Ukrainian bandura built by lutheir Dwight Newton

Ukrainian bandura -- 36 strings, walnut/spruce, original modified bracing pattern.

The invention of an instrument combining the elements of lute and psaltery itself is currently creditable to Francesco Landini, an Italian lutenist-composer of trecento. Filippo Villani writes in "Liber de civitatis Florentiae": "...(Landini) invented a new sort of instrument, a cross between lute and psaltery, which he called the serena serenarum, an instrument that produces an exquisite sound when its strings are struck."

The rare iconographic evidence (Magnasco) points that such instruments were still in use in Italy ca.1700. Similar instruments are documented in Ukraine from the previous century.

For more info, visit Dwight's luthierie webpage