Fol.11v

How to construct a wing. The drawings should be read from the lowest to the highest. In the first sketch, the wing, barely outlined, is almost like an anatomical reproduction, and is gradually enriched in the sketches that follow by mechanical parts for extension and flexion, up to the detail of the arm connected to the machine. Leonardo used recycled paper for the Codex, and on this page can be discerned the study of a leaf.

(this page contains practically no text)

NOTE. For each page of Leonardo’s Codex we provide a brief summary, with the quotation of one that page’s most significant passages edited in modern Italian, with an English translation.

translation by Kim Williams