Leonardo da Vinci’s viola organista combined a keyboard with a bowed string instrument.
The viola organista was a keyboard-controlled design in which rotating wheels or bows rubbed strings to produce sound. Pressing keys would select and activate the strings, allowing a player to perform without directly holding a bow. Leonardo developed several related drawings for the instrument during the late 15th and early 16th centuries.
The concept drew on the expressive sound of bowed instruments while seeking the control and polyphonic possibilities of a keyboard. It was not simply a piano: piano strings are struck by hammers, whereas the viola organista’s strings were intended to be sounded by friction from moving bowing surfaces.
Leonardo’s instrument was not established in Renaissance musical practice. Modern builders have reconstructed versions from his plans and interpretations, demonstrating that the mechanism can produce sound. Its name reflects its intended family resemblance to the viola, but the instrument’s keyboard mechanism makes it unusual.