• 4 July 1497. [prizer1980, pp 18 and 33 text and translation].
Isabella requested “un liutto… de ebono”. Serafino dall’Aquila had seen one in Venice and told her of it.
• 23 July 1497 [In prizer1982, pp 111 and 126].
Lorenzo reports that the instrument requested in both construction and materials. He said that Venetian makers only knew how to make “liuti ala italiana” and that “liuti fatti in Spagna” sounded different: “The Spanish give them a certain sound in one way or another to make them sing”
• 16 Dec 1499 [In prizer1982, pp 111 and 126].
Isabella reminds Lorenzo to make the lute’s body completely in the Spanish manner without giving it anything of the Italian fashion.
• March 1500. Lorenzo writes to Isabella that he has sent her “un liuto grande ala spagnola” even though, as Minamino notes, she had requested that the instrument be two steps [a third?] higher than the viola that Lorenzo had previously made for her. He also promises to make her aanother lute “naturale ala spagnola sì de forma come de voce” [in the Spanish style both in form and sound].
• The instruments made by Lorenzo for Isabella were played by Mantuan musicians. Federico Gonzaga of Bozzola writes to Isabella in 1503 describing the arrival there from Mantua of Giovanni Angelo Testagrossa with three “vyolini de archetto” and two “spagnoli” that belonged to the court of Mantua. These latter instruments could be plucked violas da mano. (Text in prizer1980, 32). woodfield1984 (p. 95) also notes that one of the spagnoli could have the one bought by Francesco Gonzaga in Naples.
• Isabella requested five “viole de archo”. Viols had arrived in Ferrara with Ercole d’Este who had studied in Naples and who married a the daughter of the King Ferrante.
• salazar1948 268 draws attention to the d’Este inventories (cited in sachsHAND, pp 212 and 230) where “viola all napoletana” is used in contradistinction to to “viola de arco”
• rault1997, p. 239
• minamino2004-2, 184