Bass violin

[2] One of the first known instances of a composer explicitly calling for the bass violin ("basso da brazzo") was Monteverdi in Orfeo (1607)[3] (the first was possibly Giovanni Gabrieli in Sacrae symphoniae, 1597[citation needed]).

The first Italian viols (or "violoni" as they were often called) soon began to take on many characteristics of the precursors to the violin, such as separate tail pieces, and arched bridges that let the player sound one string at a time.

[4] At some point in the early to mid-sixteenth century, an Italian maker (possibly Amati) set out to create a violone that was more closely matched, in appearance, tuning, and number of strings, to the new violin.

For example, there are depictions of instruments that appear to be bass violins (such as the one in Gaudenzio Ferrari's Glory of Angels, c. 1535), but that clearly show the presence of frets.

Innovations in the design of the bass violin that ultimately resulted in the modern violoncello were made in northern Italy in the late 17th century.

[6] It has been surmised that an early centre of these innovations lay in musical circles of Bologna, and that it was made possible by the invention of the new technique of composite strings of gut wound with metal.