1731 "folk fiddle"?

[Quadibloc]

1 hour ago, John_London said:

If you believe Boyden's magisterial, if dated, History of Violin Playing, the violin descends from the medieval fiddle and rebec, and emphaticaly not from the viol, which surprised me.

I do remember reading that claim, whether in that book or another. The evidence presented in support of that claim appeared sound.

But I think it's also true that it is still incontrovertable that it was the viol family that was supplanted by the violin family.

The violin family appears to have been directly developed from special-purpose instruments like the viola d'amore, as details of construction show, which is how a line of development is traced which bypasses the viol. I admit that this case is proven. But a whole new family of instruments didn't arise by accident or in a vacuum: it may have been decided that the viola d'amore and similar instruments were a better model to start from, but what was being made was a better viol...

Metaphorically, I supose one could call the violin family the adopted descendant of the violin family. By details of construction, the violin doesn't descend from the viol, but it is its successor in musical role.