Silvestro Ganassi dal Fontego

His first treatise covers recorder playing: Opera intitulata Fontegara (Venice, 1535).

Ganassi's Regola Rubertina is among the earliest sources of advice to the viol player on how to hold the bow.

[3] The illustration from Regola Rubertina (lower right, opposite) appears to show this hold.

Some interpretations of this passage conclude that the bow is to be held without touching the hair,[4] whereas in later bow-holds the fingers tension the hair in order to allow louder or accented playing without the stick of the bow hitting the string.

In a later passage, however, Ganassi makes it clear that the hair may be tensioned with the fingers in at least some circumstances, for example when playing chords to accompany a song: I can say that if you wished to play a piece which is in four or five parts while singing the fifth, you would need to use a longer bow than is customarily used.