The first book of sonatas for two violins with a bassetto viola if desired by Giovanni Battista Mazzaferrata ”maestro di cappella of the most illustrious Accademia della Morte di Ferrara opus five” was published in Bologna in 1674; a first re-edition was then printed in Venice in 1678 and a second in Bologna in 1688, definite signs of the success won by this work. Each of the sonatas if the fruit of fresh, spontaneous elaboration and presents four movements with precise indications of dynamics and tempo, usually contrasting though without a fixed order: in some cases the slow movements alternate with fast ones, in other cases they appear without any regular pattern creating a form that is very similar to that of the suite. The melodic quality is admirable, with extraordinary liveliness of contrapuntal writing, which is generally harmonic (and only rarely melodic). As some critics have noted, the light flowing style that we find throughout the collection might well make us think of premonitory signs of classical style.