This is a most stimulating book and one which every serious lutenist should read and understand. While Dolata may not persuade us that all or even most professional lutenists used meantone he makes a strong case that some did, and that equal temperament, while understood and widely used, was avoided by the most fastidious. He gives the reader the means to understand the issues and lots of practical advice on going beyond equal temperament towards better sound.
The Lute
While Dolata's book is aimed primarily at lutenists and gambists, the wealth of information he provides is of potential value to performers and scholars outside this limited circle. In particular, those who perform with—or conduct—lutenists and gambists can profit from learning what is involved in setting up fretted instruments in unequal systems.
Journal of Seventeenth-Century Music
[This book] handles a difficult subject with clarity and vigor, and I imagine it will find a welcome place on the bookshelf of the serious student interested in exploring the unique soundscape attainable only through meantone temperament.
Notes
There is a wealth of knowledge here for more advanced performers and those with an interest in historical temperaments.
Music Reference Services Quarterly
This is an excellent, well-written book. There is a wealth of information about how players of fretted instruments found different solutions to the problems of tuning; the section on the theory of temperaments is a good read in spite of the dryness of its subject matter; and there is much good practical advice to help us improve our playing by getting our instruments well in tune.
The Viola da Gamba Society Journal
This book is well written in a friendly style, and it fulfills its tutorial intention very well.
The Consort