[Verso: blank page].
[2nd cover sheet, recto and verso: blank].
[3rd cover sheet, recto (see the Illustration apart): in pen:]
Original Book/on the Nature, weight and motion of Water, /Composed, written and illustrated in his own/Hand alla mancina/By the Eminent Painter, and Surveyor/Leonardo da Vinci/In the time of Ludouico il Moro, on the channelling/ which he did of the Water of the Nauiglio della/Martesana from the Adda to Milan. /
[Space of blank line] Authenticated by precise Mention of it made by/Raffaelle du fresne in the Life of the said Leonardo, /described in his Book printed in Paris/by Giacomo Longlois in the Year 1651. entitled/Treatise/On the Painting/Of Leonardo da Vinci &/Purchased by the great power of Gold, to complete/ the laborious collection of his Library/by/Giuseppe Ghezzi Painter in Rome.
[Verso: in pen, in another hand:]
Leonardo habitually wrote from right to left, as is the Jewish custom, in which manner those thirteen volumes/ which we have already made mention of/ were written, and the Hand being clear, it may be read quite easily using a large Mirror, it is probable that he did this so that not everybody could easily read his writings. The work on the Nauiglio di Martesana gave him the opportunity/to write a book on the Nature, weight and Motion of Water, filled with a great Number of illustrations of Various wheels/Mill Machines, and Regulation of the Flow of the water, and raising Up of it =
[4th cover sheet, older than the previous (but perhaps not belonging to the original sheets), with recent repairs along the upper margin and in various other points: it is blank on the recto, and on the verso, bears the following note in an older hand, probably prior to the end of the XVI century].