[Footnote:  Leonardo wrote these lines on the margin of a page of the Trattato di Francesco di Giorgio, where there are several drawings of columns, as well as a head drawn in profile inside an outline sketch of a capital.]

768.

a b is 1/3 of n m; m o is 1/6 of r o.  The ovolo projects 1/6 of r o; s 7 1/5 of r o, a b is divided into 9 1/2; the abacus is 3/9 the ovolo 4/9, the bead-moulding and the fillet 2/9 and 1/2.

[Footnote:  See Pl.  LXXXV, No. 16.  In the original the drawing and writing are both in red chalk.]

Pl.  LXXXV No. 6 (MS. Ash.  II 6b) contains a small sketch of a capital with the following note, written in three lines: I chorni del capitelo deono essere la quarta parte d’uno quadro (The horns of a capital must measure the fourth part of a square).

MS. S. K. M. III 72b contains two sketches of ornamentations of windows.

In MS. C. A. 308a; 938a (see Pl.  LXXXII No. 1) there are several sketches of columns.  One of the two columns on the right is similar to those employed by Bramante at the Canonica di S. Ambrogio.  The same columns appear in the sketch underneath the plan of a castle.  There they appear coupled, and in two stories one above the other.  The archivolls which seem to spring out of the columns, are shaped like twisted cords, meant perhaps to be twisted branches.  The walls between the columns seem to be formed out of blocks of wood, the pedestals are ornamented with a reticulated pattern.  From all this we may suppose that Leonardo here had in mind either some festive decoration, or perhaps a pavilion for some hunting place or park.  The sketch of columns marked “35” gives an example of columns shaped like candelabra, a form often employed at that time, particularly in Milan, and the surrounding districts for instance in the Cortile di Casa Castiglione now Silvestre, in the cathedral of Como, at Porta della Rana &c.

769.

CONCERNING ARCHITRAVES OF ONE OR SEVERAL PIECES.

An architrave of several pieces is stronger than that of one single piece, if those pieces are placed with their length in the direction of the centre of the world.  This is proved because stones have their grain or fibre generated in the contrary direction i. e. in the direction of the opposite horizons of the hemisphere, and this is contrary to fibres of the plants which have ...

[Footnote:  The text is incomplete in the original.]

The Proportions of the stories of a building are indicated by a sketch in MS. S. K. M. II2 11b (see Pl.  LXXXV No. 15).  The measures are written on the left side, as follows:  br 1 1/2—­6 3/4—­br 1/12—­2 br—­9 e 1/2—­1 1/2—­br 5—­o 9—­o 3 [br=braccia; o=oncie].

Pl.  LXXXV No. 13 (MS. B. 62a) and Pl.  XCIII No. 1. (MS. B. 15a) give a few examples of arches supported on piers._