":If the ""standard specimen"" was depicted with five strings, I'd dispute your claim that ""it almost never had five strings."" Your claim is that in the late 16th and early 17th centuries, 5-string ""bass violins"" were as unusual as were 5-string cellos at the time Bach wrote the cello suites? That really doesn't explain why Praetorius would depict such an instrument in his reference work.    

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