A man, disputing and boasting that he knew how to perform many varied and fine tricks, was answered by another of the bystanders: 'I know a trick that will make whomever I please pull off his breeches.' The first boaster, finding himself without breeches, said: 'I bet you will not make me pull mine off, and a pair of hose on it!' The proposer of the trick, accepting the challenge, borrowed several pairs of breeches and threw them in the face of the man who had staked the hose, and so won the wager.

O sleeper, what is sleep? Sleep resembles death. Why then do you not do such work that after death you may keep the likeness of one perfectly alive, instead of, while living, making yourself by sleep like the wretched dead?

One man said to an acquaintance: 'Your eyes have all changed into a strange color.' The other replied that this often happened to him. 'But you have paid no heed to it. And when does this befall you?' The other answered: 'Every time my eyes behold your strange face, from the violence received by so great a displeasure they suddenly grow pale and change into a strange color.'

One man said to another: 'Your eyes have all changed into a strange color.' The other replied: 'It is because my eyes are looking at your strange face.'

One man said that in his country were born the strangest things in the world. The other replied: 'You, who were born there, confirm this to be true by the strangeness of your ugly presence.'

Man and the animals are properly the passage and channel of food, the burial place of animals, the lodging of the dead, making life for themselves out of the death of others, a sheath of corruption.

The lying interpreters of nature affirm that quicksilver is the common seed of all metals, not remembering that nature varies the seeds according to the diversity of the things she wishes to bring forth in the world.

Just as boldness is a danger to life, so fear is its safeguard.

Many deceive us [a pun on 'gabbano', a cloak].

To re-fire the gypsum so that it does not fall apart when casting, put into it raw tartar from the cask, that is, just as it comes out of the cask; and once you have cast, put the mould in water and it will come apart.

Threats are only the weapons of the one who is threatened.

Where good fortune enters, envy lays siege to it and fights it; and when it departs, it leaves behind grief and repentance.

Rarely does he fall who walks well.

Ill do you if you praise, and worse if you blame, a thing, I say, if you do not rightly understand it.

Capital [heading].

Aqua vitae passed through ashes of white vine, and lime and soda; or you may take distilled vinegar in place of aqua vitae, or lemon juice, or strong waters [acids].

You do ill if you praise and worse if you blame a thing when you do not rightly understand it.

When Fortune comes, seize her with a sure hand, in front, I say, for behind she is bald.

Of warm water. If you heat water that has been made turbid by mud, it will at once clear. And this happens because, on heating, the water expands, and in expanding it becomes rarefied; being rarefied, it less sustains the bodies heavier than itself that are found in it.

If you wish to teach someone a thing you do not know, have him measure the length of something unknown to you, and he will learn the measurement that you did not know before. Master Giovanni da Lodi.

On the 23rd day of April, 1490.