The origin of the violin family is obscure. Some say that the bow was introduced to Europe from the Middle East while others say the bow was not introduced from the Middle East. The bow may have had its origin from a more frequent intercourse with North Europe and Western Europe. The two earliest bowed instruments are the Ravanstron and the Omerti, which are found in India and made of a hollowed cylinder sycamore wood. They were played in the manner of a cello. Additionally, in China, another two-stringed bow instrument emerged called the erhu.

The Persian geographer Ibn Khurradadhbih of the 9th century was the first to cite the bowed Byzantine lyra as a typical instrument of the Byzantines. It was equivalent to the rabab, which was used in the Islamic Empires of that time. The Byzantine lyra spread throughout Europe westward and in the 11th and 12th centuries, European writers use the terms fiddle and lira interchangeably when referring to bowed instruments.

Over the centuries following, Europe continued to have two distinct types of bowed instruments: one, which was relatively square-shaped and held in the arms was known as Lira da braccio (viol for arm); the other, which had sloping shoulders and held between the knees was known as the Lira da gamba (viol for leg). During the Renaissance, the gambas were important and elegant instruments. This successful family of fretted viols appeared in Europe just a few years before the violin. They eventually lost ground to the louder Lira da braccio family of the modern violin.

The first clear record of a violin-like instrument comes from paintings by Gaudenzio Ferrari. In his Madonna of the Orange Tree, painted in 1530, a cherub is seen playing a bowed instrument which clearly resembles the violin. A few years later, on a fresco in the cupola of the church of Madonna dei Miracoli in Saronno, angels play three instruments of the violin family: the violin, viola, and cello. The instruments depicted by Ferrari have bulging front and back plates, strings that feed into peg boxes with side pegs, and f-holes. They don’t have frets. The only real difference between those instruments and the modern violin is that Ferrari’s have three strings and a more extravagant curved shape. It isn’t clear exactly who made the first violins, but there is evidence that they originate from northern Italy, near Milan.

The earliest documented evidence of the violin’s existence are in the records of the treasury of Savoy, which paid for trumpets and violins from Vercelli, the town where Ferrari painted his Madonna of the Orange Tree. The first extant written use of the Italian term violino occurs in 1538.

The violin quickly became very popular, both among street musicians and the nobility, which is illustrated by the fact that Charles IX of France commissioned an extensive range of string instruments in the second half of the 16th century. Around 1555, the French court imported a dance band of Italian violinists, and in 1573, during Catherine de’ Medici’s celebration “the music was the most melodious one had ever seen and the ballet was accompanied by some thirty violins playing very pleasantly a warlike tune,” wrote
an observer.

The oldest confirmed surviving violin has the Charles IX by Andrea Amati dated in side, and it was made in Cremona in 1564, but the label is doubtful. The Metropolitan Museum of Art has an Amati violin that may be even older, possibly dating to 1558 , but it is also unconfirmed. One of the most famous and pristine violins is the Messiah Stradivarius, also known as the Salabue. It was made by Antonio Stradivari in 1716 and has been played very little, as it is described as having a “new state.” It is now located in the Ashmolean Museum of Oxford.

Between the 16th and 19th centuries, several changes occurred, including:
- The fingerboard was made a little longer to be able to play even the highest notes (in the 19th century).
- The fingerboard was tilted a little more, to produce even more volume as larger and larger orchestras became popular.
- Nearly all old instruments were modified, including lengthening of the neck by one centimeter, in response to the raising of pitch that occurred in the 19th century.
- The bass bar of nearly all old instruments was made heavier to allow a greater string tension.
- The classical luthiers "nailed" and glued the instrument necks to the upper block of the body before gluing on the soundboard, while later luthiers mortise the neck to the body after completely assembling the body.
-The chinrest was invented in the early 19th century by Louis Spohr.

The results of these adjustments are instruments that are significantly different in sound and response from those that left the hands of their makers. Regardless, most violins nowadays are built superficially resembling the old instruments.