Giulio Cesare Barbetta

Giulio Cesare Barbetta (1540 - 1603) was the first lutenist to publish music for the seven-course lute. He specifies the instrument on the title page of his lntabolatura di liuto from 1585 but already in his II libro primo dell'intavolatura of 1569 there is a fantasia requiring notes a tone lower than the sixth course as well as the sixth course open. Whether he had the two strings of the sixth course tuned a tone apart or an actual seventh course is not known.