This book contains 17 airs for solo bass viol composed by Nicolas Hotman, a baroque composer who spent most of his career in France. He is believed to have been from Germany, but was probably born in Brussels. He came with his family to Paris around 1626, where he died in April of the year 1663. He was known to be an expert player of the lute, theorbo, and viola da gamba. Hotman has been referred to as the teacher of Jean de Sainte-Colombe by Jean Rousseau in his Traité de la viole, en 1687 and Demachy, who cites him in his Pièces de violle in 1685.
