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Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519)

The tongue, and the production of the voice; A schematic map of Milan, notes on the voice, etc. c.1508-10

Recto: Pen and ink over traces of black chalk. Verso: Pen and ink | 32.1 x 22.7 cm (sheet of paper) | RCIN 919115

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  • Recto: Diagrams of the mouth and lips, a detailed oblique view of the tongue and extensvie notes on phonation & the action of the tongue in speech, including lists of syllables with notes on their pronunciation.

    The theme of this page is the physiology of the human voice – a remarkably novel field of study – but Leonardo constantly finds himself bogged down by excessive detail or sidetracked into irrelevant issues. Above centre is a depiction of the tongue, which Leonardo states has 24 muscles, ‘which correspond to the six muscles of which the mass of the tongue ... is composed’; we now identify eight tongue muscles on either side (four extrinsic, with an origin outside the tongue, and four intrinsic, beginning and ending within the tongue), and thus sixteen in total. Above this is a cross-section of the tongue and hard and soft palates to show the cavities of mouth and nose, all of which Leonardo recognised as involved in sound production. Immediately to the left are three rough sketches and a note on the position of the lips in the production of the vowel sounds ‘a’, ‘o’ and ‘u’.

    Leonardo goes on to consider the function of the trachea in sound production:

    "Describe and draw in what way the function of varying, modulating and articulating the voice in singing is a simple function of the rings of the trachea moved by the reversive [recurrent laryngeal] nerves, and in this case no part of the tongue is used. And this rests on what I have proved before, that the pipes of an organ are not made lower or higher pitched by the mutation of the fistula (that is the place where the sound is generated) by making it wider or narrower, but only by the mutation of the pipe itself, into wide or narrow, or into long or short."

    Leonardo thus believed that the shape of the ‘pipe’ of the trachea is responsible for the pitch of the note produced in the throat, and that the vocal cords are merely a sounding device. A more sophisticated analysis of the role of the vocal cords is to be found on 919002r. Finally Leonardo states that ‘the tongue is employed in the pronunciation and articulation of the syllables, components of all words’, and at top right he starts a grid of simple syllables, each consonant with each vowel.

    But within this analysis of voice production, Leonardo continually digresses, culminating in the paean:

    "Though human ingenuity by various inventions with different instruments yields the same end, it will never devise an invention more beautiful, simpler or more succinct than does Nature, because in her inventions nothing is lacking and nothing superfluous, and she does not involve counterweights when she makes organs suitable for motion in the bodies of animals, but puts there the soul, the composer of the body. .... This discourse does not belong here but it is required in the composition of animal bodies. And the rest of the definition of the soul I leave to the minds of friars, fathers of the people, who by inspiration know all secrets."

    On the verso: A schematic plan of Milan; a note on the articulation of the voice; a diagrammatic drawing of a flame; a wheel with weights and a note on movement; the ground-plan of a building, and a diagram of a parade of carriages, with a note.
    Provenance

    Bequeathed to Francesco Melzi; from whose heirs purchased by Pompeo Leoni, c.1582-90; Thomas Howard, 14th Earl of Arundel, by 1630; Probably acquired by Charles II; Royal Collection by 1690

  • Medium and techniques

    Recto: Pen and ink over traces of black chalk. Verso: Pen and ink

    Measurements

    32.1 x 22.7 cm (sheet of paper)


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