OF THE NATURAL POINT.
The smallest natural point is larger than all mathematical points, and this is proved because the natural point has continuity, and any thing that is continuous is infinitely divisible; but the mathematical point is indivisible because it has no size.
[Footnote: This definition was inserted by Leonardo on a MS. copy on parchment of the well-known “Trattato d’Architettura civile e militare” &c. by FRANCESCO DI GIORGIO; opposite a passage where the author says: ‘In prima he da sapere che punto è quella parie della quale he nulla—Linia he luncheza senza àpieza; &c.]
Taken from The Notebooks of Leonardo da Vinci edited by Jean Paul Richter, 1880.