The Eye in Light, the Rooftops of a City, and Men in Battle
Roofs half-lit at sunrise; bodies darker the nearer they lie to the ground
This page of Book Five, headed PARTE, groups three short chapters with a pen sketch of a city seen in perspective. The first states that in illuminated air a farther color is never as dark as a nearer one, in proportion to the air interposed. A chapter on the shadows and light of cities explains that when the sun is at the east and the eye above the city's centre, the southern and northern roofs are half-shadowed and half-lit, the eastern all in shadow, the western all in light, illustrated by three small gabled houses under rays from an eye. A final chapter on the lowest parts of bodies pressed together, like men in battle, notes that their parts grow darker the nearer they are to the supporting ground, as proved by the walls of wells.
On this page
The eye seeing things in a bright place
In illuminated air no second color is as dark as the same color placed nearer, because a greater thickness of the air's brightness is interposed between the eye and the farther color. The proportion of the colors' variety matches the proportion of the quantities of air interposed.
Shadows and light of a city at sunrise
When the sun is at the east and the eye is above the middle of a city, the southern part shows its roofs half-shadowed and half-lit, and likewise the northern; the eastern side is wholly shadowed and the western wholly lit.
Diagram of rays over city rooftops
A perspective sketch at mid-page shows an eye at the upper left casting rays over three small gabled buildings ranged along a ground line, illustrating how a city's roofs are variously lit and shadowed.
Bodies darker nearer the ground: men in battle
Of men and horses laboring in battle, their parts are the darker the nearer they are to the earth that supports them; this is proved by the walls of wells, which grow the more...