ntains an ornate
cathedral, overthrown by an earthquake in 1693, but rebuilt, which is
said by an acceptable tradition to occupy the site of the house of the
governor Publius, who welcomed the apostle Paul. It contains some rich
stalls of the 15th century and other objects of interest. In the rock
beneath the city there are some remarkable catacombs in part of
pre-Christian origin, but containing evidence of early Christian burial;
and a grotto, reputed to have given shelter to the apostle, is pointed
out below the church of San Paolo. Remains of Roman buildings have been
excavated in the town. About 2 m. E. of the town is the residence of the
English governor, known as the palace of S. Antonio; and at a like
distance to the south is the ancient palace of the grand masters of the
order of St John, with an extensive public garden called Il Boschetto.
Citta Vecchia was called Civitas Melita by the Romans and oldest
writers, Medina (i.e. the city) by the Saracens, Notabile (_locale
notabile, et insigne coronae regiae_, as it is called in a charter by
Alphonso, 1428) under the Sicilian rule, and Citta Vecchia (old city) by
the knights. It was the capital of the island till its supersession by
Valletta in 1570. (See also MALTA.)

CITTERN (also CITHERN, CITHRON, CYTHREN, CITHAREN, &c.; Fr. _citre,
cistre, cithre, guitare allemande_ or _anglaise_; Ger. _Cither_, Zither
(_mit Hals_, with neck); Ital. _cetera, cetra_), a medieval stringed
instrument with a neck terminating in a grotesque and twanged by fingers
or plectrum. The popularity of the cittern was at its height in England
and Germany during the 16th and 17th centuries. The cittern consisted of
a pear-shaped body similar to that of the lute but with a flat back and
sound-board joined by ribs. The neck was provided with a fretted
finger-board; the head was curved and surmounted by a grotesque head of
a woman or of an animal.[1] The strings were of wire in pairs of
unisons, known as courses, usually four in number in England. A
peculiarity of the cittern lay in the tuning of the courses, the third
course known as bass being lower than the fourth styled tenor.

[Illustration]

[Illustration: From Thomas Robinson's _New Citharen Lessons_, 1609.
Four-course Cittern.]

According to Vincentio Galilei (the father of the great astronomer)
England was the birthplace of the cittern.[2] Several lesson books for
this popular instrument were published during the 17th century