Hildegard von Bingen (1098-1179) was taught to play the then fashionable psaltery when she entered the Benedictine monastery at Disibodenberg as a young girl in the early 12th century. The European gittern was first documented in iconographic sources from the subsequent century and became an important and popular instrument during the 14th and 15th centuries.
Medieval psaltery made by Paul Baker after an illustration in the 13th century manuscript Cantigas de Santa Maria.
5-course gittern after Hans Oth, built by Lauri Niskanen.
Digital surpeti (shruti box) for the drone, a few zills (finger cymbals), and, of course, a solid dose of reverb to create a sonic illusion of a medieval monastery ambience.