Prophecies, fables and an inventory, with motion studies
Leonardo's riddles and fables beside diagrams of mover-and-moved motion
The left leaf (42v) gathers a household inventory (axes, brass spoons, and a list of linens) around a long sequence of Leonardo's "prophecies" (riddles whose plain answers are given as glosses, on fire, water, weapons and the dead) and a set of fables about a crab, a spider, an aged vine, a torrent, a net, a snowball, and a willow. The right leaf (43r) opens with a note on a bird's wing bending straight motion into curved, then continues the study of joined movers and moved bodies through lettered figures, comparing their motions along the same or contrary aspects and at right angles. The two leaves juxtapose Leonardo's literary voice with his mechanics of motion.
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Prophecies: riddles of fire, water, weapons and the dead
A series of "prophecies" pose dark-sounding predictions whose plain answers are glossed alongside: candle-wax bees, iron drawn from the earth made into weapons, mountains driving back the sea, flint that kindles fire, and the concave mirror that heats an oven. Each riddle names an everyday thing under an apocalyptic guise.
Fables of the crab, spider, vine and snowball
Short moral fables follow: a crab crushed by a rolling flood, a spider crushed with the grapes at vintage, an aged vine falling with its rotten tree, a torrent forced to change its bed, and a snowball that grows as it rolls. A willow is maimed for keeping company with the yearly-pruned vine.
Household inventory of tools and linens
The leaf opens and closes with domestic inventories: two large axes and a small one, eight brass spoons, and a count of tablecloths, towels, small napkins, canvas lengths, wrappers, and three pairs of sheets, two new and one old.
A bent wing turns straight flight into a curve
Under the heading "Bird," Leonardo notes that a wing bent with the same velocity as the other but through a longer motion causes the straight motion to bend into a curved one. It applies his mechanics of motion to steering flight.
Modes of joined mover-and-moved motion
Lettered figures work through cases where mover and moved body move to the same or contrary aspects, or at right angles: equal motion (b mover, a moved), the mover moving farther than the moved, and the moved moving farther than the mover. Directions are named by the compass, as s moving north while n moves east.
