numberless images of the sun which are repeated in the ridges and

hollows, the sides and fronts of the innumerable waves; that is to

say in as many different spots on each wave as our eyes find

different positions to view them from. This could not happen, if the

aqueous sphere which covers a great part of the moon were uniformly

spherical, for then the images of the sun would be one to each

spectator, and its reflections would be separate and independent and

its radiance would always appear circular; as is plainly to be seen

in the gilt balls placed on the tops of high buildings. But if those

gilt balls were rugged or composed of several little balls, like

mulberries, which are a black fruit composed of minute round

globules, then each portion of these little balls, when seen in the

sun, would display to the eye the lustre resulting from the

reflection of the sun, and thus, in one and the same body many tiny

suns would be seen; and these often combine at a long distance and

appear as one. The lustre of the new moon is brighter and stronger,

than when the moon is full; and the reason of this is that the angle

of incidence is more obtuse in the new than in the full moon, in

which the angles [of incidence and reflection] are highly acute. The

waves of the moon therefore mirror the sun in the hollows of the

waves as well as on the ridges, and the sides remain in shadow. But

at the sides of the moon the hollows of the waves do not catch the

sunlight, but only their crests; and thus the images are fewer and

more mixed up with the shadows in the hollows; and this

intermingling of the shaded and illuminated spots comes to the eye

with a mitigated splendour, so that the edges will be darker,

732

The Notebooks of Leonardo Da Vinci Complete