Leonardo da Vinci designed the viola organista, a keyboard instrument with continuously bowed strings.
Leonardo’s notebooks show several versions of the instrument, which combined a keyboard with rotating wheels or bows. Pressing a key would bring a string into contact with the moving bow, producing a sustained sound. The concept aimed to combine the expressive qualities of bowed instruments with the controllable layout of a keyboard.
The viola organista was not a standard Renaissance instrument and did not become part of ordinary musical practice. Its unusual mechanism is why it is often mistaken for a harpsichord or another keyboard instrument. A harpsichord plucks strings, while Leonardo’s design used friction from a moving bow.
Modern builders have reconstructed the instrument from Leonardo’s drawings. These reconstructions demonstrate that the basic mechanism can work, although the surviving sketches leave room for interpretation. The viola organista shows Leonardo applying mechanical experimentation to music, not just to machines for war, transport, or flight.