ANATOMY THE TEACHER: ON THE IMPACT OF LEONARDO'S ANATOMICAL

RESEARCH ON HIS MUSICAL AND OTHER MACHINES

EMANUEL WINTERNITZ

Reprinted from PROCEEDINGS OF THE AMERICAN PHILOSOPHICAL SOCIETY, Vol. 111, No. 4, August, 1967
 PROCEEDINGS

of the

American Philosophical Society

Contents of Volume 111, Number 4

Civil Disobedience. HARRY w. }ONES 195

"Maynard" Unmasked: Oglethorpe and Sharp versus the Press Gangs.

PAUL CONNER 199
Baconian Influences in the Development of Scottish Rhetorical Theory.
VINCENT M. BEVILACQUA 212

Minor Veins in Beta Leaves: Structure Related to Function.

KATHERINE ESAU 219

Anatomy the Teacher: On the Impact of Leonardo's Anatomical Research

on His Musical and Other Machines. EMANUEL WINTERNITZ 234

Price for complete number one dollar

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 ANATOMY THE TEACHER: ON THE IMPACT OF LEONARDO'S ANATOMICAL
RESEARCH ON HIS MUSICAL AND OTHER MACHINES
EMANUEL WINTER NITZ
Curator of the Collection of ~[u,iral fn,trumcnh, ~letropolit an ~luseum of .),rt
( Read No1•w1ber 10, 1966 )
Tn 1s PAPER is intcndC'd to focus on some peculiar
research habits of Leonardo <la Vinci and to reveal
an interplay between some of his interests that
today would hardly he considered to be inter-
related at all. \Ve will deal, as one of many other
possible examples of this fori11a 111cntis, with the
relationship l1etween his study of anatomy. that is
of machine;. created hy God or ?\a tu re. and, on the
other hand. the imention of machines created by
himself.
\Ve all know the cliche of Leonardo the Uni-
Yersal ge:1i11s. Ile was by no means the only one.
There were other men of astonishing yersatility,
such as Leon Battista Alberti; and other thinkers
and doers, artists and inYentors of tools. not to
mention the printer, diplomat, philosopher, and in-
Yentor of machines and musical instruments who
gave his name and its tradition to this house whose
hospitality we enjoy today.
If there was something unique in Leonardo's
uni,·ersality, it was the profound and systematic
combination of many of his "fields," the interplay
between art and science. between the many aYenues
of research. between empirical research and mathe-
matical analysis, between observation and creation.
To study this interplay is not easy. First. one has
to pierce the glass walls existing today-in our
over-specialized and computerized world-between
the departmental pigeonholes. As the wise old
monk. the Staretz Sosima. tells his young pupil
.\ljoscha in the Brothers Kara111aso1;: "They have
divided the ,,·oriel into hundreds of parts. and now
they have forgotten how the parts hang together."
A secol'd difficulty is created by the form in wh ich
Leonardo's thought has come to us: o'·er 2.000
pages distributed a111ong the Ambrosiana in ~l ilan.
\Vindsor Castle. the I nstitut de Prance. the British
~Iuseum. and many other places: and also the na-
ture of Leonardo's notes: many sketches. often ap-
parent!) u11con11ccted with each other, ranging
iro111 accurate cletailecl plans and engineering de-
signs to hasty and oftC'n enigmatic records for his
, 0 Copyri11:ht as part of
PROCEEDIXGS OF TIIE A\IERICAN PHILOSOPHICAL SOCIETY, \"OL.
Reprint
own memory; sometimes-not always-with \'erbal
comments, from sharp condensed formulations to
cryptic notes. Today I should like to concentrate
on one single field among Leonardo's interests,
anatomy, as the inspiring force and inAuence upon
his invent ion of machines and musical instruments.
In the human and animal hody God created won-
derfully subtle machines; from their study we may
profit in the construction of similar and perhaps
e,·en better machines. Com·ersely. after haYing
constructed new machines, "·e may recognize some
of their functional elements in the mechanics or in
the physiology of the human body, and so sharpen
our understanding of the mechanisms of the human
hody. These are not Leonardo's words. they are
only my reconstruction of an inherent tendency of
Leonardo's mind, which becomes apparent if we
examine for hidden interrelations many of his
seemingly unconnected notes and sketches found
sometimes in close proximity on the same page, or,
as in many cases, on pages w idely apart in the
notebooks as they haYe come down to us.
:\fay I now set the stage. as it were, hy calling
attention to Leonardo's obsession with analogies or
parallels. If he sketches the hones of a human
foot. he will draw right beside it the foot of a hear
or a dog or a monkey. in order to compare their
mechanical actions. If he draws human profiles
expressing calm or frenzy or aggression, he will
flank them with scribbles showing comparable ani-
mal faces, of horses or lions. etc. \\' hen he studies
the behm·ior of water cascading or rebounding or
flowing against an obstacle, he will ask immediately
how other media, such as light. sound. magnetic
force. or e,·cn odor spread and rebound. etc. There
exists one priceless page (Cod .• 111. 126ra) (fig-.
1)-I mean most re\·ealing for our problem-that
compares in a condensed synoptic fashion four
media. from top to bottom. On the right margin
nine small schematic drawings illustrate how light,
the force of a blow. sound. magnetic forces and
1 JI, NO. 4, At:Gl:ST, 1%7
Printed in U.S.A.
235 E\IA~CEL \\'l:\TERXITZ !PROC .•\\IER . 1'1111 .. SOC

odor beha\'e. The explanatory text on the left of

each of thesr drawings runs as follows:

1. figura-Co111c le lin ie, o ,·er razzi luminosi, non

passan se non carpi diafani.
2. figura-Come la basa ( ruiv) x o, sendo allumata
dal punto p. genera u (na) piramida che
lini (ch) see nel pun to c, e ricausane
un'altra basa in r S, e so(ss)tto sopra
riceYe cio che e in z o.
3. figura-Comc 'I punto e cagione della basa, e metti
un \'Ctro colorito dinanzi a ciacu11 lum e,
e Ycdrai la basa tinta in qucll o.
I
4. figura-Comc le linie <lei colpo passa ogni 111uro.
:>. figura-Come tro,·ando un foro. Ii si cau,,a molte
linie, piu debolc ciacuna che la prima.
6. figura La hocc cl'cco.
7. figura-Come le linie della cala111ita e quelle de!
fe rro si passan ii muro, ma quel ch' e piu
leggieri e tirato dal piu graYe.
8. figura-Scndo di pari peso, la calamita e 'I ferro si
ti rano a un nwdo.
9. figura-L'oclore fa quel medesimo clw 'I colpo.

.
i
"\.
"l

FH;. 2. Diagram from Q11adcr11i d'A11ato111ia Il 5 '"

sho\\ ing tendons and muscles attached lo the spine.

I. I lo\\' the lin6. or rather the rays of light go only

through transparent bodies .
.!.. How the basis XO, when ill uminated from p.
create" a pyramid that ends at c. and results in
another basis at r S, and com·ersely receives what
is marked XO.
3. H em the point prod uces th e base; place a colored
glass before each li ght and you will see the base
colored hv it.
.+. I lo" the 'lines of the hlo\\ penetrate e,·ery wall.
:>. ll o\\, when it finds a hole. it causes many lines,
each "eaker than the first.
6. The Yoice of echo.
7. Ilow the lines of a magnet and tho,,e of the iron
penetrate the wall. but the li ghter of the two is
attracted by the heavier.
8. lf of equa( might. the magnet and the iron attract
each other equally.
9. S mell behaves like hl o".

,Q ............. ,. ',-~"l... .!'""~~·"1·1 .,......... :,[l.. ;~I 1t seems that what I h;I\ c called an obsession
with analogies is onl: the surface o f a basic bent

.~~ ..~ -·1~"--~~~r't_.,9.I ;l J~~-J

of L eona rdo's sea rching mind. a m ethod of uniting
, disparate "fields." \\'hat we actually encounter
here. is an all-embracing curiosity a n d an optimistic
Frc. 1. Detail of a page from Codicc Atla11tico, fol. 126 faith that the U ni,·ersc, far fro m being chaotic. is
r-a. comparing light, the force of a blow, sound, mag- rul ed hy laws, each of w ide a pplication and all
netic force and odor. compatible with each other. \\' hat he was search-
\"OL. 111, :SO. 4, 1967] .\~ATO:'dY Tl IE TE1\Cl IER 236

tion in stabilizing the vertebral column. In his

comments on the page he compares the spine and
its cords to the mast of a ship and its stays.
Two pages from the Fogli dc/l'A11a/0111ia B 4 v
and B 23 r (figs. 3 and 4) sho\\" schematical draw-
ings of the spinal cord and the brachia! plexus.
Faced with all these drawings, an uninitiated eye
will certainly grasp their mechanical character be-
fore realizing that it is anatomy with which we
are concerned here.
The practical, pedagogical device of replacing
the muscles by thin cords to obtain a transparent
and intelligible picture of the whole configuration
has also been extended to anatomical models. In
1 . ...... . a page of the Quaderni d'Anatomia V 4 r (fig. 5)
' .. .
Leonardo shows the bones and muscles of the leg
'l
.. ·f
.. .
.··. . ·
,. ·. ··~
and states specifically that models of this kind
. should be made with such cords, actually represent-
ing the lines of force of the muscles by copper
J.. ..H•"f' -"r:'i-' ~A ·-~wt!' 1··9
_ . .. ., . . . .- .
l wires. Thus the model is supposed to stress the
.,~ ~ ..T.4 ,)... '"'!:::."'~
;i-....,_..,, ,,.,,.,,r,..l•' ,.._•..,. ,..-.< mechanical aspect of the actual anatomy.
"""~ '""'1'°"r 1-•l" ~,...,...,_..,...,... .~... '...r.j'3.,,:i
....--=- -- - 4
~ 1-...P 4')-•,. ...,.,. )...,;
.J.I .............. \Ve can now turn to our central problem :
machines by Leonardo derived from or based upon

,·~

M)-,f·I'
)/'l~wtll•l ••1~ ·.t~·~,···~
".'."'l~~-··'
fl'
.....
1·.·· '
*#JhN..,..,.h.~ ....... I I
~·~~"ftff, ~
FIG. 3. Sketch of the brachia! plexus and diagrams of
the base of the skull, the spinal cord and a cervical
vertebra, from Fogli dc/l'A11atomia B 4 v.
. r
} I

~ .... ·~·-tH
~)(~-1::!:;::
ing for was the blueprint for creation-creation in
both senses of the word: the organizing fo:-ces as
well as their result, a homogeneous comprehensible
Universe.
Leonardo's notes on anatomy and his numerous
anatomical drawings are full of references to the
laws of mechanics that help to illuminate structure
and function of the body. The God-made and the
:\[an-made machine are both ruled by the same set
of laws. the laws of mechanics. This belief of
Leonardo is most clearly revealed in several draw-
ings which, even to the uninitiated eye, represent
a strange border realm between anatomy observed
and mechanics: they are not fantasies or playful
creations of the pen, but serve an eminently sci-
entific purpose.
A page, for example. from the Quaderni
d' Anato111ia II 5 v (fig. 2) at \ Vindsor Castle
shows a diagram of tendons and muscles attached
to the spine. Leonardo does not draw the muscles
in their full width, but represents them by thin F rG. 4. Diagrams of the spinal cord and brachia! plexus,
cords to show clearly and transparently their func- from Fogli dell'A11atomia B 23 r.
237 E\l.\:\l'EL \\' l .\'TER:\ ITZ l l'KOC. \\ll·K. 1'1111 .. SOC.

human anatomy. I shall submit four examples,

each a little different from the others.
The page from the Codice Atlantico, fol. 164 r-a
(fig. 6) oliers at first glance a rather confusing
picture: strange machines, bones with knee joints,
some sketchy pulleys, human thighs with added
geometrical lines, a little man climbing a steep
slope and dragging behind him a large weight-
and many little geometrical sketches.
But after a while the page begins to unfold.
First we distinguish coherent groups of sketches.
One main group located in the center and on the
right side of the page, includes several drawings
of a spiral ramp with weight-lifting pulley. One
large derrick is shown at the top; lower down,
another large sketch shows weight and pulley
even more clearly; there are also four smaller
bird's eye ,·iews. All of these are sketches for a
derrick for lifting and shifting earth for building
canal locks. We know this from other sketches in
the Codice Atla11tico. 1 On the left of the page are
two careful drawings of knees with their muscles,
and beneath them, very faint, a pulley with a
weight, just like the pulley on the large drawing of
the derrick; and further to the right the minute
figure of a climbing man pulling the weight up the
slope. The brunt of the required pull is neces-
sarily born by his forward, or rather uphill leg.
or, more precisely, by his knee. Nearby, between
the man and the faint pulley design, is another
schematic sketch of the bent man, stressing knee
and shank.
Three related sketches are on the right margin :
two of them show the bent back and the leg bones.
but are scored through with straight lines repre-
senting the distribution forces in the pulley; the
third, higher up, is reduced to the parallelogram of
forces with the proportional figures added. One
of the bent men has a little circle drawn into the Fie;. 5. Sketch of the leg representing the muscles by
center of his knee to represent the roller of the wires, from Quadrmi d'Anatomia V 4 r.
pulley.
In brief, Leonardo, planning a weight-lifting
flexing. And precisely the same combination is
mechanism, consults the weight-lifting mechanism
shown in one of the countless anatom ical drawings
built into the human body. so familiar to him from
that were accumulated hy Leonardo to form a
his anatomical studies. The mechanics of the
complete, gigantic compendium of anatomy, Fogli
pulley are governed hy the length and the angles
dcll'A11ato111ia A 9 r (fig. 7): to the major and
of its arm and cords. So is the human leg. Both
minor trochanters of the femur ( aboYe) and to the
can profitably be compared as mechanical problems.
heads of the tibia and fibula (helow) two cords are
But if any doubt remains, one should notice that
attached to explain t he mechanical action of the
the two knees on the left of the page show not only muscles that control the flexing of the leg. More-
bones, but also the muscles which perform the
over, Leonardo's interest in the mechanics of body
1 A large and detailed drawing of a slightly different postures, for instance, the shifting of the center
derrick is found in Codice Atla11ticn 1 v-a. of gravity in descending and climbing. is amply
\()L. 111 , 'Cl. 4 , 196 7 j .\:\fATO~lY THE TE,\ CI I ER 238

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FIG. 6. Sketches for a derrick, from Cadice At /011/ico, fol. 16-t r -a; detail.
239 E\IA:\CEL \\'1:-\TER~ITZ (PROC. \\11,R. 1'1111. SOC.

documented by a drawing in MS A of the Institut tendineae (above) leading to the heart vah es. To
de France, fol. 28 v, (fig. 8) which has marginal the right of this drawing is a larger detail of these
sketches of figures descending, ascending, running,
arising from a sitting posture, etc: or in the folio
from the Quaderni d'Anatomia at \Vindsor Castle
VI 18 r (fig. 9) which also analyzes the ascending
and descending body.

In passing I want to mention a strange resem-

blance between Leonardo's sketches of the heart
and of stage machinery and church architecture.
On a page in the Quaderni d' Anatomia II 10 r
(fig. 10) he draws seyeral different sections of the
heart, Yertical and transverse ones. This is one
of many drawings concerned with the heart, that
"admirable instrument by the supreme ).laster"
( Instrumento mirahile, i1n-enzionato dal sornmo
maestro, Fogli drll'A11atomia B 12 r). On the
left of the page we see the heart sliced vertically
into three sections. Beneath is a detail of the
middle slice with the characteristic arrangement of
the papillary muscles (below) and the cordae

F1<;. 8. MS A (Institut de France) fol. 28 v, with

FIG. 7. Detail from Fogli dell' Anatomia A 9 r, showing marginal sketches of figures descending, ascending,
the hones of the lower extremity. running, arising etc.
\'OL. 111, '\CJ. I, 1%7] .\:\Xl'O .\ lY Tl IE Tl ~.\CI I ER 240

..
. .....
,,.
I.· •
~ ·\.
\"?(\_I
~.
surrounded hy the flames of Hell, and flanked by
two niches. ::\1'otice the massiYe vaulting.
At this point I must Yoice some reservations.
·'T~·~, in·~ ·~ ..f .. "-t.• "·· 1 There existed, of course, Renaissance churches
., ....t...-.1.., ,,.. ,..,..... t.
,.. .f !f:... i • ..~··· ·l'r1' with three aisles and a dome, fo r example, the
•1 \"' :,..lr·"I .• ,., "to "'
.., ......') .,_..:i ;·-·"!ti,,. Cathedral of Florence whose dome was designed
_ .., ....,.,. ~·'1"! 04,. ...
....1•)..;, .,,,. ••~· ~:,,, '"t:/ long before Leona rdo's time by Arnolfo di Cambio
-'f ~IHI W :f'41;~
•-i .,.,,... 1li•., Alt/". ..., and Brunelleschi. Symmetrical stage designs also
~ A-'hcftr- ,,..),.Pt existed before Leonardo, though the mountain
• ifr·
,..,.1 .. J
-.,~;~...~~'t"-a:\.Ot
...~7-,f·,.,~:,e
u ,.._ ....) '11}'f
opening in full sight of the spectators was probably
an original idea of his. S till, the resemblance of
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r"f ·
....
I),
,,. I ~ 1·~--
,,.., ....,.,,,,....... ·~ ,h:.."'
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Y.. _ these structures to the configuration existing inside

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~

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'""!
I•\. " accidental. But whether Leonardo's quick hand
/t"•
~ 'j1
~ J..
FH.;. !>. Detail from Quademi d'Analomia \' I 18 r,
,ho" ing a'cending and <b,cending figures.
muscle strands, or in technical terms: the cordae
tendineae of the Yentricular surface of the mitral
valve. For our purpose here we do not need to
ask whether the drawing is accurate.~ \\'hat
strikes us is the visual aspect of this symmetrical
structure. The eye needs little persuasion to per-
ceive in it the inside of a Yaulted church w ith a
central nave and separated from it hy col umns, two
side aisles. Above it there is a vaulted ceiling.
A few comparisons make this even clearer.
Folio 37 r-a from the Cadice .11tla11tico (fig. 11)
shows several sections through a polygonal church,
a type of church ve ry much favored by Leonardo .
•\nother page. from the Jla1111script .·lrzrndcl
263, 22.+r (fig. 12) shows one of Leonardo's de-
signs for stage machinery. It was one of Leo-
nardo's d uties at the court of Milan to prepare
theater performances, stage props, machinery,
lights, costumes and all. Here is a mountain
which opened on the stage to reveal Pluto or other
gods and demons. \Ve notice the large middle
vault and the small aisles.
.Again in another design for the stage owned by
the :\fetropolitan :\Iuseum. (fig. 13) we see in the
center a god, possibl y Pluto, 3 sitting in a mandorla
- -
2 For Leonardo's studies of the heart, and especially his
retention of incorrect traditional views, for instance, that
of Galen, see James Playfair ;\lc;\furrich: Leonardo da
T'i11ci, The Anatomist (Baltimore, 1930); K. D. Keele,
Leonardo da V illci 011 111oz•rmr11t of the heart a11d blood
(Philadelphia, 1952); Sigrid Esche, Leonardo da Vinci,
Das Anatomise/re TVerk ( Basel, 1954).
3 An attempt at interpretat ion of this drawing is found
in :Marianne Herzfeld: la Raf>Pres1mta::ione de/la Danae,
organi::::ata da Leonardo, in Raccolta Vi11cia11a, Fascicolo
X I (1922) : p. 226 IT.
)_. ,..,flt,.,, the human heart is too striking to be dismissed as
recalled stage and church designs when he sketched
l-~
the hea rt, or, conversely, was influenced by the
architectural structure of the heart muscles when
he drew church and stage designs, we cannot tell
and-i n all probability-he could not ha\'e told us.
Let us turn now to musical instruments. In
folio 397 r-b of the Codice Atlantico (fig. 14) we
find, among numer ous small sketches for various
machinery, drawings of two pipes, evidently one of
those countless passing ideas which were crying
to Leonardo to be recorded just here and now, so
as not to be forgotten in the perpetual flow of
images, wh ims and new ideas.
Every connoisseur of musical instruments will
recognize immediately two recorders ( flauti dolci )
by their characteristic heads and mouth holes.
T heir basic structure has not changed substantially
since Leonardo's time. Beneath the upper end
held hy the player's lips is a hole with a sharp edge
which is struck by the air-stream emanating from
his mouth. Ordinarily recorders have on their
sides six fingerholes which a re closed and opened
by the finger tips of the player to produce t he d is-
tinct tones of the scale. But Leonardo's recorders
look strange. The one on the left has two broad
slits on the side of the tube, and the other one long.
thin slit. \\'hat can he the purpose of these slits?
Fortunately we haYe an explanatory text in L eo-
nardo's most beautiful calligraphy, running from
right to left : "Questi due fiuti non fanno le
mutazione delle loro voci a salti. anzi nel modo
proprio della voce umana; e fassi col movere la
mano su a giu, come alla tromba torta, e massime
nel zufola a; e possi fare 1/8 e 1/ 16 di voce, e
tanto quanto a te piace" (These two flutes do not
change their tone by leaps,• hut in the manner of
the human voice; and one does it by moving the
4 As most wind instruments do.
241 l ~:\ l :\.\l . EL \\'1 .\T ER :\ ITZ [l'l<OC. \\IEIC l' lllL. SOC •

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Fie. 10. Q11aderni d'Auatomia II JO r, showing sections from the heart.

 \ 'OL. 1 11 , :\0. ·I, 196i] .\i\ATO:\LY THE TEACI I ER 242

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FIG. 11. Codice Allanlico, fol. 37 r-a, including sections through a polygonal church.

hand up and down just as with the coiled trumpet the upper octaves; and "moYing the hand up and
and more so in the pipe a; and you can obtain one down" evidently means not to stop prearranged
eighth or sixteenth of the tone and just as much as finger holes, but to move along the sl its to change
1 you want. ) Obtaining an eighth and one sixteenth
obviously means- in acoustical language-to reach
pitch gradually, or as we say today, to produce
glissandos (or gliding tones).

--
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Such a glissando instrument would not have
fitted into the orchestra of Leonardo's days.
Could he have foreseen in one dreamy corner of
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tail: stage design for a mountain \\'ith middle vault FIG. 13. Metropolitan :Museum of Art, ::-\ew York:
ancl isles. stage design by Leonardo.
 il'KOC ••\\ll·K. l'lllL. '>OC.

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Frc. 14. Codice • ltlantico, fol. 397 r-b; detail: sketches

for yariou> machinery including two pipes.

---,
Fie. 16. Quaderni d'A11alomia V 16 r; detail showing
section of the neck with larynx, probably from an
animal.

hi::i incredible brain gli::isando instruments such as

the one invented in 1924 hv the Russian scient ist
Lev Theremin and called l;y the inventor's name
and later also by the name Aetherophone? But,
come to think of it, did Benj am in Franklin foresee
all the implications when he, a late-born Pro-
metheus, stole lightning from heaven ? Did Leo-
nardo perhaps want to imitate bird calls? Or did
he ju;.t think of im·enting another of his tricky
toys to baffle or amuse the cavaliers and ladies at
the court of L odovico Sforza, an occupation to
which he deYoted much time, too much time, in-
stead of pushing forward his many projects in the
natural sciences. his many planned books, men-
tioned so often in hi::i notes hut never completed;
not to speak of his work as a painter, sculptor and
architect! \Ye see that Leonardo was forced, on
occasion. to promote 11011-useful knowledge.
\\'hatever the purpose of this invention was,
what was its orig in ? \Vhere could he haYe found
,.·
• ••
the idea or a model for his gl issando pipes? The
clue or key for this problem lies in the words "voce
FIG. 1;;. (}uadcrni cf'. l11alomia \' 17 r: detail shO\dng humana." though I must confess that I found the
-kdche' of the larynx. sol uti on by chance and then had it confirmed hy
 \ ·01,. 111 , '\O . I , 1% 7 j .\:\ .\TO\I\' TllE TE.\ C llER :!H

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245 E\L\~ l .EL \U~TER'.\ITZ [PROC. \ \IFR. PlllL. SOC.

Leonardo's own words. The model for our gl is-

sando pipes is found in the larynx, and it is sig-
nificant that Leonardo calls the larynx ··yoce hu-
mana," thus applying this term to the human voice
as well as to the machinery that produces it.
Figures 15 and 16 show some of the designs of
the larynx and the trachea that Leonardo made i:1
the Quadcrni d'Analo111ia \' 17 r (fig. 15) and
Quadcrni d'A11ato111ia \' 16 r (fig. 16). \\'e
recognize immediately that the upper opening re-
sembles that of a recorder. Furthermore in the
accompanying texts in the Fogli d'a11ato111ia (now
in \\'incisor Castle) the trachea is called fistola
"·hich is also the name of a Yertical flute. for in-
stance the recorder.
There is, hO\Yever. one flaw. in our analog) :
Leonardo wrongly attributed the change of pitch
of the human Yoice to the narrowing or widen ing
of what he called 01111/i de/la trachea (the car-
tilege rings of the trachea) and failed to ohsen·e
the function of the vocal cords in the larynx. Thi~
failure was probably caused hy the technical diffi-
culty of dis!'ecting the small and fragile larynx.
By the way, Leonardo's drawings of it have been
helie\·ed to have been based on the anatomy of an
ox, a dog, or a pig. Leonardo was not everywhere
permitted to perform dissections of the human
body. He could do so in Florence at the Ospedale
Fu;. 18. Foyli d'.-l11(1/0111ia .\ 10 r including drawings
di Santa :\faria Nuo,·a, because he had good of the tendons of the hancl.
friends there, as we may infer from the fact that
he sent his savings there for safekeeping from war-
filled with many sketches of musical instruments.
threatened :\1ilan. It was. so to speak. his Swis:.-.
bank account. The upper part of the page deals with many new
and ingenious types of drums, the lower w ith wind
At any rate, we haYe here in Leonardo's glis-
instruments." Of particular interest for our theme
sando recorder, a new musical instrument which
are the two straight tube::; on the left. the lower
actually opened, or could haYe opened. a new
with the mouth cup of a trumpet. Both instru-
musical horizon; which works well (some recon-
ments haYe a second, auxiliary tube. \Vhat is its
structions that I have made function). and which
purpose? TT ere we must recall that the wind in-
was patterned after an anatomical analogy. the
struments of Leonardo's time did not possess the
larynx. whose actual function was misunderstood
many keys which we find in our modern orchestral
by Leonardo. Hence we have here a positive
instruments. It was the finger tips of the players
result built upon wrong premises.
that closed and opened the six or seYen finger
holes wh ich were spaced along the t ube not at
An entirely different kind of analogy- and more random. hut according to acoustical ratios. Now,
than analogy-we encounter in our final example: when /011.•cr, and therefore longer, instruments
the invention of finger hoards for musical wind were needed, a problem arose. The stern laws of
instruments, finger hoards designed as an imita- acoustics demanded finger holes spaced at certain
tion. or if you like, an application of the machinery
of the muscles and tendons of the human hand. :; For a detailed technical discu,sion of all the i11'tru-
especially the fingers. Herc we find the trans- ml'nts designed on this page, inclucling the drums, sec my
ference of a co rrectly obsen-cd structure in the articles "1fclodic, Chordal, and Other Drums invented by
Leonardo da Vinci" and "Leonardo's Invention of Key-
human body into an eminently practical mechanism. '.\fechanisms for \\'ind Instruments," published in the
Folio 175 r of the J/S Arundrl (fig. 17) is Rocco/ta r'i11cia11a Fascicolo XX (1Cilan, 1964).
 VOL. 111, '\0, 4, J%i ] ,\l\XHL\l Y Tll E TEAC I I ER 246

anism of the human hand and fingers contained a

fir~: r=::· ::: ~~~ solution for a problem of this kind. In folio A
· ,. - 1~.
... .. , ....1,,..._.
t".J- ......"L..~·w•·.--~···
~ '"'"~ ~ t •-'•
- ,.. <=~
~ ' ~E5?
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l ......_~.,, ~ ,-.....
'.!;):0!.l:!t/!\.,
-
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;:..
4
10 r of the Fogli d'Anatomia (fig. 18) he draws
I :~.:::s~:: ~.:. ~ ~ - .... ,.,
.:J\,. ·~ . the tendons of the hand as they transfer motion
4- t.~ ~
,
'·'l"'H '"" _,, ...., J.

••"
,.p.. u..j f·~·., ~
"!.
.. ' \ <
,.~~ ·u•" •·f•t_ • r
., ,.. ...., ...... ,. ;.,.. '....
- .. ,;.
• ."'
from a central point to the point where motion is
tl\., ~
t~···...::··.....-u7t~-~~:!'
··~- .. '.
... ; ••,. - "l4" ,. needed, the finger tips. A similar situation exists
- ~.::~~~':,i~ ~1,, (
t't ~ M~ JI. H{ ~I ~""' ~~
I

r ·........ I t·•·' ····· 1" ......... .. in the fingers; see, for example, Fogli d' Anatomia
......

~
~· t~~~~: ~
:;.. ,.::; ............,.... t" ,
H1 \l. J• ....
1-;·;"~¥---- -~t,
•.
r'•ll'..~ A 10 v (fig. 19). There remains only to say that
Leonardo's idea stayed buried in his notebooks:
-~1
> ,
\° 1·r,;
.I ...... 4 .
•
I\ 1'
·~~···-o/C•"'':.-:1 we do not even know whether he himself ever built
·1·1:j.,1
I

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,fi n.
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~ ....,. -·-· ~·· .....
"rt•·:?·.... .-
joJ·H'·»· ........
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an actual instrument embodying his invention.
Still, the significance and novelty of his invention
,_

1.11 'I"~:
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I

, .\\ \
:~.-
... . .
.. -- "w............
~ .. ~ ;;:~ ·:: :~:~:.
is indisputable. Four-hundred and fifty years

~j ~lt..~~i
\~. .
·~~:,:ra ~t•"""t'\"4Y"'""
··~.:.: : ..........
~,~_.. later, the wind instrument with a complete key-
Il l
.•' ' • ... , •l• l

board (fig. 20), was invented in 1\funich by

lJ1 H"'.· .., ,..,...,.
~ •
1' f fr I '
i t
.. . .
.................. ., ,........\.,. ....
. Theobald Boehm. Boehm-not without sign if-
icance for our theme-was a flutist, a connoisseur
\
... # v. . . . . .
h"li
'-~::=;.;..r.;·~r-
. ,. I;f •I ·.:........~·-11-
J of theoretical acoustics. and a silversmith.
. '+.J..... •11'-·• ._.,..~,- h-• ~~•- Y:~.J,,.1, ~-!. , ..J1~i•.;•·tiv-
..
~,,./Lv~ ..;:1..._,, r·.\".,.. v~··-l"'""'"' ;u•o1n;·~ >'.4.f~ ~...J..·fw['t"' ....... , ... .;
....; "'""""~· .. ··- r- .. ~ t- J,,,.f.. ,~~-lr»+r"· .... ~~~-. ·J-Jti-- '( .....•··U This, ladies and gentlemen, was my last example
.v.~ ."'... ~.> i~::.'"." -~· i ...... 1 ... ~ ~ ... '"'""'"'· .:-.~~,........ r-:-· ._...;....... ,~ j ~,.,,
~ r"' • t"' ... J..,.. ""'~-~ ·~1 '; ~,....., ~· ._.,. .J. - -. ..-J··~ ·~ ...... ,,...,. -there exist many more-and you will ask-at
•u• _,, 't'· ~ ,._,_.....,. <1-t:.-.L·.!...<f: ••'l:'f ·~~. ~· ·.-~,. ·•
r.
y-·'-·.,;.:;..-.. J •·~..,./oJ~ ":'l'Jt•·+~· r ••.«·,.r'~.r·-{l~~ (·I
l .1..·MJ,~.... ,,....... - , ...... '-'- .-., :- ..._... 1...J.,.. Iv..;,..,.. ,.,~,;.. i<"
least I hope that you will ask-whether among the
innumerable fragments of text in Leonardo's note-
- ~ f.k•-•••I fol:,., ~....-a
books, there is not at least one verbal statement
pointing to the relation between :\natomy and ma-
FIG. 19. Fogli d'A11alomia A 10 ,. including drawings
of the finger \\'ith the cords for straightening and
chines, I mean the other machines made by men.
bending. not by God or nature. There is. In the Fogli
d'Anatomia A 104, Leonardo mentions a plan of
mathematically determined intervals, but these introducing his demonstration of movement and
holes would have been too far from each other to force in man and animals hy a treatise on the
be controlled by the short ten fingers of the player. elements of mechanics. There he says: "Fa che
Leonardo found a solution, actually several, though l'libro delli elementi machinali colla sua pratica
we will deal here only with one. vada inanti 'a dimostratione de! moto e forza
Leonardo draws the main tube, perforated by dell'omo e altri animali; e mediante quelli tu potrai
seven holes for the seven tones; seven little double provare ogni tua proposizione" ( "Vv rite the hook
lines. evidently levers for closing pads, reach over on the machine-elements and their practical ap-
to the main tube from the auxiliary tube ·which plication so, that it would serve as an introduction
also possesses a compact keyboard of seven keys to the theory of movement and force in men and
comfortably close to each other. But where is the animals; through these machine-elements you will
connection between this central keyboard and the be able to prove all your propositions") . To be
distant closing pads where motion is required? sure, this statement refers only to the order in
1\Iy suggestion is that Leonardo thought of wires; which Leonardo wanted to present his ideas in a
he indicated them at the right of the open end of book to have them most easily understood. But in
the auxiliary tube. Leo:1ardo knew that the mech- his mind, his fermenting mind. wasn't the relation
more complex? Did the mechanism observed by
the dissector of the human body stimulate the
maker of mechanical tools and machines to new
inventions? Or, did the experience gathered by
iiillii Leonardo as a builder of machines help him to
understand more readil y and profoundly the mech-
Fie. 20. Keyed transverse flute made by Theobald anisms made by nature? This we will never know.
Bohm; 1fetropolitan 1fuseum of Art, No. 23.273, in
the Crosby-Brown Collection of Musical Instruments In all probability we haYe here a two-way street.
of all Nations. Of the veil which covers the working of genius,
247 E:\IA1\l 1EL \\'11\TERS lTZ
or more modestly, the creative process. we can at
best lift but one little corner.
UST OF NOTEBOOKS QUOTED
I:\ T HI S ST UDY
Codice A tla11tico, Ambrosian Library, 1Iilan; facsimile
edition D irico H oepli, 1lilan, 1894 to 1903.
Dell' A natomia Fogli A, Royal Library Windsor; pub-
lished by T. Sabachnikoff and G. Piumati, Paris, 1898.
[ PROC ..\MER. l'lllL. SOC
Dell' A11ato111ia Fogli B, Royal Library \;vincl sor ; pub-
lished by T. Sabachnikoff and G. Pium?.ti, Turin, 1901.
Quademi d'Aiuztomia, Library di Windsor'; published by
Ove C. L. Vangensten, A. F onahn, H . Hopstock,
Chri stiania, 1911 to 1916.
.Ifa11uscript Anmdel 263, British 1Iuscum; published by
the Reale Commissione Vinciana; Danesi, Rome, 1923
to 1930.
Jfaiwscript A, Institute de France, Paris; published by
Ravaisson-1Iollien, Paris, 1881.