A Programme of Books on Rivers and Water
A list of projected treatises on river banks, sediment, harbours and bridges
The written half of this spread is a programme of projected books, each marked with a marginal 'c', all concerning rivers and moving water: the disposition of rivers to preserve their banks, the mountains that will be levelled and the earth covered by the waters, sediment carried to fill the deep seas, storms scouring silted harbours, the permanence of river banks, keeping river beds clean through the cities they pass, building or re-founding bridges over rivers, defences for walls and banks struck by water, and the forming of hills of sand or gravel over deep water. The rest of the opening is largely blank, carrying only very faint sketches and offset ghost-marks not covered by the transcription.
On this page
A programme of books on rivers and moving water
Leonardo lists a sequence of intended books, each prefixed with a marginal 'c', devoted to the behaviour of rivers and water: their disposition to conserve the banks, the permanence of the banks, keeping the river beds scoured, and how storms of themselves clear out silted sea harbours. The list reads as a table of contents for a treatise on water.
Bridges, banks and river defences
Several entries concern engineering works on rivers: making or re-founding bridges over rivers, and the defences (breakwaters) that must be built for walls or banks struck by the water. A further book proposes making rivers keep their beds clean through the cities they pass.
Mountains levelled and sediment filling the seas
Other planned books treat the body of the earth in water's grip: the mountains that will be levelled while the earth is covered by the waters, the earth carried by rivers to fill the great depths of the seas, and the generation of hills of sand or gravel over deep water. These frame water as an agent that reshapes the land.