Breaking Cords, Pulleys and a Balance; a Map and the Prophecies

Upper half. In the torn right margin, figure of a pulley with the letters:

a - c - b

... the cord ab ... will be victor ... its motion ... so much weight ... cord ... and besides this it will have ... and the excess ... to the victor ... and to this ... is added ... victor ... [gra]ces.

Figures of a cord hung by its two ends, and of another hanging and divided into four parts:

Conception.

* The cord of uniform strength, when it must break through excess of weight, will break where it feels the greater load.
Proposition.
* Cords of uniform strength, being overcome by the weight of themselves, will always break at their fastening.
* What is here set forth will be proved in a few words. If the cord that hangs below its attachment weighs 4 pounds, at the division made by its upper three quarters it gives of itself to those 3/4 only one pound; and at the division of one half from the other it gives 2; and at the division of the 3/4 it gives 3 to its remainder; and at the division of the whole cord it gives 4 to its support. Thus it is proved that the whole of its weight is discharged onto its attachment, and by the conception above it is concluded that the said cord must break at its attachments.
* The cord that hangs down by its ends from the pulley, between the load and its mover, will always break on that side where the mover is.
* The cord that hangs from the wheel, giving one end to the load and the other to its mover, will always break above the wheel, so much the more toward the mover …
* ... based on the wheel and with its ... the mover (?)
* ... ends hang from the wheel, of which ... the load and the other by the mover ... the mover at the exit of the ...

Toward the centre of the upper margin:

If a weight of 4 pounds moves in the balance a weight of one, how much weight would that be which would suffice for the mere movement?

Below the preceding:

* The length of cord perpendicularly suspended acquires degrees of weakness at every degree of its height, even though it be in itself of uniform strength.

At the bottom:

* The cord that hangs from the wheel, giving one end to the load and the other to its mover, will always break above the centre of the wheel, but so much nearer to the mover than to the load as its due mover is more powerful than the load.

To the left of the preceding:

The cord of uniform strength, which by a perpendicular line descends upon the weight that breaks it, will break at its upper extremity.

Within the great circle with a figure of a balance:

Precise balance.

The circumferential line may be divided, with a single opening of the compass, into many equal parts without employing the aid of other lines or other instruments, or anything else.

But of such parts one can promise neither their magnitude nor their number.

To the left of the circle:

In the common balance the weight that wins, or that causes the motion, will exceed the weight overcome by as much as is the power of the resistance made by the pivot; and for the other, exceeding weight, any small and least gravity suffices.

Along the left margin. Figure of pulleys with the letters and the weight:

f o - c b a n - r - 400
The cord n, always having more motion than the cord c, will be the one that breaks first, because it wears out more.
Of the 4 cords n a b c it is concluded that they are loaded with weights equal to one another; but the excess that the mover n puts in of its own, beyond the equality of the weight, in order to give motion, is not divided equally, for the cord n and the cord b, which are those that descend, have between them a great difference of weight in this excess, since b exceeds c by one degree, that is, b will not come down unless it weighs more than c; and besides this, b feels only a single friction of the pulley f, which has upon it 200 pounds, while n feels the friction of 400 pounds; and besides this, the resistance of the 2 other frictions of r and of f, and the force of the excess that passes from n to c: if it is 4 at n, it comes to be so much less at b as is lost in the frictions of the pulleys; for if it is 4 at n, it does not put 4 at b, because the 2 pulleys have consumed part of it, as is shown in the fifth [proposition] of the third [book] of the Mechanical Elements; wherefore, by this and by what has been said, the cord n feels much more strain than the cord c, and therefore, having to break, it will break where it parts from its pulley o, because the weight of the whole cord n ends upon the pulley o.

Covered by the preceding writing, figure with:

10

Lower half, the sheet turned 90 degrees. Above, a geographical map with the names:

Pariardes mon[s] - Aquilon [North] - Antitaurus - Antitaurus - Argaeus mon[s] - Celaeno mon[s] - Cepsis mon[s] - Gordyaean mon[tains] - West - East - Tigris - Euphrates - Africo [SW wind] - Libeccio [SW wind].

Drawing of rocky peaks with:

Goba - Arnigasar - Carunda.

At the bottom, right column.

Of the Christians.

Many who hold the faith of the Son yet build temples only in the name of the Mother.

Of food that has been alive.

A great part of animate bodies shall pass through the bodies of other animals; that is, the uninhabited houses shall pass in pieces through the inhabited houses, giving to the latter a benefit and carrying with them their own harm. This is to say: the life of man is made of the things eaten, which carry with them that part of man which is dead.
... of the composing [parts] ... and they eat them ... death will remake ... but it is not ...

Central column.

Of the men who sleep on the boards of a tree. Men shall sleep, and eat, and dwell among the trees grown in the woods and fields.

Of dreaming.

To men it shall seem that they see new ruins in the sky. It shall seem in it that they rise up in flight, and flee from it in fear the flames that descend from it; they shall hear animals of every kind speaking the human tongue; they shall run instantly in their own person to diverse parts of the world without moving; they shall see, in the darkness, the greatest splendours. O marvel of the human species, what frenzy has so led you? You shall speak with animals of every kind, and they with you in human speech; you shall see yourself fall from great heights without harm; the torrents shall accompany you and mingle you in their swift course; you shall consort ... with mother and sisters ... you shall ... with ... of ... spirits ... the feathers.

Left column.

Of the ants.

Many shall be the peoples who will hide themselves and their children and their victuals within dark caverns, and there, in those gloomy places, feed themselves and their family for many months, with no other light, whether accidental or natural.

Of the bee.

And from many others their stores and their food shall be taken, and cruelly, by people without reason, they shall be submerged and drowned. O justice of God, why do you not awake to see your creatures thus ill-used?
Of the sheep, cows, goats and the like.
From countless numbers their little offspring shall be taken, and these slaughtered and most cruelly quartered.
Of the nuts and olives and acorns and chestnuts and the like.
Many offspring shall be taken by pitiless beating from the very arms of their mothers, and cast to the ground, and then torn apart.

Of the infants bound in swaddling-bands.

O cities of the sea, I see in you your citizens, women as well as men, tightly bound with strong bonds in their arms and legs by people who will not understand your tongues; and you will only be able to vent your griefs and your lost liberty by means of tearful weeping and sighs and lamentation among yourselves, for those who bind you will not understand you, nor will you understand them.
Of the cats that eat mice.
To you, cities of Africa, it shall be seen your young ones torn apart in their own houses by most cruel and rapacious animals of your own country.

Of the beaten donkeys.

O careless nature, why have you made yourself partial, being to some of your children a merciful and kindly mother, and to others a most cruel and pitiless stepmother? I see your children given into the servitude of others, without ever any benefit, and, instead of reward for the benefits they have done, paid with the greatest torments, and spending all their life in the benefit of their malefactor.

Division of the prophecy.

First, of the things of rational animals; second, of the irrational; third, of plants; fourth, of ceremonies; fifth, of customs; sixth, of cases, or edicts, or questions; seventh, of cases that cannot exist in nature, as to say: of that thing, the more you take from it the more it grows; and reserve the great cases toward the end and the weak ones from the beginning, and show first the evils and then the punishments; eighth, of philosophical things.

Between the first and second column:

100 — 1
1000 — 10
10000 — 100
100000 — 1000
1000000 — 10000

Metà superiore. Nel margine destro lacerato figura di carrucola colle lettere:

Figure di una corda appesa alle due estremità e d'un altra pendente e divisa in quattro parti:

Verso il centro del margine superiore:

Sotto la precedente:

In basso:

A sinistra del precedente:

Entro il grande cerchio con figura di bilancia:

A sinistra del cerchio:

Lungo il margine sinistro. Figura di carrucole colle lettere e il peso:

Coperta dallo scritto precedente, figura con:

Metà inferiore, girato il foglio di 90". In alto, carta geografica coi nomi:

Disegno di vette rocciose con:

In basso, colonna destra.

Colonna centrale.

Colonna sinistra.

Tra la prima e la seconda colonna: