found: 89208588: Zeyringer, F. Die Viola da braccio, c1988:p. 258 (Viola da braccio: In 16th c. general name for an arm-held string instrument; in 17th c., family name; in 18th c. a designation for the middle-voice instrument of the viola da braccio family; today, meaning has reverted to the generic difinition of an arm-held string instrument)
found: Marcuse(Viola da braccio: It.: arm viola; 16th-17th c. designation of instrs. of the violin family, as opposed to viola da gamba family; during 17th c. the term became reserved for the alto instr., our viola, still called Bratsche (from braccio) in German)
found: New Grove dict. of mus. WWW site, Apr. 27, 2009(Later in the [17th] century ... it was becoming more common to restrict "viola da braccio" (or sometimes just "braccio") to viola parts.)