Household Accounts, Reckonings and Notes on Bird Flight
An expense list with a payment to Salaì, columns of figures, and observations of soaring cranes
The sheet mixes household accounting with natural observation: a left-hand column of personal expenses — spiced bread and apricots, chalk, laces, paper, shoes, velvet, a sword and knife, the barber, breeches, and a payment of 42 soldi to Salaì, totalling 137 — beside a short right-hand tally of wine, bread, eggs and eel. Columns of figures record arithmetical reckonings. Turned upside down, two brief notes observe birds in flight: one spiralling downward while driving a wing low, the other of cranes that climb without beating their wings. Faint pencil sketches of springs and mechanical parts, not transcribed here, also cover the lower half of the sheet.
On this page
Column of personal expenses, including a payment to Salaì
A running list of small outlays: a cash entry, spiced bread and apricots, four ounces of chalk, laces, paper, a pair of shoes, velvet, a sword and knife, the barber, cloth, firewood, breeches, and 42 soldi paid to Salaì. It also notes 20 soldi to Pagolo for a little cross and 6 for having a fortune told, closing with a total of 137.
Short tally of food and drink
A brief right-hand reckoning listing wine, bread, eggs and eel against a sum in lire and denari.
Columns of figures and reckonings
Several stacked columns of numbers worked as additions and multiplications, running down the right side and left margin of the sheet.
Bird spiralling downward in flight
A note, written with the sheet inverted, on a bird that drives one wing downward and so makes a circular motion. The observation breaks off mid-sentence.
Cranes soaring without beating their wings
A short note observing that cranes do this — rise and climb — without beating their wings.
Faint sketches of springs and mechanisms
The lower half of the sheet carries faint pencil drawings of coiled springs and small mechanical parts, not covered by the transcription.