Overlapping Shadows Doubling in Darkness
Two shadowy bodies whose mingled shadows deepen, and edges ringed by light and shade
The page pursues how shadows combine and how the borders of bodies are lit. The upper diagram places two shadowy bodies before a light and shows their beams overlapping (labels K m, o S t r, n), where Leonardo argues that two imperfect, equal shadows mingling together double their darkness into one almost-perfect shadow. The lower fan-shaped diagram, densely labelled with letters and numbers, shows a single light striking one shadowy body and the finely subdivided gradations of shade around its edge. He also observes that closely set shadowy bodies seen against a bright field look widely separated at a great distance.
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Nearby shadowy bodies look separated at a distance
If many shadowy bodies of almost joined proximity are seen against a luminous field, at a long distance they will appear separated by a great interval.
Two imperfect shadows mingle and double their darkness
Shadowy rays of imperfect and equal darkness that mingle together double the quantity of their darkness, so that two imperfect things make one perfect one. Let m S n and K t n be the mingled imperfect shadows, and K m S t n the doubled, almost perfect shadow.
Edges of a body ringed by varied light and shade
The edges of shadowy bodies, because they are struck by luminous pyramids of various qualities, come to be surrounded by shadows and lights of various qualities. The lower figure carries the long label sequence a b c d e f g, h i K l n o p q, r s t u x y z 7 9 2 4 5 6 8.