A little on baroque form

The violin was a new instrument half a millennium ago. Few things as old as that, has remained as unchanged as the violin. Many of us violinmakers even use the same tools that we believe our colleagues used many hundred years ago!
But music and playing technique has changed strongly, so while the instruments head and body is practically unaltered, the parts that is directly connected to playing technique, has been adapted to modern times.

The "baroque" neck and fingerboard had a different shape and angle:

In the 17^-th century they did not play much in the higher positions. But when they did, the wedge shaped neck and fingerboard made coming down again easier... (There was no chinrests and shoulder pads then.)

The fingerboard was usually made of spruce, with ebony and maple veneer. That saved some expensive ebony, and also made the instrument a little lighter.

Strings were pure gut. The first wound strings was used a little before 1700, but only on the lowest strings. (G on the violin.) Gut E-strings can be tuned with the peg, so finetuners was not needed on the tailpiece.

Baroque bridge