They appeared without an opus number, but are sometimes improperly called Op. The Paris sonatas were published in 1740 by Leclerc and Boivin, titled VI Sonates Violoncello Solo col Basso. Count Rudolf Franz Erwein von Schönborn Wiesentheid, also an amateur cellist, ordered three Vivaldi cello sonatas. These sonatas are part-autographs, with all verbal markings by the composer which assures the authenticity of these compositions.

The three sonatas held in Naples were most probably copied for Count Maddaloni, an amateur cellist for whom Pergolesi composed a cello sonata, and Leonardo Leo six cello concertos. They appear to be a collection for a single customer rather than to be printed, by monotony in key and no numbering. Three of the sonatas (RV 40, 42 and 43) seem to be pasticcios from earlier compositions, based on their style. The six cello sonatas held in Paris were copied around 1725, for a French client, possibly Count Gergy, the French ambassador in Venice who commissioned music by Vivaldi for noble customers in Paris. Three manuscripts of cello sonatas are held by the library of Schloss Wiesentheid, Bavaria): RV 42, 44 and 46. Manuscripts of three sonatas (RV 39, 44 and 47) are kept at the Conservatorio di S. The manuscripts of six of them ( RV 40, 41, 43, 45, 46 and 47) are held by the Bibliothèque nationale in Paris. Vivaldi wrote his at least ten cello sonatas between 17, of which nine are extant. Eleanor Selfridge-Field writes: 'the impetus for Vivaldi to write these works at such a late age may have come from the general popularity of the cello sonatas of the 1730s, or perhaps from the specific example of Marcello, who wrote two collections of cello sonatas published in that decade'. Benedetto Marcello had composed six cello sonatas in a similar style shortly before Vivaldi. When Vivaldi worked in Venice, the cello sonata became a popular genre. He wrote at least four other cello sonatas, with two manuscripts kept in Naples, another in Wiesentheid, and one known to be lost. A set of six cello sonatas, written between 17, was published in Paris in 1740. Antonio Vivaldi composed several sonatas for cello and continuo.

Vivaldi concerto for violin and cello