Which Temperament

[Michel Lachance]

Dear list,

What I find puzzling about historical temperament is to know which one 
to use.  When a "baroque" musician orders me a meantone, my anwer is: 
which one?  I can tune up to 14 meantone versions with RCT.  And when he 
ask "which one would you recommend?", I have not the least idea.

I had a look in Owen Jorgensen's book "Tuning" which is THE reference 
document concerning historical tunings.  He gives a lot of informations 
about the history of each temperament but very few hints about what kind 
a temperament was most popular on a given time.

Is there any other sources where I can get a kind Top Ten Chart of the 
commonly used temperament from 16th to 19th century?

For example, what would you suggest for someone playing a piece from 
Couperin?

Michel Lachance, RPT