870.

The Da Vinci Notebooks at sacred-texts.com

870.

p. 142

PERSPECTIVE.

Among objects moved from the eye at equal distance, that undergoes least diminution which at first was most remote.

When various objects are removed at equal distances farther from their original position, that which was at first the farthest from the eye will diminish least. And the proportion of the diminution will be in proportion to the relative distance of the objects from the eye before they were removed.

That is to say in the object t and the object e the proportion of their distances from the eye a is quintuple. I remove each from its place and set it farther from the eye by one of the 5 parts

into which the proposition is divided. Hence it happens that the nearest to the eye has doubled the distance and according to the last proposition but one of this, is diminished by the half of its whole size; and the body e, by the same motion, is diminished 1/5 of its whole size. Therefore, by that same last proposition but one, that which is said in this last proposition is true; and this I say of the motions of the celestial bodies which are more distant by 3500 miles when setting than when overhead, and yet do not increase or diminish in any sensible degree.