One of the few metal-strung instrument known from the Renaissance period. Modern scholars debate its exact history, but it is generally accepted that it is descended from the Medieval citole. It had a fretted fingerboard and generally had 4 courses (single, pairs or threes) of strings, one or more course being usually tuned in octaves, although instruments with more or fewer courses were made. It looks much like the modern-day flat-back mandolin and the Irish bouzouki. Its flat-back design was simpler and cheaper to construct than the lute. It was also easier to play, smaller, less delicate and more portable. Played by all classes, the cittern was a premier instrument of casual music making much as is the guitar today. During the 16th century it was second in popularity only to the lute.

The cittern family survives into the present day in the German waldzither, the Corsican cetara, the Spanish bandurria and laúd, as well as the Portuguese guitar (which is typically used to play the popular traditional music known as fado). In the early 1970s, using the guitarra and a 1930s archtop Martin guitar as models, English luthier Stefan Sobell created a hybrid instrument primarily used for playing folk music, which has proved to be popular with folk revival musicians.