River floods, waves, and a 1502 note of few soldi
The Sieve and Arno in flood, the three principal waves, and how the swifter of two crossing rivers cuts deeper
Written partly upside down in red chalk and ink, the sheet mixes observations on flowing water with a dated personal memorandum. Leonardo times the floods (the Sieve arrives in 5 hours, the Arno in 7), describes how falling water sinks below the surface and throws back three principal waves of which the middle is highest, and states that where two rivers cross the slower-coursing one runs shallower. A note dated 1502 records that after leaving a place he was left with only a few soldi, and a lettered figure explains how the swift Rifredi (b) scours the bed of the sluggish Arno to make sudden depth. He also asks why the eye sees a thing more surely in dreams than through waking imagination. A drawn hand, drapery in red chalk, coiling water studies and a short column of accounts fill the leaves; much of this text is not transcribed in the bundle.
On this page
Why the eye sees more surely in dreams
The sheet opens with the question of why the eye sees a thing more surely in dreams than with the imagination while awake - a remark on vision and the inner sight of the eye.
Flood times and the three principal waves
In 5 hours comes the flood of the Sieve and in 7 that of the Arno. Water falling amid water sinks more deeply the higher it descends, and the reflected water directs itself back into the hollow; three principal waves follow each fall, the middle highest, the first breaking little and the last full of breakings.
Where two rivers cross, and Rifredi scours the Arno
Where two rivers intersect, the one of slower course runs shallower. In a lettered figure, when the swift Rifredi (b) meets the slow Arno the Arno raises its bed while the running Rifredi consumes it and makes a sudden depth.
1502: departure and the few soldi
A memorandum dated 1502 records that after he departed from that place he never had anything but these few soldi.
Studies of a hand and drapery
A carefully drawn hand appears at the upper right of the right leaf, with drapery folds sketched in red chalk below, alongside coiling studies of turbulent water. These drawings are not covered by the bundle's transcription.