About 24 years ago, Anthony Glise had the idea to write the first comprehensive textbook on the history of the guitar, with research dating back to 325 A.D. He had no idea how deep his study would go.

The release of “The Guitar in History and Performance Practice from 1400 to Today” culminates Glise’s more than two decades of research in several different countries, with much of it being done by hand, as some of the early historical documents have yet to be digitized.

“A lot of research materials you can find online now, but a lot of them have yet to be republished, and there are no facsimile copies of them, so the only way to look at them is go there and dig through the dust,” he said.

A St. Joseph native, Glise is a guitar virtuoso with nine diplomas from seven countries. He has performed Carnegie Hall and Lincoln Center and has been published in the U.S., England and Germany. He’s also brought many to learn and appreciate the guitar on a deeper level.

Even with all of his accomplishments, Glise wanted to reach more people searching for a deeper appreciation of classical guitar.

“We don’t have, in English, a university textbook for the history of guitar, and there’s never been one written,” he said.

Having written at least nine other guitar textbooks, Glise took it upon himself to dig through the archives, periodicals, textbooks and websites to compile the definitive book on classical guitar. In his eyes, musicians only improve when they understand the origins of their work.

“It changes how we play the instrument. Because of how ... the players played, historically, we need to bring that information to our modern performances for them to be not only authentic, but closer to what the composers originally wanted,” he said.

It was an enlightening experience, often leading him to interact with others and have conversations with strangers to help translate a piece of music or letter or gain access to an archive.

“Vast amounts of these writings, the music, the manuscripts, are still sitting in files. Sometimes, they’re in people’s basements,” Glise said.

That rang especially true in Italy, where family homes were known to keep archives of history dating back to the 1400s.

“Thank goodness they didn’t do a lot of spring cleaning back then,” Glise said laughing.

The goal for Glise was to create a textbook that would be academic but not dry. While explaining the history of guitar and its mechanics could be as arduous as listening to someone tune a lute for two hours, Glise wanted to make it light and conversational.

“It’s a fun read. It’s not that heavy,” Glise said.

He throws in bits of history, like how the invasion of Spain by North Africans led to the evolution of the guitar, and even uncovers the missing identity of the subject of a classic painting.

It was a task that Glise embraced with joy. Despite any setbacks, creative and otherwise, he delighted in the journey and the support he received throughout the years. There was never any doubt the project would be completed.

“There has been such a void at the end of the guitar’s formal study that I really, really was committed to getting this thing finished,” he said.

Sending it out to get published, Glise said, was like the completion of a journey.

“It was like a 50-50 of absolute joy and relief, countered with absolute terror because there’s always going to be a comma out of place,” he said. “The 320-some pages of the last 20 years of my life, that’s going to be the last big one I do.”