He was a celebrated master of the viola da gamba and was credited (by Jean Rousseau in his Traité de la viole (1687))[1] with adding the seventh string, tuned to the note AA (A1 in scientific pitch notation), on the bass viol.
[2] Sainte-Colombe performed publicly in the Parisian Salons, as did most of his colleagues and music masters such as Le Sieur Dubuisson.
According to Titon du Tillet,[full citation needed] he often performed in consort with his two daughters and with his own students, as attested by the copyist who wrote out his pieces for two viols as well as the solo-viol Tournus Manuscript.
'[3] This assumption was erroneous, according to subsequent research in Paris by American bass viol player and musicologist Jonathan Dunford.
[4] In 1991, Pascal Quignard published a novel giving a conjectural picture of the relationship between M. de Sainte-Colombe and Marin Marais, entitled Tous les matins du monde (All the Mornings of the World).