Title Page: On the Transformation of Bodies
Opening of Leonardo's treatise on changing one solid into an equal one
This opening leaf announces the book's title: 'On Transformation', meaning the changing of one body into another without any loss or gain of matter, the theme of Forster I's studies on the measurement of solids. Below the title an ownership inscription naming Leonardo da Vinci is written in a later, non-mirrored hand, and an oval 'Forster Bequest 1876' collection stamp sits at the center of the otherwise blank sheet. Faint struck-through lines and letter marks at the upper left show further untranscribed jottings.
On this page
The book 'On Transformation': one body into another
The sheet gives the title of the treatise: a book called 'On Transformation', that is, the change of one body into another without diminution or increase of matter. This states the governing idea of Leonardo's geometry of solids, reshaping a volume while conserving its quantity of material.