Quadrature of Lunes and Circles
Fourteen lettered figures reducing lunes, bi-angles and circles to equal squares and triangles
The verso continues the recto's programme of squaring curved figures, laid out as fourteen lettered diagrams of lunes (falcate and lunole), circles doubled in a ratio, and inscribed squares. Each caption proves that a curved area equals a triangle or a square by adding and subtracting matching portions and bi-angles. One figure carries an explicit axiom: 'Nothing is lacking to him who is given back what was taken from him,' used to prove two areas equal.
On this page
A lune reduced to a triangle
In the figure a b c, a equals c and the lune a b is squarable in itself. By removing a and giving back c (which equals a), Leonardo obtains the triangle bc equal to the lune ba. The construction rests on circles doubled one from the other.
The axiom of restitution
One figure is glossed with a 'Concezzione' (axiom): nothing is lacking to him who is given back what was taken from him. Leonardo uses this principle to prove that the triangle r o is equal to the lune o p.
A perforated figure equal to twice a square
In the figure a – hb – n – gme – fd – e, the whole perforated figure abcdefgh equals the square m, because a equals n and nb is a right triangle amounting to a quarter of m. Leonardo concludes the whole equals twice the square m, that is the square bhdf.
A lune equal to the circle it contains
The whole small lune is said to equal the whole circle it contains. Removing the bi-angle n from the lune and m o from the contained circle, the remainder a b of the lune equals the remainder c of the circle.
