Squaring the circle: lunes, inscribed squares and circles
A dense sheet of small compass figures comparing lunes, squares and circles
This crowded sheet packs dozens of small compass-drawn figures — circles with inscribed and circumscribed squares, four-petalled rosettes, sectors and crescent-shaped 'lunes' (bisangoli) — each annotated with the square or circle it is declared equal to. Leonardo repeatedly states proportional relations: that a square inscribed in a circle is half the square circumscribed about it, and that the circle through a square's four corners is double the circle touching its four sides. Many notes assert that certain lunes and sectors 'equal the greatest square' of a given circle, part of his long pursuit of squaring curved figures. He generalizes that among similar surfaces the similar parts keep the same proportion to one another as their wholes do.
On this page
Inscribed square is half the circumscribed square
The square drawn inside a circle is declared half (subduplo) the square drawn outside the same circle. Likewise the circle passing through the square's four corners is double the circle touching its four sides. Leonardo folds these into a general rule about similar surfaces.
Four curvilinear triangles plus a curved square equal the greatest square
For the figure labelled a a - b - a a, Leonardo posits a square equal to the whole surface. The four curvilinear triangles a together with the curvilinear square b are said to equal the greatest square of the smaller circle, 'proved, etc.'.
Circle on a triangle's corners is quadruple the circle on its sides
With the sheet turned upside down, the circle touching the three corners of a triangle is stated to be quadruple the circle touching its three sides. The same proportion, he adds, holds between similar parts as between whole and whole.
Two kinds of bi-angular surface
A mutilated marginal note classifies 'bi-angular' (bisanghe) surfaces: one made of a curved side and a straight side, the second of two curved sides, as the two figures show. A third kind, with its two angles, is begun but cut off.
Removing a quadrable surface leaves a quadrable one
A compact lemma states that if from a quadrable surface a quadrable surface is removed, the remainder is quadrable. It underpins the running claims that lunes and sectors reduce to squares of the given circles.
