It is not the first period instrument Sławomir Zubrzycki has re-created. In 1992, he made a replica of Johann Silbermann's clavichord from 1775. And even though many people were sceptical about his work as clavichords are not loud enough for major performances, the designer found out that they had considerable expressive power.

As he was searching for Leonardo's instrument, Zubrzycki discovered traces of Hans Heyden, a constructor from Nurnberg who was the first-ever designer of the viola organista.  “Heyden is said to have put together as many as 32 violas, which he called ‘Geigenwerks’, but only two of them are documented: one in 1570, and a modified version in 1600. Unfortunately, neither survived. The only preserved instrument was made in 1625 by Raymundo Truchado, a Spanish monk who modelled his piece on Heyden’s. Sławomir Zubrzycki had a close look at Truchado’s instrument, and took detailed photos of it during his visit to the Musical Instruments Museum in Brussels. He could not play it, but even if he had, the instrument would not have made any sound.

While building his own viola, Sławomir Zubrzycki relied on sketches by Leonardo da Vinci and a description of Heyden's instrument in Syntagma Musicum, a 1618 book by Michael Praetorius. Zubrzycki is especially fond of the passage where Praetorius says that the viola is good for urban and country music alike, and that it can express various emotions. It can even imitate a drunken man. “I thought I would be able to play a repertoire that pianists cannot normally perform, i.e. pieces for the viola de gamba, the predecessor of the cello. I also wanted to play Renaissance music from the times of Leonardo. I was spurred on by the fact that even though the viola organista was forsaken and forgotten, someone would revisit it from time to time,” says Sławomir Zubrzycki.