The Notebooks of Leonardo Da Vinci

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Page 86 of 1565.
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A simple and natural method; showing how objects appear to the eye
without any other medium.

The object that is nearest to the eye always seems larger than
another of the same size at greater distance. The eye _m_, seeing
the spaces _o v x_, hardly detects the difference between them, and
the. reason of this is that it is close to them [Footnote 6: It is
quite inconceivable to me why M. RAVAISSON, in a note to his French
translation of this simple passage should have remarked: _Il est
clair que c'est par erreur que Leonard a ecrit_ per esser visino _au
lieu de_ per non esser visino. (See his printed ed. of MS. A. p.
38.)]; but if these spaces are marked on the vertical plane _n o_
the space _o v_ will be seen at _o r_, and in the same way the space
_v x_ will appear at _r q_. And if you carry this out in any place
where you can walk round, it will look out of proportion by reason
of the great difference in the spaces _o r_ and _r q_. And this
proceeds from the eye being so much below [near] the plane that the
plane is foreshortened. Hence, if you wanted to carry it out, you
would have [to arrange] to see the perspective through a single hole
which must be at the point _m_, or else you must go to a distance of
at least 3 times the height of the object you see. The plane _o p_
being always equally remote from the eye will reproduce the objects
in a satisfactory way, so that they may be seen from place to place.

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