Center of gravity and the bending of loaded supports
Rules on descent to the earth's center; a support buckles beneath the load's center
Folio 177v opens with rules on weight and descent: every heavy body desires that its center become the center of the earth, and among bodies of equal shape the heavier descends the quicker and by the straighter line. Two "Rule" entries define the central line drawn between the center of a body and the center of the world. A long paragraph explains that a support bends inward beneath the center of the load pressing it, never bending only when the support's own center lies directly under the load's center, as shown by the studies of buckling columns and a pointed arch at the lower left. A brief note reads "In Sant'Ambrogio."
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Every heavy body seeks the center of the earth
Every heaviness desires that its center become the center of the terrestrial machine, and the desire of every heavy body is to move toward the earth's center. Among bodies of equal shape the heavier descends the quicker, and that body makes the swifter descent which directs itself to the center by a straighter line.
A loaded support buckles beneath the load's center
The support of a weight must bend in the part beneath the center of the load that presses it, throwing the middle of its height inward; it never bends only when the support's own center lies directly under the load's center. Otherwise the centers meet off-line and the support twists toward the opposite side, as the column and arch studies at the lower left demonstrate.
Memorandum: "In Sant'Ambrogio"
A short jotting at the lower left reads "In Sant'Ambrogio," apparently a memorandum naming a place. It stands apart from the surrounding rules on weight and supports.