Compound pulley-blocks and a crossbow-spanning device

A silk thread lifting six men

Leonardo claims that a silk thread, running through 120 little pulleys with ten pounds of force, would lift six men of 200 pounds each - a dramatic statement of compound mechanical advantage.

One thirty-second of a grain lifts 200 pounds

A note beside the fraction 1/32 asserts that one of the thirty-two parts of a grain lifts 200 pounds, expressing the force ratio delivered by the multiplied pulleys.

Pulley-blocks (taglie) arranged in a circle

The blocks are to be set in a circle, with all the upper blocks feeding into the upper block and the lower sheaves into the lower block. Several taglie are drawn in rows across the sheet.

Bombard firing against an army

At the top a bombard is shown discharging, captioned 'against an army,' with fractional figures (1/2, 9/32) beside it.

Geared device for spanning a crossbow

A toothed arc and rack mechanism at the lower left is a device for spanning (loading) a heavy crossbow, matching the sheet's catalogue tags for crossbow-loading gear and its lock (acciarino).

Doubling tables of forces

A column of numbers doubles in sequence (15 5/8, 31 1/4, 62 1/2, 125, 250, 500, 1000), tabulating how the load grows through successive pulleys.

Sopra e sotto il disegno di una bombarda che spara:

A sinistra schema di sei coppie di rotelle coi numeri:

A destra sopra uno schema di rotelle:

Sotto lo schema delle rotelle, i numeri:

Sotto alla seconda frazione 1/32:

Sotto alla strana frazione " 1 di " che sta per 1/24:

Sotto alla prima frazione 1/32:

Presso il capo della fune della carrucola:

Entro lo schema delle taglie(?) poste in un quarto di cerchio:

In basso disegno di:

Altro disegno di:

Nello spazio adiacente:

Angolo superiore destro:

Capovolgendo il foglio:

Above and below the drawing of a firing bombard:

Left, a diagram of six pairs of little wheels with the numbers:

Right, above a diagram of little wheels:

Beneath the diagram of the little wheels, the numbers:

Beneath the second fraction 1/32:

Beneath the odd fraction '1 of', which stands for 1/24:

Beneath the first fraction 1/32:

Near the head of the pulley's rope:

Within the diagram of the blocks(?) set in a quarter-circle:

Below, drawing of:

Another drawing of:

In the adjacent space:

Upper right corner:

Turning the sheet upside-down: