Original renaissance guitar?

[Bill Brettschneider]

Is there any extant relic of an original 4 course renaissance guitar in the world today that any body here knows about? I cant find one on the web, but i figured asking here cant hurt too badly. I think th answer is no, but the more i thought about it the stranger that seems to me.

[Monica Hall]

GiovanniSmit4courseguitars.jpg  There are apparently two surviving 4-course guitars but they date from the 1640s. They were made Giovanni Smit. One of them is illustrated in James Tyler's book The guitar and its music p.82. 

[Bill Brettschneider]

I will need to look into those a bit closer. Thanks very much

[Jelma van Amersfoort]

There is the Belchior Dias guitar: here, which is generally considered a renaissance guitar although it has five courses.

[Jelma van Amersfoort]

Also, there are fragments of a four course guitar found in a ship wreck, but from ca. 1733 so not 'renaissance' in any way. There was an article about this in Lute News 131, October 2019.

[Bill Brettschneider]

Thanks folks!
I understand the date of the diaz guitar places it in the late renaissance, but it certainly looks more like what most of us would call a baroque guitar today.

[Jelma van Amersfoort]

So, maybe we should examine what we mean by 'baroque' :-) ? 

[Bill Brettschneider]

Fair enough. I feel a bit better using my 5 course guitar to accompany 16th century rep knowing that the Diaz guitar exists :)
So, would you hazard a guess at the earliest 5 course guitar?

[Jelma van Amersfoort]

My guess would be the Dias!

[Bill Brettschneider]

Of course if i had a four course, id probably use that for decidedly renaissance rep