Architectural Elements with Their Measurements
A measured moulding or pier in pen, with an upside-down question on resisting a bombard
In pen Leonardo draws architectural elements, a vertical profile of a moulding or pier, and annotates them with a running column of measurements in braccia and once, listed from top to bottom. Written upside down in red chalk is a separate query belonging to his studies of artillery: what best resists the blow, that is the penetration, of a bombard. Further columns of fractions run down the right margin.
On this page
Measured profile of an architectural element
A vertical architectural member, a moulding, pier or cornice profile, is drawn in pen and tagged with dimensions read from top to bottom in braccia and once, among them 6 3/4 braccia and readings of 9 and 3 once.
What best resists the blow of a bombard?
Inverted at the centre of the leaf, a red-chalk note poses the question of what offers the greatest resistance to the percussion of a bombard, that is, to the passage of its shot.