Renaissance Workshop Company
The foremost manufacturer of early musical instruments worldwide

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1. The "Guadalupe" (pictures above), now in the "Musée Jacquemart-Andrée" (Paris),
2. The "Chambure" in the "Cité de la Musique" (Paris), and
3. The "Vihuela de Quito", in the "Iglesia de la Compañía de Jesús" (Quito).

Another instrument strung with five double courses built in 1581, in Lisbon by Belchior Dias, now in the Royal College of Music (London), could have been a vihuela, but many consider that it actually is better catalogued as a renaissance or baroque guitar.

In the baroque period there are also instruments called vihuelas that differ from the baroque guitars that the vihuelas are strung with courses of doubled strings. An magnificent 6-course baroque vihuela (left) by Francisco Sanguino (Sevilla 1768), now belongs to José Luis Romanillos and is exhibited in his museum at Sigüenza (Spain).

The Renaissance Spanish Vihuela is a project I've been thinking about for years.

No one gets into early lutherie for the money (no one with a clue, anyway), so I got an involuntary crash course in the discipline after I left the school. I've learned a lot about early lutherie since then, most of it the hard way.

Over time, I've noticed that people who love early music love also its instruments. And because the prohibitive prices of the authentic ancient ones, a replica can perfectly do the job. But good replicas are also scarce because many only try to be aesthetically similar leaving the historical, acoustical and musical subjects in a second or third level.

 Making a good replica of a relatively unknown musical instrument it's a scientific job with a huge dose of artistic tasks. But aspiring creative types are pretty easily discouraged by the spectre of the "starving artist." It doesn't have to be that way! And not enough people realize that.

So, I want to produce replicas of a renaissance Spanish vihuela. The "Guadalupe", probably. Same dimensions, materials and constructive procedures and an expert labour, though not so decorated with a starting price of 1800 euros (€). This is typically less than half the price of this type of instruments nowadays. It is the policy of the Renaissance Workshop Company, to produce also a kit with the same high quality materials and all the time-consuming parts already done for those who, for any reason, prefer to build the instrument by themselves. This kit will have a price of 600 €. We will also prepare the set of documentation (full size drawing, instruction manual and pictures of the building process) with the standard license to be sold at about 85 €.

From our experience, we know that surviving with those prices is quite a challenging objective. In this business all the materials of the best quality are really scarce and expensive and come often from abroad. The transportations and import duties are also very burdensome, if not strictly forbidden.

The instrument wouldn't just be for professional musicians, either. People who want to have a very good instrument at very affordable price can benefit from this Renaissance Spanish Vihuela, either finished or in kit form.

The Renaissance Workshop Company and myself have a six-month schedule from a successful renaissance Spanish vihuela to manufacturing.

The 15,000 € we need would go towards paying all the implicated people a small but fair price for their work, the materials and producing costs of the first five finished units and ten kits.

We have designed and manufactured many other instruments and kits prior to the Renaissance Spanish Vihuela, that now form part of our permanent catalogue. You can find those instruments and kits for sale just in this website. I encourage you to buy them and check out how well they're made.

Hope you decide to contribute! Thanks again.

Copyright © 1999 Renaissance Workshop Company Ltd.
Last modification: 03 de mayo de 2019

Phone:(+34) 91 450 30 50