MacNichol wrote:

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Whoops!

That's a twelve string that he's playing, not a cittern.

Mac,

I am not so sure, I looked this up on Wikipedia (yes, not always the best source, but...)

The cittern is one of the few metal-strung instruments known from the Renaissance period. It generally has four courses (single, pairs or threes) of strings, one or more course being usually tuned in octaves, though instruments with more or fewer courses were made. The cittern may have a range of only an octave between its lowest and highest strings and employs a "re-entrant" tuning^[1] - a tuning in which the string that is physically uppermost is not the lowest, as is also the case with the five-string banjo for example. The tuning and narrow range allow the player a number of simple chord shapes useful for both simple song accompaniment and dances, however much more complex music was written for it^[2]. Its bright and cheerful timbre make it a valuable counterpoint to gut-strung instruments. The bandore (or bandora), an English bass instrument are forms of cittern. The Spanish bandurria, still used today, is a similar instrument.

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Although this instrument does have 6 courses, I have re-watched the video and I think that the shape too indicates a Cittern rather than a 12-string.�

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I also watched this video which features an Appollonio Bell Cittern and it looks like the one that Peter is playing.

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I think that we need Nikos to chime in and clarify this for us.