In modern usage, the term most often refers to the double bass viol,[2] a bowed bass string instrument sounding its part an octave lower than notated pitch in early music groups performing Renaissance, Baroque and Classical era music on period instruments.

Assigning specific names and classifying violoni as different types, as we are doing here, is a modern attempt to clarify things.

It was not until the 20th century that players and scholars started to realize that there were so many types of violoni and that not all of them functioned or sounded like double basses.

Because of this, the classification of violoni according to tuning, family and function makes it start to be possible to clarify composers' intentions at different times and places.

In the Renaissance and Baroque era and even in the 2000s, there are players who changed or adapted their instruments in unique ways, for example Ganassi's Regola Rubertina (1542-43).

Viols were primarily household instruments, played by well-to-do, educated members of society, as a pleasant and cultured way of passing time.

[3] During this 'early' period, the largest member of the violin family in common use was a cello-sized instrument, but quite often tuned a whole step lower than the modern cello (B♭1–F2–C3–G3).

In contrast, large members of the viol family were much more common, and used from earliest times, playing their lines at 8′ pitch.

Great bass viols (with both A and G tunings) are described in numerous treatises, and there is a lot of solo and chamber music that necessitates their use because of its low compass.

Some of this music is extremely virtuosic in nature (the viola bastarda pieces by Vincenzo Bonizzi, for example, exploit a 3+1⁄2 octave range).

The largest members of the viol family (G and D violoni) were used in some regions even when other places had started to replace them with three- and four-string contrabasses/double basses.

This may explain why the modern double bass to this day is so varied, and lacks a standard form, tuning or playing style.

When use of the word "violone" began in the early sixteenth century, "viola" simply meant a bowed, stringed instrument, and did not specify viol or violin.