Treble Viol Dessus

This viol was one of ten that were discovered about 1860 in a cellar of the convent of the Hôpital-Général in Quebec City. It is thought they were hidden there a hundred years earlier, during the British siege of the city, and forgotten. The nuns of Hôpital-Général ran a school for the daughters of well-to-do families and music was a part of the educational curriculum. Only five of the viols were recoverable, the other five had disintegrated. They are the only musical instruments to survive from the period of French rule in Canada. Three are in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.