This is an essential book for those interested in renaissance instrumentation as well as for potential players. -Early Music Review

Sterling Scott Jones wrote a marvelous and very welcome work which can be warmly recommended to all musicians, musicologists, and instrument makers interested in early music, its instruments, and performance pratice. . . . This work is of the highest scholarly and, at the same time, practical value (which is extremely rare!): It certainly opens up a new era in the research and use of the lira da braccio. -RIdIM/RCMI Newsletter

Sterling Scott Jone's exceptional book is . . . welcome as a practical study of the instrument, with its emphasis on iconography, and with its fingering charts, tuning instructions and playable musical examples. -The Consort: European Journal of Early Music

The 16th-century lira da braccio may be the missing link between the medieval fiddle and the modern violin. This is a brief history of the lira da braccio, a handbook for its use, and selected repertoire.