URING THE THOROUGHBASS ERA a variety of instruments were used to provide chordal accompaniment for vocal and instrumental music. One of the most common of these was the chitarrone, a large lute with an extra octave of diatonically tuned contrabasses on an extended neck, invented towards the end of the sixteenth century. The chitarrone or tiorba, as it was later called, was one of the most important instruments of early monody and opera, and remained a significant thoroughbass instrument all over Europe throughout the entire baroque. It is prescribed for use in works by the leading practitioners of the seconda prattica -Caccini, Peri, d'India, Cavalieri, Monteverdi, Gagliano-and many other lesser figures, and was still used in Italian church orchestras and German court music ensembles well into the