The order of the five regular bodies
A plan for transforming the Platonic solids one into another (Book One)
Under the heading 'Transformation' Leonardo sets out the order of the five regular bodies and a programme, marked with crosses and bracketed lists, for transforming each into the others. He names the five solids by their faces: 4 equilateral triangles, 6 squares, 8 triangles, 12 pentagons and 20 triangles. A 'first book' then lists, four items at a time, the cube transformed into the four other regular bodies, and each of the remaining solids doing likewise.
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The five regular bodies named by their faces
Leonardo lists the five regular solids as a body of 4 equilateral triangular faces, one of 6 equilateral square faces, one of 8 equilateral triangular faces, one of 12 equilateral pentagonal faces and one of 20 equilateral triangular faces.
Programme of transformations (First book)
The 'first book' calls for the cube to be transformed into the four other regular bodies, the four-triangular-faced body into four regular bodies, and likewise the eight-faced, the twelve-pentagonal-faced and finally the twenty-triangular-faced body, each transformation tallied as four.
