A plan of 'books' on rivers, embankments and the earth's waters
A chapter-list treatise plan, with much untranscribed mechanical sketching alongside
A treatise-plan: a list of proposed 'books' (chapters), each marked with a marginal 'c', on the science and works of rivers and water. The topics run from the disposition and embankments of rivers, scouring river-beds clean through the cities they pass, and building or refounding bridges, to the leveling of mountains, the soil that water carries to fill the sea-deeps, storms clearing silted harbors, and the forming of sand and gravel hills over deep water. Seen here in transmitted light, the sheet also carries much untranscribed material, notably rows of toothed or star-shaped wheels and other mechanical sketches, which are not included in the source text.
On this page
A chapter-plan on rivers, their currents and embankments
Among the proposed books are those on the disposition of rivers for the preservation of their embankments, on the embankments of rivers and their permanence, and on making rivers, by their own course, keep their beds clean as they pass through cities.
Books on bridges and the defense of river walls
Other planned books treat the making or refounding of bridges over rivers, and the defenses that must be built up on the walls or embankments of rivers where they are struck by the waters.
Leveled mountains and sediment filling the deeps
Further books concern the mountains that shall be leveled and the earth beneath our hemisphere covered by the waters, the soil the waters carry to fill the great depths of the sea-abysses, and the forming of hills of sand or gravel over the great depths of the waters.
Untranscribed toothed wheels and mechanisms on the facing folio
Beside and below the chapter-list the sheet is filled with untranscribed drawings, including several toothed or star-shaped wheels with radiating arms and other small mechanical sketches, none of which appears in the source transcription.