Viol

The viol (also known as the viola da gamba) is any one of a family of bowed, fretted and stringed musical instruments developed in the mid-late 15th century and used primarily in the Renaissance and Baroque periods. The viol family is probably related to and descends primarily from the Renaissance vihuela, a plucked instrument that preceded the guitar. Viols are different in several respects from instruments of the violin family.

Read more about Viol:  History, Construction, Versions, Tuning, Treatises, Popularity, The Viol Today, Similar Names

Famous quotes containing the word viol:

    “The language I have learnt these forty years,
    My native English, now I must forgo,
    And now my tongue’s use is to me no more
    Than an unstringèd viol or a harp.”
    —William Shakespeare (1564–1616)