SJ001051

Sheet 3A: On the left folio, Leonardo advances from the general to the particular in his quest to explain watery spheres. On the right folio, he concludes that siphoning is an inadequate concept to explain water on the tops of mountains. 34 V SYNOPSIS: With a dozen sketches of vessels and siphon systems, this page gives the impression that Leonardo worked in his laboratory conducting imaginative experiments. In the main text, Leonardo contrasts two ways of calculating the location of the center of the earth. In this context, he distinguishes between the “universal watery sphere” and the “particular watery sphere.” The Aristotelian distinction between the universal and the particular is one of the most important principles governing the conceptual organization of the entire codex. Generally speaking, the universal concerns that which endures forever, unchang — Image by © Seth Joel/CORBIS