Rope-and-stirrup device for climbing from low to high
A window-mounted rope with two foot-stirrups worked hand over hand, with trestle feet
Folio 48r sets out a climbing apparatus captioned as a 'ladder, or means to pull oneself from below to on high, with the intention of going above.' A window (p q) carries a horizontal beam as thick as a man's leg, around which the two ends of a rope are each wound twice; two stirrups, a and b, hang from it so that a helper above raises one foot-loop while the climber steadies himself in the other, advancing one braccio at a time hand over hand, and reversing the sequence to descend. At left, two detail sketches labelled 'foot of a trestle' show the mounting hardware, and a braced timber frame with vertical screws is drawn at lower left.
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Window rope with twin stirrups worked hand over hand
A beam as thick as a man's leg is set across a window at p q, and the two ends of a rope are wound twice around it. The puller raises stirrup b half a braccio or more from the ground; the climber then stands wholly on the foot in b while the helper above raises the now-unloaded stirrup a, and so on, one braccio at a time.
Alternating the load between the two foot-stirrups
The scheme works by shifting the climber's weight between stirrups a and b: whichever stirrup bears the body is fixed, while the other, left without weight, is hauled up above it by the helper's free hand. The same alternation, reversed, serves for descending.
Trestle-foot fittings (pie di trespolo)
Two detail drawings at the left of the sheet are each captioned 'foot of a trestle,' showing the pivoting hardware and mount by which the apparatus is fixed. A braced timber frame carrying vertical screws is drawn separately at the lower left.