The Da Vinci Notebooks at sacred-texts.com
The front a m will give light to the rooms; a e will be 6 braccia--a b 8 braccia --b e 30 braccia, in order that the rooms under the porticoes may be lighted; c d f is the place where the boats come to the houses to be unloaded. In order to render this arrangement practicable, and in order that the inundation of the rivers may not penetrate into the cellars, it is necessary to chose an appropriate situation, such as a spot near a river which can be diverted into canals in which the level of the water will not vary either by inundations or drought. The construction is shown below; and make choice of a fine river, which the rains do not render muddy, such as the Ticino, the Adda and many others. 356 The construction
to oblige the waters to keep constantly at the same level will be a sort of dock, as shown below, situated at the entrance of the town; or better still, some way within, in order that the enemy may not destroy it [14].
30:356 12: Tesino, Adda e molti altri, i.e. rivers coming from the mountains and flowing through lakes.
31:357 : L. 1-4 are on the left hand side and within the sketch given on Pl. LXXIX, No. 1. Then follows after line 14, the drawing of a sluicegate--conca--of which the use is explained in the text below it. On the page 38a, which comes next in the original MS. is the sketch of an oval plan of a town over which is written "modo di canali per la citta" and through the longer axis of it "canale magior" is written with "Tesino" on the prolongation of the canal. J. P. R.