Domed round church with eight chapels; furnaces for spheres
Plans of a centralized church and a self-feeding furnace with a fuel tower
Architectural and technical studies share the page. A round, domed church with eight radiating chapels is drawn in elevation and in two plans, with notes that its nine lantern-towers should not exceed the height of two squares and showing how the eight chapels are to be built; a further plan gives a church on a square base with semicircular apses. Below and at right Leonardo draws an instrument 'for spheres' and a tall self-feeding furnace whose fuel tower can be as high as desired, together with a smaller furnace from which a cast sphere is drawn out at a-b.
On this page
Round church with eight chapels
A round, domed church ringed by eight chapels is drawn in perspective with its circular plan. A note stipulates that each of its nine lantern-towers (tiburi) should not exceed the height of two squares.
How the eight chapels are built
A second plan of the same building is annotated 'this is how the 8 chapels are to be made.' It shows the radial arrangement of the surrounding chapels.
Church on a square base with apses
A further plan gives a church on a square base with projecting semicircular apses. It is drawn among the other centralized-plan studies.
Instrument for making spheres
A disc-shaped rotating device at the middle left is labelled simply an 'instrument for spheres.' It sits beside the church plans.
Self-feeding furnace with a fuel tower
The tall structure at the right is a furnace whose tower may be built as high as one pleases, provided it is kept full of wood or coals so that one need not always tend it. The fuel descends of itself to the fire.
Furnace for drawing out a cast sphere (a b c)
In a furnace note Leonardo marks that a b is where the sphere is drawn out, and c is an iron holding upward from a b, made of terra di cimatura (a fulling-earth clay). A last caption names the device a 'sphere furnace.'