CITOLE  , also spelled SYTOLE, CYTIIOLE, GYTOLLE, &c . (probably a Fr. diminutive

form of cithara, and not from Lat. cista, a box), an obsolete musical instrument of which the exact form is uncertain . It is frequently mentioned by poetical writers of the 13th to the 15th centuries, and is found in Wycliffe's Bible (136o) in 2 Samuel vi . 5, " Harpis and sitols and tympane." The Authorized Version has " psaltiries," and the Vulgate " lyrae." It has been supposed to be another name for the psaltery (q.v.), a box-shaped instrument often seen in the illuminated missals of the middle ages .