Opening leaf: ornamental 'M' with geometric figures
The notebook's title initial amid preliminary studies of plane figures
This opening leaf of Paris Manuscript M is dominated by a large ornamental initial 'M' at its centre, the notebook's title letter. Around it Leonardo has drawn two semicircles fanned by ruled lines into radial angular sectors and, down the right-hand margin, a column of elementary plane figures - a square, several triangles, a trapezoid, rectangles and lozenge-shaped quadrilaterals. A block of mirror-script fills the lower left with further notes at the upper right; the bundle supplies no transcription, so this writing is not rendered here.
On this page
Semicircles divided into radial sectors
Two semicircles near the top and centre of the page are each fanned by ruled lines running from the base to the arc, dividing the half-circle into a series of angular sectors. A third, smaller divided semicircle sits at the upper right. They read as trials in the division of an angle.
A column of elementary plane figures
Down the right-hand side runs a column of outline figures - a square, triangles of differing form, a trapezoid, rectangles and lozenge-shaped quadrilaterals. These are the basic plane figures that the notebook's opening geometry lessons go on to name and define.