No original fiddle exists that could serve as a one-to-one model for an authentic copy. I consulted various historical illustrations to develop the outline of my fiddle.
The fiddle was constructed without a soundpost and bass bar. Crosswise bars (running across the grain) on the underside of the flat soundboard serve as the structural framework.
Medieval fiddles did not have a standardized tuning but were generally tuned using flexible intervals of fourths and fifths. Since there was no uniform standard pitch in the Middle Ages, the absolute pitch was usually determined by the vocal part being accompanied.
4- and 5-string fiddles (High and Late Middle Ages): Here, fourths and fifths were combined, often supplemented by a third. A historically documented system by the music theorist Jerome of Moravia (13th century), for instance, prescribed the tuning d–g–g–d'–d' (with drones) or G–d–a–d'–g' for a 5-string fiddle.
The stringing was of course completely in gut.
The use of the fiddle spanned several centuries. It was considered the most important bowed string instrument of the Middle Ages. The fiddle was superseded by the newly emerged viola da gamba (around 1470) as well as the viola da braccio (around 1530) which had evolved from the fiddle.
Historical fiddles did not have an arched - carved soundboard, nor a soundpost and bass bar like our "modern" bowed instruments. Scientific studies assume that the soundpost only emerged in the second half of the 16th century. The use of the vertical bass bar (parallel to the wood grain) is closely related to the use of the soundpost.
It is therefore established that fiddles never featured a soundpost construction!
A soundboard construction without a soundpost produces on bowed Instruments a significantly different sound than one with a soundpost.
According to illustrations, medieval fiddles had a flat (not arched - carved) soundboard - comparable to the soundboards of plucked instruments from the same period. As a structural feature, continuous crosswise bars were used on the underside of the flat soundboard in medieval lutes and plucked instruments - with a degree of certainty bordering on the absolute. (Unfortunately, there are no plucked instruments from this period that have survived intact.)
