The fiddle of the Carolingian epoch,--such, for instance, as that
mentioned by Otfrid of Weissenburg[3] in his _Harmony of the Gospels_
(c. 868),
"Sih thar ouch al ruarit
This organo fuarit
Lira joh fidula," &c.,--
was in all probability still an instrument whose strings were plucked by
the fingers, a cithara in transition. (K. S.)