1. Very large Bass Viol with four strings (corresponding to the modern Contrabasso).
2. Great Bass Viol de Gamba in three different tunings, with five and also six strings (also like the Contrabasso).
3. Small Bass Viol de Gamba, five different examples with six, four, and three strings (answering in tone, in some measure, to the modern Violoncello).
4. Tenor and Alto Viol de Gamba, in two different pitches, with six, five, four, and three strings (answering partly to the Violoncello and partly to the modern Tenor).
5. Cant Viol de Gamba (Violetta piccola), four different kinds with six, five, four, and three strings (the tone also partly answering to the Tenor and partly to the Violin).
6. Viol Bastarda, in five different pitches, with six strings (the tone corresponding to that of the Cello).
7. Viola de Braccio, four different examples, with five and four strings (corresponding in tone partly to the Violoncello and partly to that of the Tenor).
Moreover, Prätorius mentions, under the heading “Viole de Braccio Viols,” the “Discant Viol” (our modern Violin), the small “Discant Viol” (tuned a fourth higher than our Violin), and two “very small Viols with three strings,” of which the lowest string of the first is a ninth and of the second an octave higher than the G String of the Violin.
Of the multitude of these different kinds of Viols then in use, which later on by manifold improvements were gradually reduced to a smaller number, until they resulted in the modern Violin and Tenor, as well as the Violoncello and Contrabasso, we must keep in view, for the object of the present work, the “Viola da Gamba” only, which must be regarded as the precursor of the violoncello. Prätorius gives a sketch (annexed) of the so-named instrument.
A comparison of these gambas with the sketches of viols by Judenkünig and Gerle shows what substantial alterations the stringed instrument in question underwent in the course of the second half of the sixteenth century. The neck had assumed a more modern and more convenient form for the technique of the left hand and the sounding-board had acquired more elegant and attractive outlines. At the same time the sound-holes, corresponding to the curves of the belly, were turned round and placed in a position more agreeable to the eye.