SLWeiss - life- born Wreclau hl mesto Silesie, cesty Italie, Drazdany, Praha, Viden,

was able to play any lute instrument any tuning wonderfully.

as used by Silvius Leopold Weiss after about 1720. The six basic stopped
courses (pairs of strings) of the instrument are tuned to a D-minor chord: f
´ d´ a f d A. Courses 1 and 2 consist of single strings; courses 3 to 5 are
unison pairs and course 6 has one string tuned at the higher octave.
Courses 7 to 13 are a series of octave-paired courses tuned in a diatonic
octave descending to AA.
(Tim Crawford - the moscow weiss lute manuscript, 1995)

In a letter to Johann Mattheson written in 1723 Weiss describes the lutes he

used:

"….I am of the opinion that after the keyboard there is no more perfect
instrument than this one (the lute) especially for Galanterie. The theorbo and
Arciliuto, which are quite different even from each other, cannot be used at all in
Galanterie pieces…I have adapted one of my instruments for accompaniment in
the orchestra and in church. It has the same size, length, power and resonance
of the veritable theorbo and has the same effect, only that the tuning is
different. This instrument I use on these occasions. But in chamber music, I
assure you that a cantata a voce sola, next to the harpsichord, accompanied by
the lute has a much better effect than with the Arciliuto or even theorbo, since
these two latter instruments are ordinarily played with the nails and produce in
close proximity a coarse, harsh sound."

From this we can conclude that Weiss considered the theorbo as a thorough bass
instrument for use in large halls or in large ensembles. For his solo performances
his early compositions use an eleven course lute, after 1719 however he
consistently used a thirteen course lute.

The concerto for viola d’amore and lute RV540 is known to have been
performed at the Pietà in 1740 in a concert for Frederick Christian, Prince
Elector of Saxony and Poland. It was almost certainly played by Chiaretta,
Anna Maria’s student and her successor as Maestra. Chiaretta is
documented as having performed in the concert in another work as a solo
singer. (Leon King, 2003)

The organ maker Pietro Nachini began using A+0 (tutto

punto), which then became known as corista Veneto.
ii. Although A–1 was used in Venetian
opera in the early part of the century, it
was A+0 that was to remain the
 principal pitch in Venice throughout the
century, and which was adopted as the
standard instrumental pitch, firstly in
Vienna, and then all over Europe by the
end of the 18th century.
(newyorkuniversity handout)

18th century italy - mostly mezzo punto (464hz,

favored by violins, cornets, organs
around 1580)or tutto punto (venice
440hz)
tuono corista (about 1/2 tone bellow
440Hz) was used in northern italy still in 18th century
by insert as flute or corno mute. till around 1740 mezzo
punt used as tuning of church organs in Venice (a
demitone up from a=440) but by that time Pietro
Nacchini in Venice retuned organs to a=440 (became
known as Corista Veneto)………in Rome corista was
about one tone bellow 440 in time of Palestrina to
about 2 steps below around 1600…that remained some
of the roman organs pitch till late 19th century