In the work of Maurice J. Summerfield (third edition 1992, Ashley Mark Plubishing Company), offers an interesting hypothesis about the origen of the Spanish guitar. Summerfield believes that the origen dates back to approximately 400 a .d. when Roman instruments the tambour or cithara were brought to Spain by the Romans. This theory directly opposes the conventional idea, that says the direct ancestor of the guitar is the ud, an instrument brought to Spain by the Arabs after the invasion during the VIII century. In the following lines a polemic is established based on the information published by the "El Prado" Museum in Madrid .

There is evidence that a four stringed instrument similar to that of the guitar was played by the Hittite (who occupied a region now known as Asia Minor and Syria ) around 1400 b.c.

This instrument was characterised by its smooth sides and curves one of the characteristics of whichever instrument identifiable as the predecessor to the guitar. The Greeks also made a similar instrument that was later modified by the Romans. Both versions seem to lack the curved sides. What is interesting here is that those Roman citharas appeared in Spain centuries before the invasion by the Moors.

In spite of this, they have interpreted that the first instrument similar to the guitar that appeared in Spain was after this invasion with the introduction of the Arabic ud in the south. But with the introduction of the Roman cithara centuries earlier we can say that despite the influence of the ud in the development of the guitar it is not its true ancestor.

For all of this and the agreement with this theory the Spanish guitar is derived from the Hittites tambour, the Greek kithara with "k" and finally the Roman cithara with a "c".

However, it is possible that after the arrival of the Arabs in Spain the Roman cithara and the Arabic ud were mixed and influenced by each other for various centuries. But in spite of this theory there is no existence of any specific documentation about it. There is a possibility that the makers of uds and citharas had seen the work of others trough the presentations of travelling troubadours. By the year 1200a.d. the four stringed guitar had evolved in two varieties: The Moorish and Latin guitars.

The first of these had a round base, a wide neck and various incisions on the front of the body for the sound. The second, however, was more similar to the modern guitar with only one hole for the sound and a narrow neck.

At the end of the XV century the vihuela was created adding double strings and increasing its size. It was an instrument you plucked with a longer neck (the length of the strings were between 72 and 79 cm ) with 10 or 11 frets and 6 strings. The vihuela became the preferred instrument of the Spanish and Portuguese Courts and it maintained its popularity until the end of the XVII century until the orchestral instruments with keys once again became more popular.

Although the guitar existed simultaneously during this period, the vihuela and the lute overshadowed it until the end of the XVII century until they added too many strings to the lute making it very difficult to play and tune. On the other hand the vihuela was also slowly being replaced by the 5 or 6 stringed guitar. It was probably the addition of a fifth string at the end of the XVI century that gave the guitar more flexibility and range of sound so they took advantage of the potential from the repertory from its predecessors.

The end of the XVIII century and at the beginnings of the XIX, some guitars had 6 strings and employed reinforced metal bars inside the body of the guitar. These bars were added to reinforce the structure and at the same time allow a thinner top to obtain greater resonance and a better distribution of sound. Other contemporary developments included the use of a reinforced elevated neck using ebony or rosewood together with the appearance of a metallic screw mechanism in place of the wooden pegs to tune the instrument. (It is important to point out that the raised frets has had a great impact on the instrument technically because the strings were too far from the body so you had to rest one of your fingers of the right hand on the guitar to support the rest). These guitars would be unmistakably recognised as the first classic guitars.

At the beginning of the XIX century in the work of the Spanish Agustín Caro, Manuel González, Antonio de Lorca, Manuel Gutiérrez and other Europeans guitar makers including Rene Lacote and Johann Staufer we find the characteristics of precursors more directly of the classical modern guitar. Johann Staufer from Vienna had a legendary reputation. In his shop he learned to build C.F. Martin Guitars. He later moved to the Unite States and his company continue building guitars to the present day. He also developed the raised fret at the request of Luigi Legnani Paganini's lead guitarist. His other advances in the construction of the guitar included an adjustable neck, reinforced steel and screw in pegs that are still used in modern guitars.

Towards 1850, the guitar prepared itself for the most important development it had had since its beginnings; the work of Antonio Torres Jurado with the help of Julian Arcas and his own and brilliant instructions, Torres refined the structural supports of the guitar using 7 extended rods under the front body of the guitar. He also increased the size of the resonance and the width of the neck. These innovations improved the volume of sound and the answer from the bass just as the discovery of a technique for the left hand to the enrichment of the repertoire. Now the guitar was a prepared for the demands of the soloist as for an instrumental group.

Although there has been more discoveries in the construction of the guitar since the mid XIX century, our modern guitar conserves the majority that was discovered almost 150 years ago. Nobody can say that the guitar has reached the end of its evolution, but up to now the majority of improvements from the point of view of the volume, projection, transparency and beautiful tone have been constructed by the great guitar makers Torres, Ramirez and Arias from the second half of the last century.