In the 1770s Carl Friedrich Abel instructed the Countess of Pembroke in the viola da gamba. From this time an eighty-four-page manuscript volume is preserved, the so called Pembroke collection, which contains many sonatas for viol by Abel which are technically rather simple. Our edition contains all solo pieces of this collection. Besides six pieces by Abel - among them the relatively well known sonata in G-major "Senza Basso" - we also find the aria "In diesen heil'gen Hallen" from the Zauberflöte in an arrangement for solo bass viol by an unknown composer.