Bandora
A historical Renaissance plucked instrument built like a cittern but strung and tuned like a lute, with steel strings.
What it means
The bandora (also bandore or pandora) is an English Renaissance plucked instrument with twelve steel strings. Its body is flat and scalloped like a cittern, but its tuning follows the lute. This combination of cittern-like build and lute-like tuning made it a distinct instrument type.
Musical use
Invented in 16th-century England, the bandora was chiefly used in consort playing, alongside instruments such as the lute, cittern, and viol, as was customary in the English broken consort music of the Elizabethan era. Its full, resonant tone made it a favored bass instrument in such ensembles.
The bandora should be distinguished from the cittern, with which it is often confused: both are wire-strung plucked instruments with a flat body, but the bandora is notably larger and tuned lower, serving mainly as the bass instrument in the consort.
Other names
The instrument is also called pandora or bandore.