III. Six Books on Light and Shade: 178.
178.
It can be proved why the shadow o p c h is darker in proportion as it is nearer to the line p h and is lighter in proportion as it is nearer to the line o c. Let the light a b, be a window, and let the dark wall in which this window is, be b s, that is, one of the sides of the wall.
Then we may say that the line p h is darker than any other part of the space o p c h, because this line faces the whole surface in shadow of 81
the wall b s. The line o c is lighter than the other part of this space o p c h, because this line faces the luminous space a b.
Where the shadow is larger, or smaller, or equal the body which casts it.
[First of the character of divided lights. 82
OF THE COMPOUND SHADOW F, R, C, H CAUSED BY A SINGLE LIGHT.
The shadow f r c h is under such conditions as that where it is farthest from its inner side it loses depth in proportion. To prove this:
Let d a, be the light and f n the solid body, and let a e be one of the side walls of the window that is d a. Then I say--according to the 2nd [proposition]: that the surface of any body is affected by the tone of the objects surrounding it,--that the side r c, which faces the dark wall a e must participate of its darkness and, in the same way that the outer surface which faces the light d a participates of the light; thus we get the outlines of the extremes on each side of the centre included between them.]
This is divided into four parts. The first the extremes, which include the compound shadow, secondly the compound shadow between these extremes.