denote: A bodie.] so of manie plattes is made
_a bodie_, whiche conteigneth _Lengthe, bredth, and depenesse_.
[Sidenote: Depenesse.] By _Depenesse_ I vnderstand, not as the
common sort doth, the holownesse of any thing, as of a well,
a diche, a potte, and suche like, but I meane the massie
thicknesse of any bodie, as in exaumple of a potte: the
depenesse is after the common name, the space from his brimme to
his bottome. But as I take it here, the depenesse of his bodie
is his thicknesse in the sides, whiche is an other thyng cleane
different from the depenesse of his holownes, that the common
people meaneth.
Now all bodies haue platte formes for their boundes, [Sidenote:
Cubike.] so in a dye (whiche is called _a cubike bodie_) by
geomatricians, [Sidenote: Asheler.] and an _ashler_ of masons,
there are .vi. sides, whiche are .vi. platte formes, and are the
boundes of the dye.
[Sidenote: A globe.] But in a _Globe_, (whiche is a bodie rounde
as a bowle) there is but one platte forme, and one bounde, and
these are the exaumples of them bothe.
[Illustration: A dye or ashler.]
[Illustration: A globe.]
But because you shall not muse what I dooe call _a bound_,
[Sidenote: A bounde.] I mean therby a generall name, betokening
the beginning, end and side, of any forme.
[Sidenote: Forme, Fygure.] _A forme, figure, or shape_, is that
thyng that is inclosed within one bond or manie bondes, so that
you vnderstand that shape, that the eye doth discerne, and not
the substance of the bodie.
Of _figures_ there be manie sortes, for either thei be made of
prickes, lines, or platte formes. Not withstandyng to speake
properlie, _a figure_ is euer made by platte formes, and not of
bare lines vnclosed, neither yet of prickes.
Yet for the lighter forme of teachyng, it shall not be vnsemely
to call all suche shapes, formes and figures, whiche y^e eye
maie discerne distinctly.
And first to begin with prickes, there maie be made diuerse
formes of them, as partely here doeth folowe.
[Illustration:
A lynearic numbre.
Trianguler numbres
Longsquare numbre.
Iust square numbres
a threcornered spire.
A square spire.]
And so maie there be infinite formes more, whiche I omitte for
this time, considering that their knowledg appertaineth more to
Arithmetike figurall, than to Geometrie.
But yet one name of a pricke, whiche he taketh rather of his
place then of his fourme, maie I not ouerpasse. A
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