The text discusses the division of a person's life into ten-year segments, suggesting an ideal lifespan of 100 years, with analogous proverbs about age and wisdom. It also outlines the ideal proportions of a well-proportioned human, emphasizing six-foot measurements and using the head as a unit of proportion similar to architectural modulus. It notes common practices in drawing and sculpture regarding human proportions.
Moderate Agreement of Parts
The very old age, during the winter, because it is cold and dry. Nowadays people are more inclined to live long, so the old age period is divided into 10 parts, each of 10 years; thus making exactly 100 years. Few adhere to this division: despite the illustration thereof, one can find such a chart in most homes on the wall. The old saying used to be: He who is not handsome at twenty, not strong at thirty, not wise at forty, nor rich at fifty, misses his prime.
General Length of Perfect Humans
The general length of a properly proportioned person is generally fixed at six foot-measures; similarly, some measure six of their own feet tall; and thus little more than six heads tall; though some do not accept this rule, because in drawing, the length of eight heads is commonly used. To choose a proportion scale with which an entire human figure can be measured and proportioned, nothing more convenient has been found than the head; which here, as the modulus, or measurement in architecture, can be taken. Just as, commonly in building orders, columns are scaled by their proportion, so many middle lines, termed modulus, are given in height, and for the other parts of the ornaments, so many proportional sections are needed to be well proportioned; So too, a sculpture in anthropology, certainly a number of heads in the general size is made.