[ [100] Leonardo da Vinci was remarkably fond of this kind of invention, and is accused of having lost a great deal of time that way.
[ [101] The method here recommended, was the general and common practice at that time, and continued so with little, if any variation, till lately. But about thirty years ago, the late Mr. Bacon invented an entirely new method, which, as better answering the purpose, he constantly used, and from him others have also adopted it into practice.
[ [102] This may be a good method of dividing the figure for the purpose of reducing from large to small, or vice versâ; but it not being the method generally used by the painters for measuring their figures, as being too minute, this chapter was not introduced amongst those of general proportions.
Transcriber’s Note:
This e-text is based on the 1802 edition. The original spelling has been retained, as well as inconsistencies, such as ‘musquetry’/‘musketry’, ‘Du Frêne’/‘du Fresne’, ‘Melzio’/‘Meltio’/‘Melzi’, etc. Uncommon or old-style spelling has not been altered, such as ‘opake’ (opaque), ‘verdegris’ (verdigris), ‘dutchess’ (duchess), etc. Errors due to bad print, as well as minor punctuation errors have been tacitly corrected.
In the text, the plates are referenced by using Roman numerals, whereas the captions of the plates show Arabic numerals; the same applies to the Table of Chapters and the chapter headings, respectively. This inconsistency has been retained.
Footnotes related to itroductory chapters have been prefixed with the letter ‘i’ ([i1]–[i210]); footnotes in da Vinci’s own text, however, are shown as plain Arabic numerals ([1]–[102]).
The following typographical errors have been corrected:
# p. [xviii]: ‘overspead’ → ‘overspread’; ‘Vincius ast oculis’ → ‘Vincius est oculis’
# p. [lxiii]: ‘Vasari, 36, ’ → ‘Vasari, p. 36,’
# p. [lxxxv]: ‘Maestrodi’ → ‘Maestro di’
# p. [xcii]: ‘Fontainbleau’ → ‘Fontainebleau’
# p. [22]: Plate 2: original caption points to page 2; corrected to page 22.
# p. [37]: ‘pully’ → ‘pulley’
# p. [117]: ‘andso’ → ‘and so’
# p. [156]: ‘A B E D’ → ‘C B E D’
# p. [181]: ‘that that’ → ‘than that’
# Footnote [62]: ‘tranferred’ → ‘transferred’
The Table of Chapters has been moved to the beginning of the text for reasons of clarity and comprehensibility.