Cithara

Cithara (Lat.) [Gk. *kithara], 1. the kithara. Around 500 A.C., Clovis, King of the Franks (d. 511) requested his brother-in-law Theodoric, King of the Ostrogoths in Italy, to send him a citharoede (cithara player). This is probably the latest mention of the cithara as a contemporaneous instr.; 2. in med. times the cruit (rotta), described in the epistle to Dardanus by Pseudo-Jerome (9th c.) as having a body in the shape of the Gk. letter Δ i.e., triangular, and 24 strings. In the 8th c…