Banzai

It appears, in the research I've done, that there are no accepted standard practices for the measurement of a violin; I can find measurements for the same violin, in multiple reputable sources, with wildly divergent figures.

For instance, in measuring, when one says the body should be 14" long; is that from the neck/body stop? Or is that the overall lenght of the back or belly plate? Or does it matter, since the variance between the two methods will be about 4-5mm...which appears to be an "acceptable" range of lengths when one compares and contrasts, say, Stradivari's fiddles to Del Gesu's fiddles. The previous was a rhetorical question...obviously I believe it matters a great deal, or else I wouldn't be asking.

My own fiddle measures 14" plate length, with a measurement in mm close in range to what I've read for many of Del Gesu's instruments, which are often described as "short" or "small" compared to others.

Are widths and lengths over the arching with a flexible rule, or via a caliper?

The apparent lack of scientific methodology, and the lack of an established standard practice, greatly frustrates my well cultivated notions of empiricism. Especially as I prepare to attempt to make an inner mould.