"Everything beautiful appears to be born full grown, and ripened from eternity." (Friedrich Schiller)
 

In Spain during the period of the High Renaissance, the vihuela de mano used to have the same importance as the lute in the rest of Europe. With the recapture of Granada by the Spanish Christians, the era of “al-Andalus”, i.e. Arabian Iberia, came to an end and the lute disappeared completely from Spanish music making tradition.