Abstract
Carlo Pedretti was the first to discover the tell-tale fragments of Leonardo’s Robot Knight in the Codex Atlanticus.1 My effort to interpret and reconstruct Leonardo’s Knight began with my book Robot Evolution and would lead me on an odyssey around the world. It would take me three generations to get it right, finally coming to me in, of all places, my local gym. The armored Robot Knight sat up; opened its arms and closed them, perhaps in a grabbing motion; moved its head via a flexible neck; and opened its visor, perhaps to reveal a frightening physiognomy. Fabricated of wood, brass or bronze and leather, it was cable operated and may have been built for a grotto similar to those built by Salomon de Caus (1576–1626)2 perhaps with the accompaniment of automated musical instruments.3
Keywords
- Cable System
- Left Section
- Drive Pulley
- Finished Drawing
- Driver Pulley
These keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.
This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution.
Buying options
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Learn about institutional subscriptionsPreview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
References
Leonardo da Vinci, Fragments at Windsor Castle from the Codex Atlanticus, Carlo Pedretti (ed.), London, Phaidon, 1957, pp. 39–40, no. 12705. See also his later Leonardo Architetto, Milan, 1978 (English edition, London, 1986, and New York, 1991), pp. 319–323. In his edition of the Madrid manuscripts (New York, 1974), vol. III, Commentary, p. 76 note 13, Ladislao Reti mentions the robot sheets in the Codex Atlanticus as follows: “On fols. 366 r-b [1021r] and 216 v-b [579r] of the Codex Atlanticus, different armor parts are sketched. They do not belong to an actual suit of armor. The articulations are clearly shown, indicating that the project was for an automaton in the form of an armored warrior. Perhaps the armor parts shown belong to the same project.” A reproduction of the central part of f. 366 (recto and verso) with the Windsor fragment RL 12705 in place, is given in the exhibition catalogue Leonardo da Vinci, Studies for a Nativity and the “Mona Lisa Cartoon,” edited by Carlo Pedretti, Los Angeles, University of California, 1973, pp. 27–28, figs. 5 and 6. See also Pedretti’s chapter on ‘Anathomia Artificialsis’ cit. in Chapter I, note 25 above, vol. II, pp. 868–871. I do not know of any other reference to Leonardo’s robot studies. See, however, my own Robot Evolution: The Developent of Anthrobotics, New York, Wiley, 1994, pp. 12–20.
Salomon de Caus, Les raisons des forces mouvantes avec diverses machines tant gue plaisantes, Frankfurt a. M., 1615. Cf. Bertand Gille, Engineers of the Renaissance, Cambridge, Massachusetts, MIT Press, 1964 (original edition in French, Paris, 1966), p. 236. See also the paper by Luigi Zangheri cited in note 17 below. Concordance as given by Ladislao Reti in his edition of the manuscript (as in note 1 above), p. 76 (CA, f. 36 r-a, b [100 r, 101r] and v-a, b [102 r, 103ir]).
See Leonardo’s description of the garden planned for the suburban villa of Charles d’Amboise in Milan, CA, f. 271 v-a [732iii v], c. 1508: “With the help of the mill I will make unending sounds from all sort of instruments, which will sound for so long as the mill shall continue to move.” Cf. Carlo Pedretti, A Chronology of Leonardo da Vinci’s Architectural Studies after 1500, Geneva, Droz, 1962, p. 38. See also, by the same author, Leonardo da Vinci. The Royal Palace of Romarantin, Cambridge, Massachusetts, Harvard University Press, 1972, pp. 52 and 98, as well as the Richter Commentary, vol. II, pp. 29–31. Leonardo was certainly acquainted with late fifteenth-century examples of garden design, including those of Poggio Reale at Naples and the Rucellai at Quaracchi near Florence. It was for Bernardo Rucellai that he planned an ingenious water-meter for irrigation, as shown by a document that Pedretti discovered in Venice in 1951, namely the Golpaja Codex, that mentions a robot (a wooden man).
It would be enough to mention the closing paragraph in the famous letter of Ludovico Sforza (CA, f. 391 r-a [1082r], c. 1482, Richter, §1340): “And if any of the above-named things seem to any one to be impossible or not feasible, I am most ready to make the experiment in your park...”. See, however, for other pertinent reference to the park of the Sforza Castle, Richter Commentary, vol. II, pp. 31–32 and 186.
Volker Hoffmann, “Leonardos Ausmalung der Sala delle Asse im Castello Sforzesco”, in Mitteilungen des Kunsthistorischen Institues in Florenz, XVI, 1972, pp. 51–62, for recent interpretations of the symbolism of the Sala delle Asse; John F. Moffitt, Leonardo’s «ala delle Asse» and the Primordial Origin of Architecture”, in Arte Lombarda, N.S., nos. 92–93, 1990, 1–2, pp. 76–90; Dawson Kiang, “Gasparo Visconti’s Pasitea and the Sala delle Asse”, ALV Journal, II, 1989, pp. 101–109. See also Carlo Pedretti, Leonardo. A Study in Chronology and Style. Berkeley and Los Angeles, University of California Press, 1973 (2nd Ed., New York, Johnson Reprint Corporation. Harcourt Brace Jovanovich Publishers, 1982), pp. 76–77.
Albert Mousset, Les Francine. Crèatures des eaux de Versailles, intendants dex eaux et fountains de France de 1632 à 1784, Paris, P. A. Piccard, 1930, as cited by E. Droz and A. Chapuis, Automata: A Historical and Technological Study, London, B. T. Batsford Ltd., 1958, p. 43.
On Juanelo Turriano, his possible connection with Leonardo, and his work at Toledo, see Ladislao Reti, “A postscript to the Filarete discussion: on horizontal waterwheels and smelter blowers in the writing of Leonardo da Vinci and Juanelo Turriano (ca. 1565): a prelude to Besacle”, in Atti del XIII Convegno internazionale di Storia della Scienza, Paris, 1971, pp. 79–82.
Cf. Mary Hillier, Automata and Mechanical Toys, London, Bloomsbury Books, 1988, p. 25.
Giovan Paolo Lomazzo, Idea del Tempio della Pittura, Milan, P. Gottardo Pontio, 1590, pp. 17–18. Cf. Beltrami, Documenti, p. 206.
A full discussion of the chronology of the three sheets in the pertinent entries of Pedretti’s Codex Atlanticus Catalogue (as in note 22). The connection with two pages in Paris MS H, as discussed in the text above, may be taken to suggest an earlier date for the inception of Leonardo’s studies for the robot mechanism. Carlo Pedretti agrees (oral communication) that Leonardo’s first studies for the robot may date from c. 1494 at the time of a series of studies for musical instruments, mostly mechanical drums of a kind suitable for marching troops or individual soldiers, showing innovative ideas perhaps triggered by the French Army in transit through Lombardy in that year. This is the case with drawings of carriages and weapons in the same notebook as pointed out by Pedretti in his “The Sforza Horse in Context”, keynote address at the symposium Leonardo da Vinci’s Sforza Horse. The Art and Engineering, held at Lafayette College, Lehigh University in 1991, Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, Associated University Presses, 1995, pp. 27–39.
For a date possibly as late as the French period, c. 1517–1518, see Pedretti’s catalogue entry in the corpus of the Anatomical Studies, cit. (as in note 1 above), vol. II, p. 882. It was about 1508 that Leonardo introduced cord diagrams in his anatomical illustrations to explain the mechanics of the human body, apparently in view of constructing and anatomical model. Cf. Pedretti’s chapter “Anathomia Artificialis,” (as in note 1 above).
See note 10 above. Of particular interest and beauty are the red-chalk sketches on ff. 43 v and 44 r, showing the estimation of human muscular effort with the help of a dynamometer. As explained by Ladislao Reti, “Leonardo da Vinci the Technologist: The Problem of Prime Movers”, in Leonardo’s Legacy, edited by C. D. O’Malley, Berkeley and Los Angeles, University of California Press, 1969, pp. 72–73 and figs. 1 and 2, in the figure on f. 43 v, no less than six different cases covering the whole body are examined, while in the figure on the facing page Leonardo tries to compare the force of the arm in different positions and points of attachment. Between the last two drawings a diagram (not reproduced by Reti) shows the arm as a compound lever. As such, it shows how kinesiology was indeed for Leonardo the foundation to his experiments in robotics. Compare also Paris MS L, f. 28 r, c. 1498, as given in the Richter Commentary, note to §378.
Carlo Pedretti, “Il Tempo delli orilogi,” Studi Vinciani, Chapter III, Geneve, Droz, 1957, pp. 99–108.
Cf. John Paddock and David Edge, Arms and Armor of the Medieval Knight, New York, Cresent, 1988, pp. 94–135, 141–142, 177–182. See also Charles Ashdown, European Arms & Armor, New York, Barnes & Noble, 1995, pp. 213–264. The British refer to the period of Leonardo’s suit of armor (1430–1500) as the Tabard Period, so named for the surcoat or Tabard, which was the most persistent element in this period. The Tabard Period saw a great deal of technological progress due to the innumerable conflicts of the time. International conflict was the perfect setting for technology transfer, producing an international style. By the time Leonardo’s suit of armor was designed, the entire body was enveloped and protected by a flexible, articulated suit. Selection of a suit of armor for the robot also had the advantage of a limited range of motion and flexibility that would simplify the task of animation.
Concordance as given by Ladislao Reti in his edition of the manuscript p. 76 (CA, f. 36 v-a, b [102 r, 103ir] and r-a, b [100 r, 101r]), (as in note 1 above).
See the drawing by Heinrich Schickardt, c. 1600, recording the mechanism of the water organ for Mons Parnassus at Pratolino (LBS, Cod. Hist. 4, 148 b) reproduced in every publication on Pratolino, e.g. Luigi Zangheri, Pratolino. Il giardino delle meraviglie, vol. II, fig. 69, Florence, Regione Toscana, 1979. Marco Dezzi Bardeschi, ‘Le fonti degli automi di Pratolino’, in Alessandro Vezzosi (ed.) La Fonte delle Fonti. Iconologia degli artifizi d’ acqua (proceedings of a colloquium held at Pratolino on July 14, 1984), fig. 30, Florence, Regione Toscana, 1985, pp. 13–24. See, in the same volume, pp. 35–43, Luigi Zangheri,’ salomon De Caus e la fortuna de Pratolino nell’ Europa dell primo Seicento’, in particular fig. 3 on p. 36. See also Eugenio Battisti, L’ Antirinascimento, vol. I, pp. 249–286, (‘8. Per una iconologia degli automi’), text ill. on p. 270, Milan, Garvanti, 1989 (first edition, Milan, Feltrinelli, 1962).
Emanuel Winternitz, Leonardo da Vinci as a Musician, New Haven and London, 1982, in particular on pp. 150–159, figs. 14–22. See also Richter Commentary, vol. II, pp. 215–216. For a through analysis and interpretation of their mechanism, see Marco Carpiceci, ‘I meccanismi musicali di Leonardo’, in Raccolta Vinciana, XXII, 1987, pp. 3–46.
See the early drawings at Windsor, RL 12370 v, c. 1480. According to Kenneth Clark, Windsor Catalogue, sub numero, “The decorated cuirass on the verso immediately suggests the workshop of Verrocchio, being of the same type as (though not identical with) that worn by the two soldiers on the right of the silver relief of the beheading of St. John the Baptist in the Opera del Duomo, Florence”. Compare also the famous profile of a warrior at the British Museum (Popham, pl. 129) also dating from about 1480. Cf. Mària G. Agghàzy, Leonardo’s Equestrian Statuette, Budapest, Akadèmiai Kiadò, 1989, figs. 31 ff.
‘Julio Tedesco’ is mentioned in Forster MS III, f. I r, as having joined Leonardo on March 18, 1493 (Richter, §1459). He is also recorded in Paris MS H, ff. 105 r and 106 v, for mechanical work carried out for Leonardo in 1494 (Richter, §§1460 and 1462). Of particular interest is the note in Madrid MS I, f. 12 v, c. 1497: “Dice Giulio aver visto nella Magnja una di queste rote essere consummate dal polo m” (Giulio says to have seen in Germany one of these wheels become worn down by the axle m), in that it shows Leonardo’s interaction with a foreign assistant.
See Pedretti’s chapter on Anathomia Artificialis’ as in note 1 above.
The most striking example of this design is a highly finished drawing in CA, f. 341 r-c [934], c. 1508, reproduced in my Robot Evolution (as in note 1 above), fig. 1.13 on p. 17. Cf. Carlo Pedretti’s Codex Atlantics Catalogue (New York, Johnson Reprint Corporation, 1978–1979), vol. II, pp. 193–194. Several preliminary studies are known, e.g. CA, f. 307 v-a [843], which includes details of the muscular legs of a nude standing figure.
Carlo Pedretti, 1964. Leonardo Da Vinci On Painting A Lost Book (Libro A), Berkeley, and Los Angeles, University of California Press, 1964.
See my “Leonardo’s Lost Robot” in Achademia Leonardi Vinci, IX, 1996, pp. 99–110. Carlo Pedretti, “I robot secondo Leonardo”, in Il Sole-24 Ore, no. 4, 5 January 1997, p. 23.
The exhibition, as planned by Professor Galluzzi in Florence, was first taken to Paris with the title “Les ingénieurs de la Renaissance de Brunelleschi à Leonard de Vinci” in 1995–1997. It was turned into Mechanical Marvels: Invention in the Age of Leonardo for the American venue to include a section on Leonardo’s robot entrusted to me. Exhibition organized by Finmeccanica Istituto and the Museo Di Storia Della Scienza, Florence. See the exhibition catalog Mechanical Marvels: Invention in the Age of Leonardo, pp. 234–235 and my reconstruction of Leonardo’s robot knight in the companion CD of the same name, Giunti Multimedia, Florence, 1997.
BBC, Leonardo: program two, Dangerous Liaisons, airdate April 18, 2003.
Mark Rosheim, “L’ automa programmabile di Leonardo,” XL Lettura Vinciana 15 aprile 2000, Florence, Giunti. See figs. 41–44
Carlo Pedretti, “Invenzioni sconsciute di Leonardo da Vinci in due codici inediti del XVI secolo,” in Sapere, XVII, 1951, pp. 210–213, reprinted in the author’s Studi Vinciani, Geneva, Droz, 1957, p. 23–33.
This seems to be implied by the sketches in Paris MS L, f. 28 v, and CA, f. 164 r-a [444r], though the context shows that Leonardo is analyzing the mechanical problem of pulling a weight uphill. Cf. Reti, op. cit. (as in note 12 above), p. 82–83, fig. 15.
Cf. Richter Commentary, note to §1360, where all such sentences are reported, though never again with a reference to Rome.
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2006 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
(2006). Leonardo’s Knight. In: Leonardo’s Lost Robots. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/3-540-28497-4_3
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/3-540-28497-4_3
Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg
Print ISBN: 978-3-540-28440-6
Online ISBN: 978-3-540-28497-0
eBook Packages: EngineeringEngineering (R0)