Mandora

Mandora [Gk. *pandoura] (Fr.: mandore; It.: mandola; Sp.: mandora; Lat.: testudo minor), name of a small variety of lute, distinguished from the classical instr. by its sickle-shaped pegbox, which in the Renaissance was often set at an obtuse angle, at other times upright, and by a narrower neck. The word is recorded in Fr. literature from the 12th c. to the 14th (chiefly as mandoire) and reappears in the 16th c.; in Prov. literature it occurs from 1235 on. Pictorially it is recorded for the…