The Lute is a stringed instrument that was widely used between the fourteenth and eighteenth centuries and has resurfaced in the twentieth century. It is also designated as a lute to any instrument in which the strings are placed in a parallel plane to the body along a protruding neck.
The first lutes had a top made of leather, later in the seventh century it was replaced with wood in its upper half, where it had a rosette, the lower half was still covered with leather, this instrument was called al’oud. At the end of the 7th or beginning of the 8th century its top was completely replaced with wood and two more rosettes were added, it was equipped with a bridge for the 12 strings as it was drawn in the first descriptions of Arab instruments in Spain.
The lute fixed its classical form as we know it now around the year 1500. Is has a flat top of spruce or red cedar and a pear-shaped or flat back, the lutes with the curved bottom are formed by narrow wooden segments glued together on their sides.
