(viola da braccio) under their umbrella. It is common enough (and justifiable) today for modern players of the viola da gamba to call their instruments violas and likewise to call themselves violists. That the "alto violin" eventually became known simply as the "viola" is not without historical context, yet the ambiguity of the name tends to cause some confusion. The violin, or violino, was originally the soprano viola da braccio, or violino da braccio. Due to the popularity of the soprano violin, the entire consort eventually took on the name "violin family". Some other names for viols include viole or violle (French). In Elizabethan English, the word "gambo" (for gamba) appears in many permutations; e.g., "viola de gambo", "gambo violl", "viol de gambo", or "viole de gambo", used by such notables as Tobias Hume, John Dowland, and William Shakespeare in Twelfth Night. Viol da Gamba and Gamba also appear as string family stops on the pipe organ. These stops are sounds created by organ pipes made to imitate the sound of the viol da gamba. See also Arpeggione Cello da spalla GuitarViol Lyra viol :Category:Viol players Notes References Sources Pio, Stefano (2012). "Viol and Lute Makers of Venice 1490 -1630" Ed. Venice research, Venice Italy, . www.veniceresearch.com Otterstedt, Annette. The Viol: History of an Instrument. Kassel: Barenreiter;-Verlag Karl Votterle GmbH & Co; 2002. . Woodfield, Ian(1984). Brown, Howard Mayer; le Huray, Peter; Stevens, John; eds. The Early History of the Viol. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. . Further reading Bryan, John (2005). "In Search of the Earliest Viols: Interpreting the Evidence from a Painting by Lorenzo Costa". The Viola da Gamba Society of Great Britain, Newsletter, no. 131. Crum, Alison, with Sonia Jackson (1992). Play the Viol: The Complete Guide to Playing the Treble, Tenor and Bass Viol. Oxford University Press. . Hoffmann, Bettina (2018). The Viola da Gamba. London and New York: Routledge . Reprinted 2019 . O'Loghlin, Michael. Frederick the Great and his Musicians: the Viola da Gamba Music of the Berlin School (Routledge, 2017); the famous Prussian king (1712–1786) was a musician and patron of music. Woodfield, Ian; Robinson, Lucy. Viol [viola da gamba, gamba]. In: Sadie, Stanley, ed. The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians.Vol. 19. London, UK: Macmillan Publishers Ltd; 1980;791–808. External links Viola da Gamba Society of America site Viola da Gamba Society of Great Britain site Transcriptions and facsimiles of viol treatises