Citole

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

  1. A medieval string instrument similar to a lute that produces music by plucking its strings
  2. An ancient musical device from Europe, featuring a hollow body and strings, commonly used in the Middle Ages
  3. A historical stringed instrument resembling a lute that generates sound through plucking its strings

Etymology: The citole is a medieval stringed instrument that traces its origins back to the 13th and 14th centuries in Europe. Its name likely derives from Old French, where "citole" or "cistole" referred to a type of small, plucked instrument. This term itself may have roots in the Latin "cithara," which was used to describe a lyre-like instrument in ancient Rome and Greece. The citole represents a fascinating link in the evolution of plucked stringed instruments, bridging earlier lyres and the later development of guitars and lutes. In medieval manuscripts and iconography, the citole is often depicted as having a flat, somewhat rectangular or oval body with a neck and several strings stretched across it. Unlike the modern guitar, it usually had four strings and was played with a plectrum. The instrument’s construction and playing technique placed it somewhere between the fiddle and the lute, serving both secular and courtly music contexts during the Middle Ages. The transition from "cithara" to "citole" illustrates how classical terms were adapted and transformed through Old French into Middle English and other European vernaculars. The citole’s name and form gradually gave way to instruments like the gittern and eventually the guitar by the late medieval period. While the citole itself fell out of favor by the 15th century, its influence is preserved in the lineage of European stringed instruments. Though the citole is not widely known today outside of specialist circles, it played an important role in medieval music and instrument development. Its name serves as a linguistic relic of the complex history of plucked string instruments, showing how ancient musical traditions were reinterpreted and localized across Europe during the Middle Ages.