The history of the Acoustic or Classical Guitar is somewhat elusive.

No
one really knows when the first guitar was patented or created; all we
know is the time period when variations of this amazing instrument were
first produced. Some claim the guitar has ancient history; others claim it
is only a few hundred years old. The only solid proof we have as to the
guitars earliest existence is the patents that were requested when the
electric guitar came into production.
Many historians believe that the history of the guitar can be traced all the
way back 5,000 years. These historians claim to have seen the earliest
guitar on sculptures and pictures from the ancient Egyptian time-period.
Bowllike instruments with strings attached to a long piece of wood help
represent their claim of the ancient history (although this instrument is
actually considered a harp). Also, the lute is credited as an early form of
the guitar. This instrument had a soundboard (fretboard) with roughly 8
frets, and a flat face with a rounded back; however lute was hardly close
to the size of a Baby Taylor guitar.
The claims of these historians, however, are untrue. The actual guitar
in its current state was not introduced into society until the early 16th
century when the tuning portion of the lute was combined with ideas for
a larger soundboard and a completely different body style (flat face and
backing, indented sides and a sound hole). This was called a Vihuela, and
is also known as the father of the guitar. This Vihuela used 4 courses
(pairs) of strings, similar to the six course 12string guitars of today.
Eventually, the string counts came in pairs of 5 (10 strings total). After
some time, the paired strings became one string.
The actual Acoustic as we know it today did not come into play until the
late 1700s. The word guitar comes from two different IndoEuropean
roots guit (meaning music) and tar (meaning string or chord). On
this new acoustic guitar, the designer added one string (the bass). Later
on, steel and nylon strings replaced the usual gutstrings (we can all
celebrate this advancement).