Violin family

The Violin family (also called viola da braccio, or lira da braccio family) of musical instruments was developed in Italy in the sixteenth century.[1] The modern violin family consists of the violin, viola and cello, along with the double bass[2] and the octobass.

Instrument names in the ancestral violin family are all derived from the root viola, which is a derivative of the Medieval Latin word vitula (meaning "stringed instrument").[3] A violino (often abbreviated violin) is a "little viola", a violone is a "big viola" or a bass violin, and a violoncello (often abbreviated cello) is a "small violone" (or, literally, a "small big viola"). (The violone is not part of the modern violin family; its place is taken by the modern double bass.)
The instruments of the ancestral violin family may be descended in part from the lira da braccio and the medieval Byzantine lira [4].