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About the Baroque Guitar

The Baroque guitar was the first instrument in the guitar family, originating sometime during the sixteenth century. The instrument was at its peak during the seventeenth century, and was superseded in the eighteenth century by larger guitars. It was proceeded by the Classical guitar, Romantic guitar, and modern steel-strung guitar. The Baroque guitar had a much smaller body than its descendants. Despite the size of its body, the instrument had a long neck, and a fairly large scale string length, ranging from 60cm to 75cm from bridge to nut. In comparison a modern steel-string guitar has a string length ranging from 61cm to 64.8cm. Like the lute, it was double strung, with two strings per course. Again, like the lute, some instruments only had a single string on the chanterelle, the highest string. Unlike modern guitars which have metal frets, the baroque guitar had frets that were made of gut and were tied to the fingerboard. Another notable difference between the Baroque guitar and its descendants is that it only had five courses of strings, as opposed to the six strings that later guitars posses. Pictured is a Baroque guitar by Liuteria d'Insieme a workshop based in Milano Italy. They are known for their exquisite rosettes.

The bodies of Baroque guitars vary greatly. Some had narrower and more pronounced waists, while others had arched backs. The instrument shown here has a flat back. Baroque guitars are truly beautiful instruments. They frequently had numerous inlaid ornaments such as purfling, rosettes, and images in the fingerboard.

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