On the Proportion of Man.

Now that I have measured the length of the figure's body to its conclusion, I wish next to set the knee joint in its proper place. There, the figure is given various unequal lengths; namely, the Body, from the height of the hollow of the neck original: "hals-kuyls," the suprasternal notch at the base of the throat down to the end of the hips, is the first and longest part. The second, from the end of the hips to the middle of the knee, is shorter. The third, from the middle of the knee to the end of the shin bone, is the shortest of all. However, the posterior limbs shall be somewhat longer and stronger than the anterior ones, as can be observed in living men. I take the Body here as the longest part; although it is assembled from many pieces, it is yet undivided and powerful enough to move the other limbs. These three lengths shall maintain a proportional relationship to one another: just as the length of the Body relates to the length of the upper leg, so must the length of the upper leg relate to the length of the shin bone. However, I do not use this method for all figures, and therefore I wish to construct it thus:

I draw a triangle a. b. c.; a. b. are the horizontal sides, but b. c. is upright, so that b. remains a right angle. Thereafter, I divide the upright side b. c. with two points, d. and e., into three equal fields, and draw two straight lines from the angle a. into the two points d. and e. From this, I seek the comparison as follows:

I take a marking stick or measuring rod original: "Schepder," a tool used for transferring proportional measurements and mark upon it with two points the length of the Body between the hollow of the neck and the end of the hips. Likewise, I mark below that the end of the outer ankles at the bottom of the shin bone. I label the point for the hollow of the neck with an f., and the end of the hips with a g., and the end of the shin bone with an h. Thereafter, I take the rule or measuring rod and lay it with the point g. upon the line a. d. of the aforementioned triangle, ensuring these points do not stray from the prescribed line. Then I move the rule or measuring rod back and forth upon the line until the point f. touches the top of the triangle's line a. c., and the bottom point h. touches the horizontal line a. b. When I have done this, the line a. e. intersects the measuring rod between g. and h., and together with the length of the Body, creates three proportional line segments. I mark these points with an i. Thus, one finds that just as the length f. g. relates to the length g. i., so the length g. i. also relates to i. h. In this way, I mark the height of the hollow of the neck by point f.; the end of the hips by point g.; the middle of the knee by point i.; and the end of the shin bone by point h. It is also to be noted that when I lay my measuring rod in the triangle, I incline the top with points f. against the upright side c. b. This triangle may well be called a comparator original: "verghelijcker," a proportional scale. It can also be used in reverse if one wishes to change or invert something. Through this method, many other profitable things are found and put into practice, if one knows how to use them correctly. Now I set the height i. into the figure, which I shall draw hereafter, and place the knee at that same spot. Following that, I measure further upwards from the middle of the knee one twenty-first part.

And before I proceed further, I wish to place the triangle, the Comparator, here before your eyes: