for generously sharing with me his extensive knowledge on citterns and their construction, and answering my numerous email inquiries.

• Robert E. Gerhardt, M.D. — for sharing valuable information about a lesser-known painting by van Musscher.

• Atsushi Ebihara — for his large contribution to the Recordings page.

• Rob MacKillop — for his contributions on Plucked, fretted instruments in Medieval and Renaissance Scotland, the Scottish cittern and its repertoire, and the English (Scottish!) guittar.  Also for his unwavering friendship and generosity.

• Pedro Caldeira Cabral — for his contributions on the Cittern in Portugal and the Iberian Peninsula.

• Urs Klauser from the ensemble Tritonus — for supplying information about and images of the cittern in Switzerland.

• Andy Rutherford, Darryl Martin, and Ben Hebbert — for supplying photos and information about the possibly-English cittern that was auctioned at Christie's and purchased by the National Music Museum. And to Andy and Darryl for their continued support and assistance with my research.

• Arian Sheets from the National Music Museum of South Dakota — for her continued assistance in answering questions about the wire-strung instruments belonging to the NMM.

• Monica Hall — for her assistance with understanding the cittern in Spain and other 16th/17th century Spanish expertise.

• Stephen Bacon and Vicki Purslow from Southern Oregon University — for their assistance, notes, and contributions about instruments held in the Schuman Collection at SOU.

• Andreas Michel — for his assistance with 16th century German cittern manuscripts.

• James Tyler — for providing information about some sources and manuscripts, especially Naples MS 7664, Krawkow Mus. MS 40145, and Brno Ms. G 10,1400. Also for providing some of the earliest feedback on the practical use of twined strings on the English guittar. (May he rest in peace!) 

• Andreas Schlegel — for his assistance with the "Berchtersches Tagebuch."

• Damien Delgrossi — for his assistance with everything related to the cittern / cetera in France and Corsica.

• Doc Rossi — for starting the (now-defunct) Cittern site at Ning, for starting the (still active!) Cittern Society on Facebook, for his assistance and advice with "all things cittern" (especially the 18th c. cetra / guittar), as well as for his continual friendship and correspondence.

• Greet Schamp — for sharing information and collaboration on the recently discovered Ghent cittern manuscripts.

• Panagiotis Poulopoulos — for sharing his research on early wire strings and the English guittar with me.

• David Dolata and John Griffiths — for believing in me and entertaining my musicological questions/challenges in the writing of the entries for the cittern in the Encyclopaedia of Tablature: Alternative notations, unwritten practices 1450-1750.

• Taro Takeuchi — for sharing his research on the English guittar with me and answering my many messages.

• Daniel Wheeldon — for answering questions about 18th century keyed guittar mechanisms and for measuring 18th century instruments in the Met collection for me.

• Others who have wished to remain anonymous (you know who you are!) — for their contributions to the page, including submission of artwork, pictures of instruments, corrections, and suggestions.