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.
Separate light is that which falls upon the body. Inseparable light
is the side of the body that is illuminated by that light. One is
called primary, the other derived. And, in the same way there are
two kinds of shadow:--One primary and the other derived. The primary
is that which is inseparable from the body, the derived is that
which proceeds from the body conveying to the surface of the wall
the form of the body causing it.
127.
How there are 2 different kinds of light; one being called diffused,
the other restricted. The diffused is that which freely illuminates
objects. The restricted is that which being admitted through an
opening or window illuminates them on that side only.
[Footnote: At the spot marked _A_ in the first diagram Leonardo
wrote _lume costretto_ (restricted light). At the spot _B_ on the
second diagram he wrote _lume libero_ (diffused light).]
General remarks (128. 129).
128.
Light is the chaser away of darkness. Shade is the obstruction of
light. Primary light is that which falls on objects and causes light
and shade. And derived lights are those portions of a body which are
illuminated by the primary light. A primary shadow is that side of a
body on which the light cannot fall.
The general distribution of shadow and light is that sum total of
the rays thrown off by a shaded or illuminated body passing through
the air without any interference and the spot which intercepts and
cuts off the distribution of the dark and light rays.
And the eye can best distinguish the forms of objects when it is
placed between the shaded and the illuminated parts.
129.
MEMORANDUM OF THINGS I REQUIRE TO HAVE GRANTED [AS AXIOMS] IN MY
EXPLANATION OF PERSPECTIVE.
I ask to have this much granted me--to assert that every ray
passing through air of equal density throughout, travels in a
straight line from its cause to the object or place it falls upon.
FIRST BOOK ON LIGHT AND SHADE.
On the nature of light (130. 131).
130.
The reason by which we know that a light radiates from a single
centre is this: We plainly see that a large light is often much
broader than some small object which nevertheless--and although the
rays [of the large light] are much more than twice the extent [of
the small body]--always has its shadow cast on the nearest surface
very visibly. Let _c f_ be a broad light and _n_ be the object in
front of it, casting a shadow on the plane, and let _a b_ be the
plane. It is clear that it is not the broad light that will cast the
shadow _n_ on the plane, but that the light has within it a centre
is shown by this experiment. The shadow falls on the plane as is
shown at _m o t r_.
[Footnote 13: In the original MS. no explanatory text is placed
after this title-line; but a space is left for it and the text
beginning at line 15 comes next.] Why, to two [eyes] or in front of
two eyes do 3 objects appear as two?
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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