Many standard musicological reference works document the use of the trombone from its beginning to the middle of the 17th century, and then from Mozart to the present, but few deal with the intervening years. This book reproduces the texts from two dozen treatises, dictionaries, and encyclopedias, along with English translations, published between 1697 and 1811. It provides an overview of the use of the trombone during that time in America and seven European countries and examines its use in choral music, opera, symphonic music and military music.