An ingenious musical machine from the imagination of Leonardo da Vinci

Abstract

This article is based on a talk I was asked to give during the conference Leonardo, la musica, la scena (Leonardo: the music and the scene) held at the Accademia di Brera, Milan, in November 2019. On that occasion I was able to illustrate my wooden reconstruction of Leonardo’s portative organ, as illustrated on fol.76r of the codex Madrid II. In the article I present and analyse Leonardo’s drawings of this organ in their original context, as well as exploring the distinctive traits of the instrument. With the aim of making possible a historically informed reconstruction, I identify an appropriate interpretative methodology and principles of construction consistent with the historical period in which Leonardo worked, both as musicus and maker of instruments. At the same time I trace an analogy with the portative organ of the late Middle Ages. For this instrument, which works in a very similar way to the late medieval portative organ, some traits have been derived from the portative organ, in particular the scaling of the pipes. Finally, individual parts of Leonardo’s organ design are interpreted and their modern reconstruction illustrated, leading to the presentation of the complete instrument.