Why a light's rays seem to spread as it nears the eye
Reflections in the moist, closing eyelids explain the apparent enlargement of rays
A dense page of mirror-writing headed 'Of the eye', asking why the rays of luminous bodies grow larger the farther they are from their source. Leonardo argues that the image of a light imprints not only on the pupil but on the thickness of the upper and lower eyelids, which reflect secondary images; the moisture pooling where the nearly-closed lids meet the pupil forms a concave surface that acts like a concave mirror, inverting the pyramids of light between the lashes. A small pen diagram at the upper right shows an eye receiving rays from a luminous body.
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The rays of a light grow the more it seems to approach the eye
The rays of luminous bodies grow the more they move away from their origins. This is offered as the phenomenon to be explained, and the whole page sets out to give its true cause through the behaviour of light at the eye.
Triple image on pupil and the thickness of the two eyelids
The image of the light a imprints on the pupil c and also on the thickness of the upper lid b and the lower lid o, which reflect secondary images back into the pupil. To the pupil the image b seems to lie at a n and the image o at a m, so the single light appears split into pyramidal divisions matching the intervals of the eyelids.
The moist eyelid margin as a concave mirror
When the lids close, the moisture that keeps them soft fills the angle where lid meets pupil, and its surface is concave, just as water against a wet bank is concave. Every concave mirror shows its object upside down, so the lashes mirrored there, together with the image of the light, are seen inverted; this is the true cause of the apparent spreading of the rays.
Marginal diagram of eye and luminous rays
At the upper right a small pen sketch shows an eye at the right end and lines of rays converging from a luminous body at the left, lettered b, c, o and n, a, m to key the argument in the text.
