Lettered Solids and the Geometry of Vision
Polyhedral figures annotated with the Latin words Visio (vision) and Superfities (surface)
The sheet is filled with polyhedral solid figures drawn in red chalk or ink, their vertices labelled by long strings of letters set out on two or three planes of depth (for example A B L K H, D C N M T S R G F E, P O V X Q). Along the margins and beneath the figures stand the Latin words Visio (vision) and Superfities (surface), tying the solids to Leonardo's study of how bodies are seen and how the visual pyramid meets a surface. The captions are almost entirely diagram labels, with no continuous prose.
On this page
Solids lettered on planes of depth
Several polyhedral solids have their vertices identified by letters distributed over two or three planes of depth, such as A B L K H, D C N M T S R G F E and P O V X Q, and on the left A E D C B, H G F Q P O N M L K, R X V T S.
Labels of vision and surface
The margins carry the words Visio (vision) and Superfities (surface), repeated beside and beneath the solids, connecting the geometric bodies to the study of vision and of the surface on which a figure is seen.