Refraction of the rays falling upon the eye (74. 75)

74.

The lines sent forth by the image of an object to the eye do not

reach the point within the eye in straight lines.

75.

If the judgment of the eye is situated within it, the straight lines

of the images are refracted on its surface because they pass through

the rarer to the denser medium. If, when you are under water, you

look at objects in the air you will see them out of their true

place; and the same with objects under water seen from the air.

The intersection of the rays (76-82).

76.

The inversion of the images.

All the images of objects which pass through a window [glass pane]

from the free outer air to the air confined within walls, are seen

on the opposite side; and an object which moves in the outer air

from east to west will seem in its shadow, on the wall which is

lighted by this confined air, to have an opposite motion.

77.

THE PRINCIPLE ON WHICH THE IMAGES OF BODIES PASS IN BETWEEN THE

MARGINS OF THE OPENINGS BY WHICH THEY ENTER.

What difference is there in the way in which images pass through

narrow openings and through large openings, or in those which pass

by the sides of shaded bodies? By moving the edges of the opening

through which the images are admitted, the images of immovable

objects are made to move. And this happens, as is shown in the 9th

which demonstrates: [Footnote 11: _per la 9a che dicie_. When

Leonardo refers thus to a number it serves to indicate marginal

diagrams; this can in some instances be distinctly proved. The ninth

sketch on the page W. L. 145 b corresponds to the middle sketch of

the three reproduced.] the images of any object are all everywhere,

and all in each part of the surrounding air. It follows that if one

of the edges of the hole by which the images are admitted to a dark

chamber is moved it cuts off those rays of the image that were in

contact with it and gets nearer to other rays which previously were

remote from it &c.

OF THE MOVEMENT OF THE EDGE AT THE RIGHT OR LEFT, OR THE UPPER, OR

LOWER EDGE.

If you move the right side of the opening the image on the left will

move [being that] of the object which entered on the right side of

the opening; and the same result will happen with all the other

sides of the opening. This can be proved by the 2nd of this which

shows: all the rays which convey the images of objects through the

air are straight lines. Hence, if the images of very large bodies

have to pass through very small holes, and beyond these holes

recover their large size, the lines must necessarily intersect.

[Footnote: 77. 2. In the first of the three diagrams Leonardo had

drawn only one of the two margins, et _m_.]

78.

Necessity has provided that all the images of objects in front of

the eye shall intersect in two places. One of these intersections is

in the pupil, the other in the crystalline lens; and if this were

not the case the eye could not see so great a number of objects as

it does. This can be proved, since all the lines which intersect do

so in a point. Because nothing is seen of objects excepting their

surface; and their edges are lines, in contradistinction to the

definition of a surface. And each minute part of a line is equal to

a point; for _smallest_ is said of that than which nothing can be

smaller, and this definition is equivalent to the definition of the

point. Hence it is possible for the whole circumference of a circle

to transmit its image to the point of intersection, as is shown in

the 4th of this which shows: all the smallest parts of the images

cross each other without interfering with each other. These

demonstrations are to illustrate the eye. No image, even of the

smallest object, enters the eye without being turned upside down;

but as it penetrates into the crystalline lens it is once more

reversed and thus the image is restored to the same position within

the eye as that of the object outside the eye.

79.

The Notebooks of Leonardo Da Vinci — Volume 1 · 第 54 / 366 题