The Notebooks of Leonardo Da Vinci Complete


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HOW YOUNG BOYS HAVE THEIR JOINTS JUST THE REVERSE OF THOSE OF  
MEN,  
AS TO SIZE.  
Little children have all the joints slender and the portions between  
them are thick; and this happens because nothing but the skin covers  
the joints without any other flesh and has the character of sinew,  
connecting the bones like a ligature. And the fat fleshiness is laid  
on between one joint and the next, and between the skin and the  
bones. But, since the bones are thicker at the joints than between  
them, as a mass grows up the flesh ceases to have that superfluity  
which it had, between the skin and the bones; whence the skin clings  
more closely to the bone and the limbs grow more slender. But since  
there is nothing over the joints but the cartilaginous and sinewy  
skin this cannot dry up, and, not drying up, cannot shrink. Thus,  
and for this reason, children are slender at the joints and fat  
between the joints; as may be seen in the joints of the fingers,  
arms, and shoulders, which are slender and dimpled, while in man on  
the contrary all the joints of the fingers, arms, and legs are  
thick; and wherever children have hollows men have prominences.  
The movement of the human figure (368-375).  
3
68.  
Of the manner of representing the 18 actions of man. Repose,  
270  


Page
268 269 270 271 272

Quick Jump
1 306 613 919 1225