The Cello was a late comer to the violin family. The earliest ones we know of were built around the middle of the 16th century and the first mention of the violoncello in print was in 1556. The instrument was first called the bass violin then violoncello which literally means “big little violin” in Italian. Go figure. Mercifully, the name was eventually shortened to cello. The first known maker (but not the first actual maker) was Andrea Amati who built cellos for Charles IX