I completed my last build a few weeks ago (a Greek Tzouras - thanks to all of you who answered my questions as I was getting started!), and have started my new build, which will be an (almost) flat backed vihuela de mano, modeled after a picture of a modern one that was modeled after a sixteenth century Spanish instrument.
I've never actually seen one of these "in the flesh" - only YouTube videos and pictures on the web, and some articles here and there. But there don't seem to be a lot of resources. I know some of you have made historical instruments, and I was hoping you wouldn't mind answering some questions. The one I have right now is about the rosette.
The vihuelas I've seen pictures of have carved (often multi-layered) roses, like a lute or an oud, but different in the sense that they're seemingly built up and glued into the instrument - not carved into the soundboard. Many of them seem to have a black background behind the filligree work, that seems to block all the holes. Do these instruments effectively have no soundholes? What's the way these non-integral-to-the-soundboard rosettes are attached to the soundboard? I know that layers were sometimes carved from parchment, or from veneers separated by parchment - is that black background a sheet of black parchment?
I'm sorry if these questions seem really naive, but the rest of the construction seems pretty straightforward (especially if I don't insist on perfect historical accuracy "under the hood" - I figure I can build it pretty much like a guitar...). But the rosette is puzzling me...
Thanks for any replies!