da Vinci, in his notes, advocates for drawing as a means of "[giving] full and true knowledge about these [anatomical] forms"
"the shortcut of design" allows one to view "from this and from that side" and sidesteps the problems of "enromously prolix and confusing verbiage"
Duden writes that da Vinci heralds "the beginning of a new epoch in the history of the gaze: the replacement of illumination by illustration"
and she notes that "By the eighteenth century, Leonardo's insight was commonplace. Anatomists were aware of their need for drawings when explaining the shape and functioning of the body"