The Notebooks of Leonardo Da Vinci Complete


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reflected in a convex body takes up but a small portion of that  
body, as is proved in perspective [Footnote 18: come e provato.  
This alludes to the accompanying diagram.]. The third reason is that  
when the moon is full, it only faces half the hemisphere of the  
illuminated earth, on which only the ocean and other waters reflect  
bright light, while the land makes spots on that brightness; thus  
half of our earth would be seen girt round with the brightness of  
the sea lighted up by the sun, and in the moon this reflection would  
be the smallest part of that moon. Fourthly, a radiant body cannot  
be reflected from another equally radiant; therefore the sea, since  
it borrows its brightness from the sun,--as the moon does--, could  
not cause the earth to be reflected in it, nor indeed could the body  
of the sun be seen reflected in it, nor indeed any star opposite to  
it.  
9
06.  
If you keep the details of the spots of the moon under observation  
you will often find great variation in them, and this I myself have  
proved by drawing them. And this is caused by the clouds that rise  
from the waters in the moon, which come between the sun and those  
waters, and by their shadow deprive these waters of the sun's rays.  
Thus those waters remain dark, not being able to reflect the solar  
body.  
9
07.  
745  


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