In 1501, in Venice, the printer Ottavio Petrucci was the first to use typography in the production of music. The pages were printed in three stages: first, the staves, then the notes and finally the text and the page numbers. This new process replaced the old practice of handwritten scores and, for the first time, the very rich lute repertory could be widely disseminated.

In 1536, that is to say a hundred years after the appearance of printing in Europe, Don Luys Milán, a gentleman at the court of the king of Portugal and of the Islands, published in Valencia, under the title of El Maestro, a collection of music which contains instrumental pieces for vihuela, as well as songs with vihuela accompaniment. Two years later, in 1538, Luys de Narváez published in Valladolid "Los seys libros del Delphin de musica" which introduced into Spain the idea of Variations on a Theme. In 1546 “Tres Libros de Musica para Vihuela" by Alonso Mudarra appeared in Seville. In the third book are published for the first time small pieces written for the four string guitar. During the sixteenth century, a score of books for guitar were published, mainly in Paris. In 1549 Adrian Le Roy, together with his cousin, Robert Ballard, founded an important publishing house which was given the royal seal of approval. Between 1551 and 1556 they published 5 books of guitar tablatures.

Round about 1570, the sonority and register of the guitar were increased with the addition of a fifth string. This innovation, together with the introduction of the flat back from about 1650, heralded the birth of the “Spanish guitar".