Viola da braccio

Viola da braccio (It.: arm viola), 16th- and 17th-c. designation of instrs. of the violin family, as opposed to those of the viola da gamba family. During the course of the 17th c. the term became reserved for the alto instr., our viola, still called Bratsche (from braccio) in German (Praetorius, however, equated it with violino da braccio). A Graz inventory of 1577 lists bass, tenor, and discant “geigen da prazo,” and an Ambras inventory of 1596 a bass and 3 tenor “viole di praz oder cleine…