Make the rule and give the measurement of each muscle, and give the reasons of all their functions, and in which way they work and what makes them work &c.
[4] First draw the spine of the back; then clothe it by degrees, one after the other, with each of its muscles and put in the nerves and arteries and veins to each muscle by itself; and besides these note the vertebrae to which they are attached; which of the intestines come in contact with them; and which bones and other organs &c.
The most prominent parts of lean people are most prominent in the muscular, and equally so in fat persons. But concerning the difference in the forms of the muscles in fat persons as compared with muscular persons, it shall be described below.
[Footnote: The two drawings given on Pl. CVIII no. 1 come between lines 3 and 4. A good and very early copy of this drawing without the written text exists in the collection of drawings belonging to Christ’s College Oxford, where it is attributed to Leonardo.]
Taken from The Notebooks of Leonardo da Vinci edited by Jean Paul Richter, 1880.