The viola bastarda is much more than just a specific instrument: it is also a technique for playing the viola da gamba that involves developing a vast skill in ornamentation over the entire range of the instrument and covering all the tessituras from bass to soprano. Today’s performers are faced with a repertoire compiled by a few virtuosos, while at the same time they have to reconstitute a performing practice that exists only in a few historical treatises. Manon Papasergio has devoted her first recording to this art form and its development during the exciting transitional period from the Renaissance to the Baroque.