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Library/Paris Manuscript E/17

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Paris Manuscript E — 17

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Bibliothèque de l'Institut de France, Paris

De atterramento de' paduli.

Lo atterramento de' paduli saran fatti, quando in essi paduli fien condotti li fiumi torbidi.

Questo si prova, perché dove il fiume corre, di lì leva il terreno, e dove si ritarda, qui lascia la sua turbolenzia; e questo è, perché ne' fiumi mai l'acqua si ritarda come ne' paduli, ne li quali l'acque son di moto insensibile. Ma in essi paduli il fiume debbe entrare per istretto1 loco, basso e stretto, e uscire per ispazio largo e di poca profondità; e questo è necessario, perché l'acqua corrente del fiume è più grossa e terreste di sotto che di sopra, e l'acqua tarda de' paduli ancora è il simile, ma molto è differente la levità superiore delli paduli alla gravità sua inferiore, che non è nelle correnti de' fiumi, nelli quali la levità superiore poco si varia dalla gravità inferiore. Adunque è concluso che il padule s'atterrerà, perché di sotto riceve acqua turba e di sopra sgombra acqua chiara dall'opposita parte d'esso padule, e per questo tal padule per necessità alzerà il suo fondo mediante il terren, che sopra di lui al continuo si scarica, ecc.

On the silting-up of marshes.

The silting-up of marshes will be brought about when turbid rivers are led into them.

This is proved, because where the river runs, from there it lifts the soil, and where it slows, there it leaves its turbidity; and this is because in rivers the water never slows as it does in marshes, in which the waters are of imperceptible motion. But into these marshes the river ought to enter through a narrow place, low and tight, and go out through a wide space of little depth; and this is necessary, because the running water of the river is thicker and more earthy below than above, and the slow water of the marshes is likewise so, but the lightness of the upper part of the marshes differs greatly from its heaviness below, which is not the case in the currents of rivers, in which the upper lightness varies little from the lower heaviness. Therefore it is concluded that the marsh will be silted up, because below it receives turbid water and above it clears off the clean water from the opposite side of that marsh; and for this reason such a marsh will necessarily raise its bottom by means of the soil that continually discharges upon it, etc.

How Turbid Rivers Silt Up and Reclaim Marshes

Leading a muddy river through a marsh so its bed rises, with a narrow low inlet and a wide shallow outlet

Hydraulics Civil Engineering

A single continuous note, 'On the silting-up of marshes', explains that marshes are filled in when turbid rivers are led into them. Where a river runs fast it lifts the soil, and where it slows it drops its load, so within the near-still water of a marsh the sediment settles. Leonardo prescribes that the river enter through a narrow, low, tight place and leave through a wide space of little depth, since the running water is heaviest and most earthy below; the marsh receives turbid water at the bottom and discharges clear water above, and so its bed is continually raised.

On this page

Turbid rivers deposit their load in still marsh water

Where a river runs it lifts the soil, and where it slows it leaves its turbidity; in rivers the water never slows as in marshes, where the motion is imperceptible. Led into a marsh, the turbid river therefore drops its earth and the marsh is silted up.

Narrow low inlet, wide shallow outlet for reclamation

The river should enter the marsh through a narrow, low, tight place and leave through a wide space of little depth, because its running water is thicker and more earthy below than above. Receiving turbid water below and clearing off clean water above, the marsh necessarily raises its bottom with the soil that continually discharges upon it.

Reader's Edition — described with AI from the e-Leo transcription.