Cetra

Cetra, a Latin word borrowed from Greek, is an Italian descendant of κιθάρα (cithara).

The cithara was a stringed musical instrument, constructed in wood and similar to the lyre, with a larger harmonic case.

The instrument spread from ancient Greece, where it was played by professional citaredi, to Rome and Corsica.

[2] In the Renaissance, the term 'cetra' came to signify a pear-shaped instrument with a flat sound-board and a long neck, whose pairs of metal strings were plucked.

In Monteverdi's opera L'Orfeo (1607, libretto by Alessandro Striggio) Orpheus refers to his instrument as a Cetra (e.g. in the aria "Qual honor di te fia degno, mia cetra onnipotente", act 4).

Renaissance cetra or citole , c. 1320, from the lower Basilica of the church of Saint Francis in Assisi, Italy. [ 1 ] This identity was suggested by researcher Alice Margerum, who said that in the period of the painting, "citole-related names" were little used in Italy, but cetra or cetera was. [ 1 ] She said she believes that this particular era of the instrument is the instrument referred to by Dante in De vulgari eloquentia . [ 1 ]