History of the Viol: Hoffmann Bettina, The Viola da Gamba, trans. Paul Ferguson (Abingdon: Routledge, 2018)

‘What exactly is a viol?’ Bettina Hoffman asks at the start of her book, and with good reason. The history of the viol family is long and complex. The viol as recognized today—with its sloping shoulders, C-shaped soundholes, flush ribs, and gut strings and frets—is very much a modern iteration of viol design quite removed from its roots in the plucked and bowed vihuelas of Spain. But it is the modern viol, developed during the 16th century and refined in the 17th and 18th, which has prevailed as the preferred model for performers today. This long lineage of over 400 years means that the subject of the viol, or specifically the viola da gamba, is deserving of...