Carl Friedrich Abel was a composer between the Baroque era and the Classical period, trained in Leipzig, possibly by Johann Sebastian Bach.

Abel was a renowned player of the viola da gamba, and produced significant compositions for the instrument.

[3] In 2015 new manuscripts of Abel's viola da gamba music were found in the library of the Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań, in a collection from the Maltzahn family palace in the town of Milicz in Poland, originally brought back from London by Count Joachim Carl of Maltzan [de].

[4] Over five years Günter von Zadow wrote an extended new list of Abel's compositions, for the occasion of the tercentenary of his birth in 2023.

[1][7] The Répertoire International des Sources Musicales (RISM) adopted the new catalogue numbers.