In music, a stringed instrument similar to a viol or early violin; a melodic instrument used in medieval and Renaissance music.
From Old French 'fidèle,' from Latin 'fidis' (meaning lyre or stringed instrument). Related to 'viol' and other stringed instruments of that era.
The fidele is one of many lost musical instruments we know about only from paintings and old texts—it gradually disappeared as the violin became standardized, but its name lives on in Beethoven's opera 'Fidelio.'
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