Draft letter, Plato's Great Year, and star polygons
A salutation to an honoured father, the world's 36,000-year return, and stars built from regular polygons
The sheet opens with the salutation of a draft letter - 'Jesus. Magnificent and most honourable father' - followed by a note that the wise philosopher Plato holds how in thirty-six thousand years this world returns to its beginning, an allusion to the Platonic Great Year. The transcription adds that a later hand superimposed some large letters over these lines, and that two of the drawn figures are stars constructed from regular polygons while a third is not easily determinable. Additional untranscribed jottings, including personal names, appear across the sheet.
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Plato's Great Year: the world's 36,000-year return
The note reports that the most wise philosopher Plato approves how in thirty-six thousand years this our world returns to its beginning and renews itself - the cyclic cosmic period known as the Great Year.
Stars constructed from regular polygons
The transcription identifies two of the drawn figures as stars obtained from regular polygons, while a third figure is not easily determinable.
Salutation of a draft letter to a 'most honourable father'
The sheet carries the opening of a letter: 'Jesus. Magnificent and most honourable father, etc.', a formal salutation of the kind Leonardo drafted at the head of his correspondence.