MANDORA

also spelled Mandola, small, pear-shaped musical instrument of the lute family, played from about the 12th to the 18th century. Probably of Persian origin, it was known in the Middle Ages as the guitarra morisca, or guitarra saracenica, and shared with the guitarlike guitarra latina the name gittern. Originally, the body and neck of the mandora were carved from a single piece of wood. It had a back-curving sickle-shaped pegbox with lateral tuning pegs. The four or five strings were hitched to the end of the instrument and were plucked with a plectrum. Tunings varied but frequently ran upward from middle C or the C below. The mandora was increasingly influenced by its larger cousin, the lute. By the 17th century it was finger-plucked and had acquired the frets, separate neck, and tension bridge (string holder placed on the belly) of the lute, although it retained its violin-like pegbox. A late variety was the 18th-century Milanese mandolin, which is distinct from the modern, or Neapolitan, mandolin. Mandora also denotes the tenor or alto Neapolitan mandolin.