Ground Plan with a Note on Canals Behind the Houses
A plotted plan above geometric line studies, with a rule for canal placement
The sheet is captioned as a ground plan and carries a note that nothing should be thrown into the canals and that the canals should run behind the houses. At the top a trapezoidal grid of plots or rooms is drawn in red chalk. Below it a construction of ruled lines radiating from a point, together with a circle, is sketched, noted by the editor as akin to the studies on the facing leaf, f. 24r.
On this page
Rule: canals to run behind the houses
The note lays down two rules for the canal system of a settlement: that nothing be thrown into the canals, and that the canals be laid out behind the houses. It reads as one of Leonardo's memoranda on ordering an ideal town.
Trapezoidal plan of plots or rooms
The upper drawing is a plan seen from above, a trapezoidal block divided by ruled lines into a grid of small compartments. It suggests the layout of houses or rooms to which the canal note applies.
Ruled construction of radiating lines and a circle
Below the plan a set of straight lines fans out from a single point, crossed by further rulings, with a small circle drawn nearby. The editor notes these sketches as similar to those on f. 24r.