A Cantigas lute I just finished

Here's my latest build, for a customer in Sweden. It's an early medieval lute based on illustrations from the Cantigas de Santa Maria from Spain, around 1280. I've added the two illustrations in question below my instrument, and you can read more here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cantigas_de_Santa_Maria

Its always interesting to see what you have made.

We are used to round or oval soundholes, F holes and slight variants of these. Do you think there's any significance to the various shaped opening that were used in the past? Was it just a case of whatever shape the maker chose to use?

greenscoe said:

Its always interesting to see what you have made.

We are used to round or oval soundholes, F holes and slight variants of these. Do you think there's any significance to the various shaped opening that were used in the past? Was it just a case of whatever shape the maker chose to use?

Click to expand...

I'm not sure, but I have certainly seen a lot of historical evidence of S/3-shaped soundholes, like these on sources from Spain (as above), ancient Persia, North Africa and elsewhere. They are still used on the Japanese biwa. To me this suggests a trade connection where the oud or barbat spread. I wonder if they were the fore-runner of the f-holes?