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Codex Leicester, 18v. - Page with four drawings and sixteen "cases" on the confluence of two rivers and the relevant effects. Leonardo considers the numerous variables that could occur in the combination of larger and smaller watercourses, of different orientation. The most precise and best documented is the one regarding the Arno, where the Mensola torrent flows into it (cf. the beautiful drawing RLW 12679). The Mensola is flowing at high water, its mouth is obstructed by stones and debris that the water leaps over, falling beyond and digging out the riverbed; and then pushes on the material it has excavated, creating three "cliffs"; as long as the Arno is at low water it cannot break them down... Three figures show an acute angle of confluence; two minor watercourses that augment the course of the major one; the dominant force of the current of the big river over that of a torrent intersecting it. Writes Leonardo: "Concavity made by Mensola, when Arno is low and Mensola big".
Codex Leicester, 18v. - Page with four drawings and sixteen "cases" on the confluence of two rivers and the relevant effects. Leonardo considers the numerous variables that could occur in the combination of larger and smaller watercourses, of different orientation. The most precise and best documented is the one regarding the Arno, where the Mensola torrent flows into it (cf. the beautiful drawing RLW 12679). The Mensola is flowing at high water, its mouth is obstructed by stones and debris that the water leaps over, falling beyond and digging out the riverbed; and then pushes on the material it has excavated, creating three "cliffs"; as long as the Arno is at low water it cannot break them down... Three figures show an acute angle of confluence; two minor watercourses that augment the course of the major one; the dominant force of the current of the big river over that of a torrent intersecting it. Writes Leonardo: "Concavity made by Mensola, when Arno is low and Mensola big".
© Alessandro Vezzosi

Last update 06/mar/2008