Ciaramella is a very fine "alta capella" -- that is, a Renaissance wind band; the instruments they're holding in the photo are shawms, double-reed precursors, if you will, of oboes and other later double-reeds. Shawms were often played in ensembles with slide-trumpets and the narrow-bore trombones called 'sackbutts' in English. They were played as tower and procession instruments, and for any occasions that required their thrilling timbres and their sheer volume, roughly equal to a modern saxophone blown ha..
