Cloth account, perspective notes, a bee simile and a costume recipe
The nearer an object the wider its visual angle; a knot-stencil for festival dress
A page of mixed jottings that opens with a dated purchase of cloth and moves to two paired statements of perspective: the nearer a thing comes to the eye, the greater the angle it subtends, while its apparent figure grows smaller the closer it is measured to the eye. A short moral simile likens the honeybee to fraud, honey in its mouth and venom at its rear. The remainder gives a practical recipe for a decorated carnival garment, varnishing fine cloth and printing knot patterns through a perforated stencil filled with black and white millet.
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The nearer an object, the wider its visual angle
Leonardo notes that the closer a thing comes to the eye, the larger the angle under which it is seen. Its image, however, behaves oppositely: the nearer it is measured to the eye, the smaller the figure it presents. The paired statements set out the perspective relation between distance, angle and apparent size.
Recipe for a decorated carnival garment
To make a handsome garment, take fine cloth and coat it with a fragrant varnish of turpentine oil and varnish in grains. Then apply a perforated stencil, wetted so that it will not stick, its pattern worked in knots (gruppi). The knots are afterwards filled with black millet and the surrounding ground with white millet.
The honeybee likened to fraud
A brief moral simile compares the honeybee to fraud, because it carries honey in its mouth and poison at its rear. The saying belongs to Leonardo's habit of aphoristic, bestiary-like comparisons.
Purchase of 46 braccia of cloth, 17 October 1497
A dated memorandum records buying 46 braccia of cloth on Monday for 13 lire and 14 and a half soldi, on 17 October 1497. It is an ordinary domestic expense note heading the page.