A reed-wheel for a four-part canon, with liquid-motion notes
A musical wheel and drums beside struck-through studies of flow and geometry
The most vivid note here designs a 'wheel of reeds' arranged for a musical round called a canon, sung by four voices where each singer takes the whole round: Leonardo builds a wheel with four teeth so that each tooth does the office of one singer. Nearby he sketches drums played like the monochord to the words 'O you sweet honey,' and marks 'the girls.' Struck-through lines repeat a rule of flow: a liquid runs fastest where remote from the friction of a denser body and nearest to the friction of a rarer one. The sheet is filled with radiating instrument-wheels, rows of pipes and cups, circle constructions and columns of figures. The bundle repeats the same set of notes twice for the paired folios.
On this page
A reed-wheel for singing a canon
Here a wheel of reeds is made in the manner of tablets, with a musical round called a canon sung by four voices, each singing the whole round. Leonardo builds the wheel with four teeth so that every tooth by itself performs the office of one singer.
Drums played like the monochord
Along the margin, drums (tanpani) are to be sounded like the monochord to the words 'O you sweet honey,' with the note 'the girls' alongside. Rows of pipes, cups and radiating instrument-wheels crowd the right-hand leaf.
Where a liquid flows fastest
A struck-through rule states that the part of a liquid moves fastest which is most remote from the friction of a body denser than itself, and that it is likewise fastest where nearest to the friction of a body rarer than itself.
Geometric figures and calculations
Below the deleted flow-rule the sheet carries geometric figures and mathematical operations: circles crossed by chords and diameters, and columns of numerals and fractions worked out at the margins.
