The Notebooks of Leonardo Da Vinci — CompleteLeonardo, da Vinci
Science
The Notebooks of Leonardo Da Vinci — Complete
Leonardo, da Vinci
Leonardo, da Vinci, 1452-1519 -- Notebooks, sketchbooks, etc.
Plans for the representation of muscles by drawings (803-809).
803.
You must show all the motions of the bones with their joints to
follow the demonstration of the first three figures of the bones,
and this should be done in the first book.
804.
Remember that to be certain of the point of origin of any muscle,
you must pull the sinew from which the muscle springs in such a way
as to see that muscle move, and where it is attached to the
ligaments of the bones.
NOTE.
You will never get any thing but confusion in demonstrating the
muscles and their positions, origin, and termination, unless you
first make a demonstration of thin muscles after the manner of linen
threads; and thus you can represent them, one over another as nature
has placed them; and thus, too, you can name them according to the
limb they serve; for instance the motor of the point of the great
toe, of its middle bone, of its first bone, &c. And when you have
the knowledge you will draw, by the side of this, the true form and
size and position of each muscle. But remember to give the threads
which explain the situation of the muscles in the position which
corresponds to the central line of each muscle; and so these threads
will demonstrate the form of the leg and their distance in a plain
and clear manner.
I have removed the skin from a man who was so shrunk by illness that
the muscles were worn down and remained in a state like thin
membrane, in such a way that the sinews instead of merging in
muscles ended in wide membrane; and where the bones were covered by
the skin they had very little over their natural size.
[Footnote: The photograph No. 41 of Grosvenor Gallery Publications:
a drawing of the muscles of the foot, includes a complete facsimile
of the text of this passage.]
805.
Which nerve causes the motion of the eye so that the motion of one
eye moves the other?
Of frowning the brows, of raising the brows, of lowering the
brows,--of closing the eyes, of opening the eyes,--of raising the
nostrils, of opening the lips, with the teeth shut, of pouting with
the lips, of smiling, of astonishment.--
Describe the beginning of man when it is caused in the womb and why
an eight months child does not live. What sneezing is. What yawning
is. Falling sickness, spasms, paralysis, shivering with cold,
sweating, fatigue, hunger, sleepiness, thirst, lust.
Of the nerve which is the cause of movement from the shoulder to the
elbow, of the movement from the elbow to the hand, from the joint of
the hand to the springing of the fingers. From the springing of the
fingers to the middle joints, and from the middle joints to the
last.
Of the nerve which causes the movement of the thigh, and from the
knee to the foot, and from the joint of the foot to the toes, and
then to the middle of the toes and of the rotary motion of the leg.
806.
ANATOMY.
Which nerves or sinews of the hand are those which close and part
the fingers and toes latteraly?
807.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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