Leonardo created an unprecedented “image bank” showing the infinite variability of the movements of water that would not be matched until the advent of photography and the film camera. No less impressive is the dictionary of verbs and nouns that he compiled to match the communicative power of images with words.
... Eddies. Collisions. Frictions. Undulations. Streamings. Boilings. Successive cascadings. Slowings. Gushing. Pouring. Reversals. Successive serpentine divings. Streaming. Babblings. Roars. Successive floodings. Resistance. Flux and reflux. Crashings down. Violent crashings. Chasms. Caves in the banks. Vortices. Precipices. Reversals. Tumult. Confusion. Tempestuous crashes. Equations. Equality. Furrowing of stones. Collisions. Boilings. Submergence of superficial waves. Retardings. Breakages. Divisions. Openings. Celerity. Vehemence. Fury. Impetuousness. Concourse. Declination. Commixture. Revolution. Cascade. Rebounding. Disintegration of banks. Obfuscations.
Manuscript I2, f. 71v