The mandolin was ultimately born out of the medieval lute. It is difficult to track the history of the instrument due to the popularity of lute-style instruments across medieval Europe, and with geographical range comes greater variation in design. However, the most significant developments that lead towards the modern design of the mandolin came from Italy. During the renaissance in late medieval Italy, luthiers began constructing mandolinos and mandolas, which were variations of the same idea but with varying features, sizes and tuning.

The Vinaccia family of 18th Century Naples are often highlighted as expert mandolin makers and took possibly the greatest strides in creating the instrument that we recognise today. The family’s designs included substituting tunings pegs for machine heads, adding metal strings and standardising the scale to seventeen frets. All of these features are replicated on essentially every version of the modern variant and helped establish the mandolin as a professional instrument, with this particular version being contemporarily recognised as the Neapolitan mandolin.

These changes spurred a popular wave of mandolin performance and tuition in France, Spain and Italy in the late 18th to the early 20th Century. As the popularity grew, it spread to different countries and was adapted to suit the folk traditions of these areas. Around the Mediterranean, the round-back mandolin has to this day remained the most popular variant. In America, and particularly among bluegrass musicians, a carved top mandolin with ‘F’ violin-style holes emerged the dominant sort.

It is unknown when the mandolin came to Ireland in its modern form and while many of these alternate styles do exist and are played in Ireland, by far the most common variation among Irish musicians is a flat-backed variant with an oval sound hole. The Italian style is often considered too soft to be played with an Irish band, while the F style is usually too harsh.

Today, the mandolin is certainly one of the more common instruments you would find in a traditional session. It is small and easily transportable, it is easy to learn for guitar, banjo and fiddle players, and it can be used to either drive the melody or support the rhythm by strumming chords.