Fortress Walls Against Heavier Artillery
A maxim on wall resistance, with pneumatic device sketches and a large faint building
A single note reasons that, since artillery has gained three-quarters more power than usual, fortress walls must gain three-quarters more resistance than the customary manner. Around it are drawn several spidery mechanical device sketches, which the sheet's archival tags identify with bellows, siphons and U-tubes, and, more faintly in charcoal at the top, a large gabled building rendered in construction lines. Further untranscribed writing is present near the top of the sheet.
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Walls must grow with the power of artillery
Since artillery has acquired three-quarters more power than usual, Leonardo argues that the walls of fortresses must acquire three-quarters more resistance than the customary method allows. It is a proportional rule matching defence to the growth of offensive force.
Sketches of pneumatic and hydraulic devices
The lower part of the sheet carries several small, spidery mechanical sketches with radiating arms and boxlike bodies; the archive links them to studies of bellows, siphons and U-tubes. Smaller detailed mechanisms are drawn along the bottom edge.
Large gabled building in charcoal
The upper part of the sheet is filled by a large, faint charcoal drawing of a gabled building or hall seen with converging construction lines, its pediment and interior framing lightly laid in beneath the ink sketches.