The cetera or cetara is a plucked string instrument played in Corsica. It has sixteen, or sometimes eighteen, metal strings, running in paired courses,1 with a body similar to the mandolin, but larger, and is plucked with a plectrum made of horn or tortoiseshell.2
The Italian term also occurs in historical sources and usually interpreted to indicate a musical instrument of the cittern family.
References
References
- Salvatore VIALA (1842). Dionomachia; poemetto eroi-comico. Terza edizione, ricorretta. pp. 90–.
- Ferdinand Gregorovius (1855). Corsica in Its Picturesque, Social, and Historical Aspects: The Record of a Tour in the Summer of 1852. Longman, Brown, Green, and Longmans. pp. 276–.