Hi Claudio,
As usual your reply is well considered, but aren't you being a teeny bit polemical towards John? I think you yourself have already supplied some answers to your final question, namely for which of the research areas 1-6 the
SAWA-Tempest tool can be of any use. It appears that Tempest can be relevant for your questions 1 and 3, "(1) which
temperaments were in widespread use in history, and (3) which music was meant for which temperament", insofar as one regards recordings involving people like Dolmetsch, Landowska and Leonhardt as being a part of harpsichord history. I personally have no clue (for example) to what extent they used different temperaments for French and Italian music, so Tempest might help me find reliable answers.

I think it would be a pity if feisty responses discouraged people from mentioning things like Tempest on the list. The fact that you have gone to the trouble of testing it critically, found that its uses are limited, and generously shared this information with us, confirms me in this opinion. 

By the way, I wonder if its usefulness might be wider for historic instruments such as flutes and organs,  whose temperaments are to a degree inbuilt, providing information which could possibly be relevant by association for harpsichords. (It would of course be nicer to tour historic organs in Switzerland personally than run Tempest on recordings of them, but one could use it as a pre-check before travelling.) It would also be interesting to know whether you found
it troublesome and time-consuming to check recordings using Tempest, as well as not particularly productive for  the questions you want to answer.

Warmest greetings from Ireland, which is more completely rain-sodden than ever before in living memory, but finally sunny for a few days.
Michael

________________________________________

::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
Note:  opinions  expressed on HPSCHD-L are those of the  individual con-
tributors and not necessarily  those of the list owners  nor of the Uni-
versity of Iowa.  For a brief  summary of list  commands, send mail to
[log in to unmask]  saying  HELP .
::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::