This is the official first chapter in The Violoncello and Its History. It begins with the Introduction entitled: The History of the viola da gamba. This is a bit confusing when reading headings and titles out of context in a podcast player. So, I am sure to repeatedly insert the title of the book. Hopefully, anyone searching for Cello History will not mistakenly take this as the introduction to the history of the viola da gamba as a whole (that history would begin several hundred years earlier, perhaps in the 1400's. The end of the intro. chapter does begin to tell the early developments of the cello and who made it and the perfection of the form. 

The Violoncello and Its History, by Joseph Wasielewski is seminal work for the cello's history. He collected story after story regarding and relating to the cello, piecing it together, and finally writing it down in genealogical form for our edification. 

After this episode, the chapters will deal exclusively and in detail, with the cello and its proponents. 

Here is the the Table of Contents in case you are itching to know the next portion in the sequence of this book. 

CONTENTS.

Introduction.

HISTORY OF THE VIOLA DA GAMBA (Basso di Viola) 1 THE TRANSITION TO THE VIOLONCELLO 36

The Art of Violoncello Playing in the Eighteenth Century.

I. ITALY 48

II. GERMANY 67

III. FRANCE 87

The Art of Violoncello Playing in the Nineteenth Century.

IV. ITALY 109

V. GERMANY 113

VI. FRANCE, BELGIUM, AND HOLLAND 169

VII. ENGLAND AND SCANDINAVIA 189

VIII. THE SLAV STATES AND HUNGARY 198

CONCLUSION 210

APPENDIX 215

METHODS AND SCHOOLS 217

VIOLA DA GAMBA 217

VIOLONCELLO SCHOOLS FROM THE MIDDLE OF THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY UNTIL THE PRESENT TIME

217 LIST OF NAMES AND INDEX 221