Copy vs. original

Last year I visited the Wartburg Castle to take a few photos of the gittern that’s displayed there. A gittern (or Quinterne) is a small (mandolin-sized), lute-like plucked Instrument. It is tuned in fourths and thirds like the lute, but higher pitched due to its shorter string length.

This is basically the only surviving gittern and one of the oldest surviving plucked instruments in Europe. Sadly, it is no longer in playable condition.

For the copy I incorporated not only the external form, but also the internal structure, like the (likely non-original) bracing, and the deformation of the body due to string pull over centuries.