When I tackled this article, most all of it was a copy and paste from a 'mandobanjo' website. It is not laid out very well, tends to ramble and does not stick to the subject of mandolins. Anyhow, to do my part, I replaced a section in the history part. I believe it gives a succinct account of the mandolin's origin. The facts- names, places and years- are footnoted. Afterwards, It became apparent that the beginning of the article had to be re-written since there was really no definition of a mandolin. So I did this (footnoted also). Now as for the question left in the sandbox regarding mandolinos and mandoras, I will leave it to another to rewrite the definitions and histories of those instruments. When that is done, there will be no need to add to the mandolin's definition to try to expain why it is different from these similiar instruments. (basically, however, they are at a different tonal range, among other things).