The reverse writing imbedded
in Leonardos drawing is his translation into Italian from the Latin of MARCUS
VITRUVIUS POLLIO, De Architectura, Book III of X, Chapter 1, "On
Symmetry in Temples and in the Human Body." Vitruvius, an architect and military
engineer during the Second Triumvirate, (following the death of Julius Caesar)
and in the early reign of Augustus, was strongly influenced by the Greeks, particularly
Hermogenes (c.200 BCE), and wrote on topics of style, proportion, ornamentation,
the directions of streets, foundations and substructures, building methods and
materials, ancient inventions, acoustics, and structural harmonics.
measurements of the human body are designed by Nature that 4 fingers make 1 palm,
and 4 palms make 1 foot, 6 palms make 1 cubit; 4 cubits make a man's height. And
4 cubits make one pace and 24 palms make a man; and these measures he used in
"If you open your legs
so much as to decrease your height 1/14 and spread and raise your arms till your
middle fingers touch the level of the top of your head you must know that the
centre of the outspread limbs will be in the navel and the space between the legs
will be an equilateral triangle.
length of a man's outspread arms is equal to his height.
the roots of the hair to the bottom of the chin is the tenth of a man's height;
from the bottom of the chin to the top of his head is one eighth of his height;
from the top of the breast to the top of his head will be one sixth of a man.
From the top of the breast to the roots of the hair will be the seventh part of
the whole man. From the nipples to the top of the head will be the fourth part
of a man. The greatest width of the shoulders contains in itself the fourth part
of the man. From the elbow to the tip of the hand will be the fifth part of a
man; and from the elbow to the angle of the armpit will be the eighth part of
the man. The whole hand will be the tenth part of the man; the beginning of the
genitals marks the middle of the man. The foot is the seventh part of the man.
From the sole of the foot to below the knee will be the fourth part of the man.
From below the knee to the beginning of the genitals will be the fourth part of
the man. The distance from the bottom of the chin to the nose and from the roots
of the hair to the eyebrows is, in each case the same, and like the ear, a third
of the face."
The Notebooks of
Leonardo DaVinci, Vol. 1 pp. 182-3. Translation by Jean Paul Richter, 1883. [Dover
Publications, New York.]
Ten Books on Architecture,
Vitruvius, translated by Morris Hicky Morgan.[Harvard University Press, 1914.]
Leonardo da Vinci
National Museum of Science and
Technology, Milan, Italy.
In English, a comprehensive illustrated list of
Leonardo's inventions. http://www.museoscienza.org/english/leonardo/invenzioni.html
Stevens Institute of Technology, Hoboken, New Jersey, USA
School of Mathematics and Statistics, University
of St. Andrews, Scotland
American Museum of Natural History, New YorkCity
Museum, Paris - timeline
Museum, Paris - from sketches to paintings
Museum, Paris - The Mona Lisa
Art, Inventions, & Drawings of Leonardo
Highlands Ranch, Colorado,
A year by year chronology of the life of Leonardo; also, his study of