The Ten Books on Architecture
by Vitruvius Pollio · English · Gutenberg #20239 · 599,880 chars · public domain (US)
The Project Gutenberg eBook of The Ten Books on Architecture
This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and
most other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions
whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms
of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online
at www.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the United States,
you will have to check the laws of the country where you are located
before using this eBook.
Title: The Ten Books on Architecture
Author: Vitruvius Pollio
Release date: December 31, 2006 [eBook #20239]
Language: English
Other information and formats: www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/20239
Credits: Produced by Chuck Greif, Melissa Er-Raqabi, Ted Garvin and
the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at
http://www.pgdp.net
*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE TEN BOOKS ON ARCHITECTURE ***
Produced by Chuck Greif, Melissa Er-Raqabi, Ted Garvin and
the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at
http://www.pgdp.net
VITRUVIUS
THE TEN BOOKS ON ARCHITECTURE
TRANSLATED BY
MORRIS HICKY MORGAN, PH.D., LL.D.
LATE PROFESSOR OF CLASSICAL PHILOLOGY
IN HARVARD UNIVERSITY
WITH ILLUSTRATIONS AND ORIGINAL DESIGNS
PREPARED UNDER THE DIRECTION OF
HERBERT LANGFORD WARREN, A.M.
NELSON ROBINSON JR. PROFESSOR OF ARCHITECTURE
IN HARVARD UNIVERSITY
CAMBRIDGE
HARVARD UNIVERSITY PRESS
LONDON: HUMPHREY MILFORD
OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS
1914
COPYRIGHT, HARVARD UNIVERSITY PRESS
* * * * *
PREFACE
During the last years of his life, Professor Morgan had devoted much
time and energy to the preparation of a translation of Vitruvius, which
he proposed to supplement with a revised text, illustrations, and notes.
He had completed the translation, with the exception of the last four
chapters of the tenth book, and had discussed, with Professor Warren,
the illustrations intended for the first six books of the work; the
notes had not been arranged or completed, though many of them were
outlined in the manuscript, or the intention to insert them indicated.
The several books of the translation, so far as it was completed, had
been read to a little group of friends, consisting of Professors Sheldon
and Kittredge, and myself, and had received our criticism, which had, at
times, been utilized in the revision of the work.
After the death of Professor Morgan, in spite of my obvious incompetency
from a technical point of view, I undertook, at the request of his
family, to complete the translation, and to see the book through the
press. I must, therefore, assume entire responsibility for the
translation of the tenth book, beginning with chapter thirteen, and
further responsibility for necessary changes made by me in the earlier
part of the translation, changes which, in no case, affect any theory
held by Professor Morgan, but which involve mainly the adoption of
simpler forms of statement, or the correction of obvious oversights.
The text followed is that of Valentine Rose in his second edition
(Leipzig, 1899), and the variations from this text are, with a few
exceptions which are indicated in the footnotes, in the nature of a
return to the consensus of the manuscript readings.
The illustrations in the first six books are believed to be
substantially in accord with the wishes of Professor Morgan. The
suggestions for illustrations in the later books were incomplete, and
did not indicate, in all cases, with sufficient definiteness to allow
them to be executed, the changes from conventional plans and designs
intended by the translator. It has, therefore, been decided to include
in this part of the work only those illustrations which are known to
have had the full approval of Professor Morgan. The one exception to
this principle is the reproduction of a rough model of the Ram of
Hegetor, constructed by me on the basis of the measurements given by
Vitruvius and Athenaeus.
It does not seem to me necessary or even advisable to enter into a long
discussion as to the date of Vitruvius, which has been assigned to
various periods from the time of Augustus to the early centuries of our
era. Professor Morgan, in several articles in the _Harvard Studies in
Classical Philology_, and in the _Proceedings of the American Academy_,
all of which have been reprinted in a volume of _Addresses and Essays_
(New York, 1909), upheld the now generally accepted view that Vitruvius
wrote in the time of Augustus, and furnished conclusive evidence that
nothing in his language is inconsistent with this view. In revising the
translation, I met with one bit of evidence for a date before the end of
the reign of Nero which I have never seen adduced. In viii, 3, 21, the
kingdom of Cottius is mentioned, the name depending, it is true, on an
emendation, but one which has been universally accepted since it was
first proposed in 1513. The kingdom of Cottius was made into a Roman
province by Nero (cf. Suetonius, _Nero_, 18), and it is inconceivable
that any Roman writer subsequently referred to it as a kingdom.
It does seem necessary to add a few words about the literary merits of
Vitruvius in this treatise, and about Professor Morgan's views as to the
general principles to be followed in the translation.
Vitruvius was not a great literary personage, ambitious as he was to
appear in that character. As Professor Morgan has aptly said, "he has
all the marks of one unused to composition, to whom writing is a painful
task." In his hand the measuring-rod was a far mightier implement than
the pen. His turgid and pompous rhetoric displays itself in the
introductions to the different books, where his exaggerated effort to
introduce some semblance of style into his commonplace lectures on the
noble principles which should govern the conduct of the architect, or
into the prosaic lists of architects and writers on architecture, is
everywhere apparent. Even in the more technical portions of his work, a
like conscious effort may be detected, and, at the same time, a lack of
confidence in his ability to express himself in unmistakable language.
He avoids periodic sentences, uses only the simpler subjunctive
constructions, repeats the antecedent in relative clauses, and, not
infrequently, adopts a formal language closely akin to that of
specifications and contracts, the style with which he was, naturally,
most familiar. He ends each book with a brief summary, almost a formula,
somewhat like a sigh of relief, in which the reader unconsciously
shares. At times his meaning is ambiguous, not because of grammatical
faults, which are comparatively few and unimportant, but because, when
he does attempt a periodic sentence, he becomes involved, and finds it
difficult to extricate himself.
Some of these peculiarities and crudities of expression Professor Morgan
purposely imitated, because of his conviction that a translation should
not merely reproduce the substance of a book, but should also give as
clear a picture as possible of the original, of its author, and of the
working of his mind. The translation is intended, then, to be faithful
and exact, but it deliberately avoids any attempt to treat the language
of Vitruvius as though it were Ciceronian, or to give a false impression
of conspicuous literary merit in a work which is destitute of that
quality. The translator had, however, the utmost confidence in the
sincerity of Vitruvius and in the serious purpose of his treatise on
architecture.
To those who have liberally given their advice and suggestions in
response to requests from Professor Morgan, it is impossible for me to
make adequate acknowledgment. Their number is so great, and my knowledge
of the indebtedness in individual cases is so small, that each must be
content with the thought of the full and generous acknowledgment which
he would have received had Professor Morgan himself written this
preface.
Personally I am under the greatest obligations to Professor H. L.
Warren, who has freely given both assistance and criticism; to Professor
G. L. Kittredge, who has read with me most of the proof; to the Syndics
of the Harvard University Press, who have made possible the publication
of the work; and to the members of the Visiting Committee of the
Department of the Classics and the classmates of Professor Morgan, who
have generously supplied the necessary funds for the illustrations.
ALBERT A. HOWARD.
CONTENTS
BOOK I
PREFACE 3
THE EDUCATION OF THE ARCHITECT 5
THE FUNDAMENTAL PRINCIPLES OF ARCHITECTURE 13
THE DEPARTMENTS OF ARCHITECTURE 16
THE SITE OF A CITY 17
THE CITY WALLS 21
THE DIRECTIONS OF THE STREETS; WITH REMARKS ON THE WINDS 24
THE SITES FOR PUBLIC BUILDINGS 31
BOOK II
INTRODUCTION 35
THE ORIGIN OF THE DWELLING HOUSE 38
ON THE PRIMORDIAL SUBSTANCE ACCORDING TO THE PHYSICISTS 42
BRICK 42
SAND 44
LIME 45
POZZOLANA 46
STONE 49
METHODS OF BUILDING WALLS 51
TIMBER 58
HIGHLAND AND LOWLAND FIR 64
BOOK III
INTRODUCTION 69
ON SYMMETRY: IN TEMPLES AND IN THE HUMAN BODY 72
CLASSIFICATION OF TEMPLES 75
THE PROPORTIONS OF INTERCOLUMNIATIONS AND OF COLUMNS 78
THE FOUNDATIONS AND SUBSTRUCTURES OF TEMPLES 86
PROPORTIONS OF THE BASE, CAPITALS, AND ENTABLATURE IN THE
IONIC ORDER 90
BOOK IV
INTRODUCTION 101
THE ORIGINS OF THE THREE ORDERS, AND THE PROPORTIONS OF THE
CORINTHIAN CAPITAL 102
THE ORNAMENTS OF THE ORDERS 107
PROPORTIONS OF DORIC TEMPLES 109
THE CELLA AND PRONAOS 114
HOW THE TEMPLE SHOULD FACE 116
THE DOORWAYS OF TEMPLES 117
TUSCAN TEMPLES 120
CIRCULAR TEMPLES AND OTHER VARIETIES 122
ALTARS 125
BOOK V
INTRODUCTION 129
THE FORUM AND BASILICA 131
THE TREASURY, PRISON, AND SENATE HOUSE 137
THE THEATRE: ITS SITE, FOUNDATIONS, AND ACOUSTICS 137
HARMONICS 139
SOUNDING VESSELS IN THE THEATRE 143
PLAN OF THE THEATRE 146
GREEK THEATRES 151
ACOUSTICS OF THE SITE OF A THEATRE 153
COLONNADES AND WALKS 154
BATHS 157
THE PALAESTRA 159
HARBOURS, BREAKWATERS, AND SHIPYARDS 162
BOOK VI
INTRODUCTION 167
ON CLIMATE AS DETERMINING THE STYLE OF THE HOUSE 170
SYMMETRY, AND MODIFICATIONS IN IT TO SUIT THE SITE 174
PROPORTIONS OF THE PRINCIPAL ROOMS 176
THE PROPER EXPOSURES OF THE DIFFERENT ROOMS 180
HOW THE ROOMS SHOULD BE SUITED TO THE STATION OF THE
OWNER 181
THE FARMHOUSE 183
THE GREEK HOUSE 185
ON FOUNDATIONS AND SUBSTRUCTURES 189
BOOK VII
INTRODUCTION 195
FLOORS 202
THE SLAKING OF LIME FOR STUCCO 204
VAULTINGS AND STUCCO WORK 205
ON STUCCO WORK IN DAMP PLACES, AND ON THE DECORATION OF
DINING ROOMS 208
THE DECADENCE OF FRESCO PAINTING 210
MARBLE FOR USE IN STUCCO 213
NATURAL COLOURS 214
CINNABAR AND QUICKSILVER 215
CINNABAR (_continued_) 216
ARTIFICIAL COLOURS. BLACK 217
BLUE. BURNT OCHRE 218
WHITE LEAD, VERDIGRIS, AND ARTIFICIAL SANDARACH 219
PURPLE 219
SUBSTITUTES FOR PURPLE, YELLOW OCHRE, MALACHITE GREEN, AND
INDIGO 220
BOOK VIII
INTRODUCTION 225
HOW TO FIND WATER 227
RAINWATER 229
VARIOUS PROPERTIES OF DIFFERENT WATERS 232
TESTS OF GOOD WATER 242
LEVELLING AND LEVELLING INSTRUMENTS 242
AQUEDUCTS, WELLS, AND CISTERNS 244
BOOK IX
INTRODUCTION 251
THE ZODIAC AND THE PLANETS 257
THE PHASES OF THE MOON 262
THE COURSE OF THE SUN THROUGH THE TWELVE SIGNS 264
THE NORTHERN CONSTELLATIONS 265
THE SOUTHERN CONSTELLATIONS 267
ASTROLOGY AND WEATHER PROGNOSTICS 269
THE ANALEMMA AND ITS APPLICATIONS 270
SUNDIALS AND WATER CLOCKS 273
BOOK X
INTRODUCTION 281
MACHINES AND IMPLEMENTS 283
HOISTING MACHINES 285
THE ELEMENTS OF MOTION 290
ENGINES FOR RAISING WATER 293
WATER WHEELS AND WATER MILLS 294
THE WATER SCREW 295
THE PUMP OF CTESIBIUS 297
THE WATER ORGAN 299
THE HODOMETER 301
CATAPULTS OR SCORPIONES 303
BALLISTAE 305
THE STRINGING AND TUNING OF CATAPULTS 308
SIEGE MACHINES 309
THE TORTOISE 311
HEGETOR'S TORTOISE 312
MEASURES OF DEFENCE 315
NOTE ON SCAMILLI IMPARES 320
INDEX 321
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
CARYATIDES FROM TREASURY OF CNIDIANS, DELPHI 6
CARYATIDES OF ERECHTHEUM, ATHENS 6
CARYATID IN VILLA ALBANI, ROME 6
CARYATIDES 7
PERSIANS 9
CONSTRUCTION OF CITY WALLS 23
TOWER OF THE WINDS, ATHENS 26
DIAGRAM OF THE WINDS 29
DIAGRAM OF DIRECTIONS OF STREETS 30
VITRUVIUS' BRICK-BOND 44
TRAVERTINE QUARRIES, ROMAN CAMPAGNA 49
EXAMPLE OF OPUS INCERTUM, CIRCULAR TEMPLE, TIVOLI 51
OPUS RETICULATUM, THERMAE OF HADRIAN'S VILLA, TIVOLI 52
EXAMPLE OF OPUS RETICULATUM, DOORWAY OF STOA POECILE, HADRIAN'S
VILLA 52
MAUSOLEUM AT HALICARNASSUS, RESTORED 54
CLASSIFICATION OF TEMPLES ACCORDING TO ARRANGEMENTS OF COLONNADES 76
HYPAETHRAL TEMPLE OF VITRUVIUS COMPARED WITH PARTHENON AND
TEMPLE OF APOLLO NEAR MILETUS 77
CLASSIFICATION OF TEMPLES ACCORDING TO INTERCOLUMNIATION 79
EUSTYLE TEMPLE OF VITRUVIUS COMPARED WITH TEMPLE OF TEOS 81
VITRUVIUS' RULES FOR DIAMETER AND HEIGHT OF COLUMNS COMPARED
WITH ACTUAL EXAMPLES 83
DIMINUTION OF COLUMNS IN RELATION TO DIMENSIONS OF HEIGHT 85
ENTASIS OF COLUMNS 87
FRA GIOCONDO'S IDEA OF "SCAMILLI IMPARES" 89
IONIC ORDER ACCORDING TO VITRUVIUS COMPARED WITH ORDER OF
MAUSOLEUM AT HALICARNASSUS 91
COMPARISON OF IONIC ORDER ACCORDING TO VITRUVIUS WITH ACTUAL
EXAMPLES AND WITH VIGNOLA'S ORDER 95
BASILICA AT POMPEII 104
CORINTHIAN CAPITAL OF VITRUVIUS COMPARED WITH MONUMENTS 105
VITRUVIUS' DORIC ORDER COMPARED WITH TEMPLE AT CORI AND THEATRE
OF MARCELLUS 111
VITRUVIUS' TEMPLE PLAN COMPARED WITH ACTUAL EXAMPLES 115
VITRUVIUS' RULE FOR DOORWAYS COMPARED WITH TWO EXAMPLES 119
TUSCAN TEMPLE ACCORDING TO VITRUVIUS 121
CIRCULAR TEMPLE, TIVOLI 123
MAISON CARRÉE, NÎMES 123
PLAN OF TEMPLE, TIVOLI 123
PLAN OF TEMPLE OF VESTA, ROME 123
PLAN OF CIRCULAR TEMPLE ACCORDING TO VITRUVIUS 124
FORUM, TIMGAD 131
FORUM, POMPEII 133
PLAN OF BASILICA, POMPEII 134
VITRUVIUS' BASILICA, FANO 135
ROMAN THEATRE ACCORDING TO VITRUVIUS 147
THEATRE AT ASPENDUS 149
THEATRE PORTICO ACCORDING TO VITRUVIUS 152
TEPIDARIUM OF STABIAN BATHS, POMPEII 157
APODYTERIUM FOR WOMEN, STABIAN BATHS, POMPEII 157
STABIAN BATHS, POMPEII 158
PALAESTRA, OLYMPIA, AND GREEK PALAESTRA ACCORDING TO VITRUVIUS 161
PLANS OF HOUSES, POMPEII 176
PLAN OF HOUSE OF SILVER WEDDING, POMPEII 177
PLAN OF TYPICAL ROMAN HOUSE 178
PERISTYLE OF HOUSE OF THE VETTII, POMPEII 179
PLAN OF HOUSE OF THE VETTII, POMPEII 179
PLAN OF VILLA RUSTICA, NEAR POMPEII 183
PLAN OF VITRUVIUS' GREEK HOUSE 186
PLAN OF GREEK HOUSE, DELOS 187
PLAN OF GREEK HOUSE DISCOVERED AT PERGAMUM 188
RETAINING WALLS 191
CONSTRUCTION OF THE ANALEMMA 271
CONSTRUCTION OF WATER SCREW 295
WATER SCREW 296
HEGETOR'S RAM AND TORTOISE 312
1. From sixteenth century MS.
2. From model by A. A. Howard.
* * * * *
VITRUVIUS
* * * * *
BOOK I
PREFACE
1. While your divine intelligence and will, Imperator Caesar, were
engaged in acquiring the right to command the world, and while your
fellow citizens, when all their enemies had been laid low by your
invincible valour, were glorying in your triumph and victory,--while all
foreign nations were in subjection awaiting your beck and call, and the
Roman people and senate, released from their alarm, were beginning to be
guided by your most noble conceptions and policies, I hardly dared, in
view of your serious employments, to publish my writings and long
considered ideas on architecture, for fear of subjecting myself to your
displeasure by an unseasonable interruption.
2. But when I saw that you were giving your attention not only to the
welfare of society in general and to the establishment of public order,
but also to the providing of public buildings intended for utilitarian
purposes, so that not only should the State have been enriched with
provinces by your means, but that the greatness of its power might
likewise be attended with distinguished authority in its public
buildings, I thought that I ought to take the first opportunity to lay
before you my writings on this theme. For in the first place it was this
subject which made me known to your father, to whom I was devoted on
account of his great qualities. After the council of heaven gave him a
place in the dwellings of immortal life and transferred your father's
power to your hands, my devotion continuing unchanged as I remembered
him inclined me to support you. And so with Marcus Aurelius, Publius
Minidius, and Gnaeus Cornelius, I was ready to supply and repair
ballistae, scorpiones, and other artillery, and I have received rewards
for good service with them. After your first bestowal of these upon me,
you continued to renew them on the recommendation of your sister.
3. Owing to this favour I need have no fear of want to the end of my
life, and being thus laid under obligation I began to write this work
for you, because I saw that you have built and are now building
extensively, and that in future also you will take care that our public
and private buildings shall be worthy to go down to posterity by the
side of your other splendid achievements. I have drawn up definite rules
to enable you, by observing them, to have personal knowledge of the
quality both of existing buildings and of those which are yet to be
constructed. For in the following books I have disclosed all the
principles of the art.
CHAPTER I
THE EDUCATION OF THE ARCHITECT
1. The architect should be equipped with knowledge of many branches of
study and varied kinds of learning, for it is by his judgement that all
work done by the other arts is put to test. This knowledge is the child
of practice and theory. Practice is the continuous and regular exercise
of employment where manual work is done with any necessary material
according to the design of a drawing. Theory, on the other hand, is the
ability to demonstrate and explain the productions of dexterity on the
principles of proportion.
2. It follows, therefore, that architects who have aimed at acquiring
manual skill without scholarship have never been able to reach a
position of authority to correspond to their pains, while those who
relied only upon theories and scholarship were obviously hunting the
shadow, not the substance. But those who have a thorough knowledge of
both, like men armed at all points, have the sooner attained their
object and carried authority with them.
3. In all matters, but particularly in architecture, there are these two
points:--the thing signified, and that which gives it its significance.
That which is signified is the subject of which we may be speaking; and
that which gives significance is a demonstration on scientific
principles. It appears, then, that one who professes himself an
architect should be well versed in both directions. He ought, therefore,
to be both naturally gifted and amenable to instruction. Neither natural
ability without instruction nor instruction without natural ability can
make the perfect artist. Let him be educated, skilful with the pencil,
instructed in geometry, know much history, have followed the
philosophers with attention, understand music, have some knowledge of
medicine, know the opinions of the jurists, and be acquainted with
astronomy and the theory of the heavens.
4. The reasons for all this are as follows. An architect ought to be an
educated man so as to leave a more lasting remembrance in his treatises.
Secondly, he must have a knowledge of drawing so that he can readily
make sketches to show the appearance of the work which he proposes.
Geometry, also, is of much assistance in architecture, and in particular
it teaches us the use of the rule and compasses, by which especially we
acquire readiness in making plans for buildings in their grounds, and
rightly apply the square, the level, and the plummet. By means of
optics, again, the light in buildings can be drawn from fixed quarters
of the sky. It is true that it is by arithmetic that the total cost of
buildings is calculated and measurements are computed, but difficult
questions involving symmetry are solved by means of geometrical theories
and methods.
5. A wide knowledge of history is requisite because, among the
ornamental parts of an architect's design for a work, there are many the
underlying idea of whose employment he should be able to explain to
inquirers. For instance, suppose him to set up the marble statues of
women in long robes, called Caryatides, to take the place of columns,
with the mutules and coronas placed directly above their heads, he will
give the following explanation to his questioners. Caryae, a state in
Peloponnesus, sided with the Persian enemies against Greece; later the
Greeks, having gloriously won their freedom by victory in the war, made
common cause and declared war against the people of Caryae. They took
the town, killed the men, abandoned the State to desolation, and carried
off their wives into slavery, without permitting them, however, to lay
aside the long robes and other marks of their rank as married women, so
that they might be obliged not only to march in the triumph but to
appear forever after as a type of slavery, burdened with the weight of
their shame and so making atonement for their State. Hence, the
architects of the time designed for public buildings statues of these
women, placed so as to carry a load, in order that the sin and the
punishment of the people of Caryae might be known and handed down even
to posterity.
[Illustration: Photo. H. B. Warren CARYATIDES OF THE ERECHTHEUM AT
ATHENS]
[Illustration: CARYATIDES FROM THE TREASURY OF THE CNIDIANS AT DELPHI]
[Illustration: Photo. Anderson CARYATIDES NOW IN THE VILLA ALBANI AT
ROME]
[Illustration: CARYATIDES (From the edition of Vitruvius by Fra
Giocondo, Venice, 1511)]
6. Likewise the Lacedaemonians under the leadership of Pausanias, son of
Agesipolis, after conquering the Persian armies, infinite in number,
with a small force at the battle of Plataea, celebrated a glorious
triumph with the spoils and booty, and with the money obtained from the
sale thereof built the Persian Porch, to be a monument to the renown and
valour of the people and a trophy of victory for posterity. And there
they set effigies of the prisoners arrayed in barbarian costume and
holding up the roof, their pride punished by this deserved affront,
that enemies might tremble for fear of the effects of their courage,
and that their own people, looking upon this ensample of their valour
and encouraged by the glory of it, might be ready to defend their
independence. So from that time on, many have put up statues of Persians
supporting entablatures and their ornaments, and thus from that motive
have greatly enriched the diversity of their works. There are other
stories of the same kind which architects ought to know.
7. As for philosophy, it makes an architect high-minded and not
self-assuming, but rather renders him courteous, just, and honest
without avariciousness. This is very important, for no work can be
rightly done without honesty and incorruptibility. Let him not be
grasping nor have his mind preoccupied with the idea of receiving
perquisites, but let him with dignity keep up his position by cherishing
a good reputation. These are among the precepts of philosophy.
Furthermore philosophy treats of physics (in Greek [Greek: physiologia])
where a more careful knowledge is required because the problems which
come under this head are numerous and of very different kinds; as, for
example, in the case of the conducting of water. For at points of intake
and at curves, and at places where it is raised to a level, currents of
air naturally form in one way or another; and nobody who has not learned
the fundamental principles of physics from philosophy will be able to
provide against the damage which they do. So the reader of Ctesibius or
Archimedes and the other writers of treatises of the same class will not
be able to appreciate them unless he has been trained in these subjects
by the philosophers.
8. Music, also, the architect ought to understand so that he may have
knowledge of the canonical and mathematical theory, and besides be able
to tune ballistae, catapultae, and scorpiones to the proper key. For to
the right and left in the beams are the holes in the frames through
which the strings of twisted sinew are stretched by means of windlasses
and bars, and these strings must not be clamped and made fast until they
give the same correct note to the ear of the skilled workman. For the
arms thrust through those stretched strings must, on being let go,
strike their blow together at the same moment; but if they are not in
unison, they will prevent the course of projectiles from being straight.
[Illustration: PERSIANS
(From the edition of Vitruvius by Fra Giocondo, Venice, 1511)]
9. In theatres, likewise, there are the bronze vessels (in Greek [Greek:
êcheia]) which are placed in niches under the seats in accordance with
the musical intervals on mathematical principles. These vessels are
arranged with a view to musical concords or harmony, and apportioned in
the compass of the fourth, the fifth, and the octave, and so on up to
the double octave, in such a way that when the voice of an actor falls
in unison with any of them its power is increased, and it reaches the
ears of the audience with greater clearness and sweetness. Water
organs, too, and the other instruments which resemble them cannot be
made by one who is without the principles of music.
10. The architect should also have a knowledge of the study of medicine
on account of the questions of climates (in Greek [Greek: klimata]),
air, the healthiness and unhealthiness of sites, and the use of
different waters. For without these considerations, the healthiness of a
dwelling cannot be assured. And as for principles of law, he should know
those which are necessary in the case of buildings having party walls,
with regard to water dripping from the eaves, and also the laws about
drains, windows, and water supply. And other things of this sort should
be known to architects, so that, before they begin upon buildings, they
may be careful not to leave disputed points for the householders to
settle after the works are finished, and so that in drawing up contracts
the interests of both employer and contractor may be wisely
safe-guarded. For if a contract is skilfully drawn, each may obtain a
release from the other without disadvantage. From astronomy we find the
east, west, south, and north, as well as the theory of the heavens, the
equinox, solstice, and courses of the stars. If one has no knowledge of
these matters, he will not be able to have any comprehension of the
theory of sundials.
11. Consequently, since this study is so vast in extent, embellished and
enriched as it is with many different kinds of learning, I think that
men have no right to profess themselves architects hastily, without
having climbed from boyhood the steps of these studies and thus, nursed
by the knowledge of many arts and sciences, having reached the heights
of the holy ground of architecture.
12. But perhaps to the inexperienced it will seem a marvel that human
nature can comprehend such a great number of studies and keep them in
the memory. Still, the observation that all studies have a common bond
of union and intercourse with one another, will lead to the belief that
this can easily be realized. For a liberal education forms, as it were,
a single body made up of these members. Those, therefore, who from
tender years receive instruction in the various forms of learning,
recognize the same stamp on all the arts, and an intercourse between all
studies, and so they more readily comprehend them all. This is what led
one of the ancient architects, Pytheos, the celebrated builder of the
temple of Minerva at Priene, to say in his Commentaries that an
architect ought to be able to accomplish much more in all the arts and
sciences than the men who, by their own particular kinds of work and the
practice of it, have brought each a single subject to the highest
perfection. But this is in point of fact not realized.
13. For an architect ought not to be and cannot be such a philologian as
was Aristarchus, although not illiterate; nor a musician like
Aristoxenus, though not absolutely ignorant of music; nor a painter like
Apelles, though not unskilful in drawing; nor a sculptor such as was
Myron or Polyclitus, though not unacquainted with the plastic art; nor
again a physician like Hippocrates, though not ignorant of medicine; nor
in the other sciences need he excel in each, though he should not be
unskilful in them. For, in the midst of all this great variety of
subjects, an individual cannot attain to perfection in each, because it
is scarcely in his power to take in and comprehend the general theories
of them.
14. Still, it is not architects alone that cannot in all matters reach
perfection, but even men who individually practise specialties in the
arts do not all attain to the highest point of merit. Therefore, if
among artists working each in a single field not all, but only a few in
an entire generation acquire fame, and that with difficulty, how can an
architect, who has to be skilful in many arts, accomplish not merely the
feat--in itself a great marvel--of being deficient in none of them, but
also that of surpassing all those artists who have devoted themselves
with unremitting industry to single fields?
15. It appears, then, that Pytheos made a mistake by not observing that
the arts are each composed of two things, the actual work and the theory
of it. One of these, the doing of the work, is proper to men trained in
the individual subject, while the other, the theory, is common to all
scholars: for example, to physicians and musicians the rhythmical beat
of the pulse and its metrical movement. But if there is a wound to be
healed or a sick man to be saved from danger, the musician will not
call, for the business will be appropriate to the physician. So in the
case of a musical instrument, not the physician but the musician will be
the man to tune it so that the ears may find their due pleasure in its
strains.
16. Astronomers likewise have a common ground for discussion with
musicians in the harmony of the stars and musical concords in tetrads
and triads of the fourth and the fifth, and with geometricians in the
subject of vision (in Greek [Greek: logos optikos]); and in all other
sciences many points, perhaps all, are common so far as the discussion
of them is concerned. But the actual undertaking of works which are
brought to perfection by the hand and its manipulation is the function
of those who have been specially trained to deal with a single art. It
appears, therefore, that he has done enough and to spare who in each
subject possesses a fairly good knowledge of those parts, with their
principles, which are indispensable for architecture, so that if he is
required to pass judgement and to express approval in the case of those
things or arts, he may not be found wanting. As for men upon whom nature
has bestowed so much ingenuity, acuteness, and memory that they are able
to have a thorough knowledge of geometry, astronomy, music, and the
other arts, they go beyond the functions of architects and become pure
mathematicians. Hence they can readily take up positions against those
arts because many are the artistic weapons with which they are armed.
Such men, however, are rarely found, but there have been such at times;
for example, Aristarchus of Samos, Philolaus and Archytas of Tarentum,
Apollonius of Perga, Eratosthenes of Cyrene, and among Syracusans
Archimedes and Scopinas, who through mathematics and natural philosophy
discovered, expounded, and left to posterity many things in connexion
with mechanics and with sundials.
17. Since, therefore, the possession of such talents due to natural
capacity is not vouchsafed at random to entire nations, but only to a
few great men; since, moreover, the function of the architect requires a
training in all the departments of learning; and finally, since reason,
on account of the wide extent of the subject, concedes that he may
possess not the highest but not even necessarily a moderate knowledge of
the subjects of study, I request, Caesar, both of you and of those who
may read the said books, that if anything is set forth with too little
regard for grammatical rule, it may be pardoned. For it is not as a very
great philosopher, nor as an eloquent rhetorician, nor as a grammarian
trained in the highest principles of his art, that I have striven to
write this work, but as an architect who has had only a dip into those
studies. Still, as regards the efficacy of the art and the theories of
it, I promise and expect that in these volumes I shall undoubtedly show
myself of very considerable importance not only to builders but also to
all scholars.
CHAPTER II
THE FUNDAMENTAL PRINCIPLES OF ARCHITECTURE
1. Architecture depends on Order (in Greek [Greek: taxis]), Arrangement
(in Greek [Greek: diathesis]), Eurythmy, Symmetry, Propriety, and
Economy (in Greek [Greek: oikonomia]).
2. Order gives due measure to the members of a work considered
separately, and symmetrical agreement to the proportions of the whole.
It is an adjustment according to quantity (in Greek [Greek: posotês]).
By this I mean the selection of modules from the members of the work
itself and, starting from these individual parts of members,
constructing the whole work to correspond. Arrangement includes the
putting of things in their proper places and the elegance of effect
which is due to adjustments appropriate to the character of the work.
Its forms of expression (Greek [Greek: ideai]) are these: groundplan,
elevation, and perspective. A groundplan is made by the proper
successive use of compasses and rule, through which we get outlines for
the plane surfaces of buildings. An elevation is a picture of the front
of a building, set upright and properly drawn in the proportions of the
contemplated work. Perspective is the method of sketching a front with
the sides withdrawing into the background, the lines all meeting in the
centre of a circle. All three come of reflexion and invention. Reflexion
is careful and laborious thought, and watchful attention directed to the
agreeable effect of one's plan. Invention, on the other hand, is the
solving of intricate problems and the discovery of new principles by
means of brilliancy and versatility. These are the departments belonging
under Arrangement.
3. Eurythmy is beauty and fitness in the adjustments of the members.
This is found when the members of a work are of a height suited to their
breadth, of a breadth suited to their length, and, in a word, when they
all correspond symmetrically.
4. Symmetry is a proper agreement between the members of the work
itself, and relation between the different parts and the whole general
scheme, in accordance with a certain part selected as standard. Thus in
the human body there is a kind of symmetrical harmony between forearm,
foot, palm, finger, and other small parts; and so it is with perfect
buildings. In the case of temples, symmetry may be calculated from the
thickness of a column, from a triglyph, or even from a module; in the
ballista, from the hole or from what the Greeks call the [Greek:
peritrêtos]; in a ship, from the space between the tholepins [Greek:
(diapêgma)]; and in other things, from various members.
5. Propriety is that perfection of style which comes when a work is
authoritatively constructed on approved principles. It arises from
prescription [Greek: (thematismô)], from usage, or from nature. From
prescription, in the case of hypaethral edifices, open to the sky, in
honour of Jupiter Lightning, the Heaven, the Sun, or the Moon: for these
are gods whose semblances and manifestations we behold before our very
eyes in the sky when it is cloudless and bright. The temples of
Minerva, Mars, and Hercules, will be Doric, since the virile strength of
these gods makes daintiness entirely inappropriate to their houses. In
temples to Venus, Flora, Proserpine, Spring-Water, and the Nymphs, the
Corinthian order will be found to have peculiar significance, because
these are delicate divinities and so its rather slender outlines, its
flowers, leaves, and ornamental volutes will lend propriety where it is
due. The construction of temples of the Ionic order to Juno, Diana,
Father Bacchus, and the other gods of that kind, will be in keeping with
the middle position which they hold; for the building of such will be an
appropriate combination of the severity of the Doric and the delicacy of
the Corinthian.
6. Propriety arises from usage when buildings having magnificent
interiors are provided with elegant entrance-courts to correspond; for
there will be no propriety in the spectacle of an elegant interior
approached by a low, mean entrance. Or, if dentils be carved in the
cornice of the Doric entablature or triglyphs represented in the Ionic
entablature over the cushion-shaped capitals of the columns, the effect
will be spoilt by the transfer of the peculiarities of the one order of
building to the other, the usage in each class having been fixed long
ago.
7. Finally, propriety will be due to natural causes if, for example, in
the case of all sacred precincts we select very healthy neighbourhoods
with suitable springs of water in the places where the fanes are to be
built, particularly in the case of those to Aesculapius and to Health,
gods by whose healing powers great numbers of the sick are apparently
cured. For when their diseased bodies are transferred from an unhealthy
to a healthy spot, and treated with waters from health-giving springs,
they will the more speedily grow well. The result will be that the
divinity will stand in higher esteem and find his dignity increased, all
owing to the nature of his site. There will also be natural propriety in
using an eastern light for bedrooms and libraries, a western light in
winter for baths and winter apartments, and a northern light for picture
galleries and other places in which a steady light is needed; for that
quarter of the sky grows neither light nor dark with the course of the
sun, but remains steady and unshifting all day long.
8. Economy denotes the proper management of materials and of site, as
well as a thrifty balancing of cost and common sense in the construction
of works. This will be observed if, in the first place, the architect
does not demand things which cannot be found or made ready without great
expense. For example: it is not everywhere that there is plenty of
pitsand, rubble, fir, clear fir, and marble, since they are produced in
different places and to assemble them is difficult and costly. Where
there is no pitsand, we must use the kinds washed up by rivers or by the
sea; the lack of fir and clear fir may be evaded by using cypress,
poplar, elm, or pine; and other problems we must solve in similar ways.
9. A second stage in Economy is reached when we have to plan the
different kinds of dwellings suitable for ordinary householders, for
great wealth, or for the high position of the statesman. A house in town
obviously calls for one form of construction; that into which stream the
products of country estates requires another; this will not be the same
in the case of money-lenders and still different for the opulent and
luxurious; for the powers under whose deliberations the commonwealth is
guided dwellings are to be provided according to their special needs:
and, in a word, the proper form of economy must be observed in building
houses for each and every class.
CHAPTER III
THE DEPARTMENTS OF ARCHITECTURE
1. There are three departments of architecture: the art of building, the
making of timepieces, and the construction of machinery. Building is, in
its turn, divided into two parts, of which the first is the construction
of fortified towns and of works for general use in public places, and
the second is the putting up of structures for private individuals.
There are three classes of public buildings: the first for defensive,
the second for religious, and the third for utilitarian purposes. Under
defence comes the planning of walls, towers, and gates, permanent
devices for resistance against hostile attacks; under religion, the
erection of fanes and temples to the immortal gods; under utility, the
provision of meeting places for public use, such as harbours, markets,
colonnades, baths, theatres, promenades, and all other similar
arrangements in public places.
2. All these must be built with due reference to durability,
convenience, and beauty. Durability will be assured when foundations are
carried down to the solid ground and materials wisely and liberally
selected; convenience, when the arrangement of the apartments is
faultless and presents no hindrance to use, and when each class of
building is assigned to its suitable and appropriate exposure; and
beauty, when the appearance of the work is pleasing and in good taste,
and when its members are in due proportion according to correct
principles of symmetry.
CHAPTER IV
THE SITE OF A CITY
1. For fortified towns the following general principles are to be
observed. First comes the choice of a very healthy site. Such a site
will be high, neither misty nor frosty, and in a climate neither hot nor
cold, but temperate; further, without marshes in the neighbourhood. For
when the morning breezes blow toward the town at sunrise, if they bring
with them mists from marshes and, mingled with the mist, the poisonous
breath of the creatures of the marshes to be wafted into the bodies of
the inhabitants, they will make the site unhealthy. Again, if the town
is on the coast with a southern or western exposure, it will not be
healthy, because in summer the southern sky grows hot at sunrise and is
fiery at noon, while a western exposure grows warm after sunrise, is hot
at noon, and at evening all aglow.
2. These variations in heat and the subsequent cooling off are harmful
to the people living on such sites. The same conclusion may be reached
in the case of inanimate things. For instance, nobody draws the light
for covered wine rooms from the south or west, but rather from the
north, since that quarter is never subject to change but is always
constant and unshifting. So it is with granaries: grain exposed to the
sun's course soon loses its good quality, and provisions and fruit,
unless stored in a place unexposed to the sun's course, do not keep
long.
3. For heat is a universal solvent, melting out of things their power of
resistance, and sucking away and removing their natural strength with
its fiery exhalations so that they grow soft, and hence weak, under its
glow. We see this in the case of iron which, however hard it may
naturally be, yet when heated thoroughly in a furnace fire can be easily
worked into any kind of shape, and still, if cooled while it is soft and
white hot, it hardens again with a mere dip into cold water and takes on
its former quality.
4. We may also recognize the truth of this from the fact that in summer
the heat makes everybody weak, not only in unhealthy but even in healthy
places, and that in winter even the most unhealthy districts are much
healthier because they are given a solidity by the cooling off.
Similarly, persons removed from cold countries to hot cannot endure it
but waste away; whereas those who pass from hot places to the cold
regions of the north, not only do not suffer in health from the change
of residence but even gain by it.
5. It appears, then, that in founding towns we must beware of districts
from which hot winds can spread abroad over the inhabitants. For while
all bodies are composed of the four elements (in Greek [Greek:
stoicheia]), that is, of heat, moisture, the earthy, and air, yet there
are mixtures according to natural temperament which make up the natures
of all the different animals of the world, each after its kind.
6. Therefore, if one of these elements, heat, becomes predominant in any
body whatsoever, it destroys and dissolves all the others with its
violence. This defect may be due to violent heat from certain quarters
of the sky, pouring into the open pores in too great proportion to admit
of a mixture suited to the natural temperament of the body in question.
Again, if too much moisture enters the channels of a body, and thus
introduces disproportion, the other elements, adulterated by the liquid,
are impaired, and the virtues of the mixture dissolved. This defect, in
turn, may arise from the cooling properties of moist winds and breezes
blowing upon the body. In the same way, increase or diminution of the
proportion of air or of the earthy which is natural to the body may
enfeeble the other elements; the predominance of the earthy being due to
overmuch food, that of air to a heavy atmosphere.
7. If one wishes a more accurate understanding of all this, he need only
consider and observe the natures of birds, fishes, and land animals, and
he will thus come to reflect upon distinctions of temperament. One form
of mixture is proper to birds, another to fishes, and a far different
form to land animals. Winged creatures have less of the earthy, less
moisture, heat in moderation, air in large amount. Being made up,
therefore, of the lighter elements, they can more readily soar away into
the air. Fish, with their aquatic nature, being moderately supplied with
heat and made up in great part of air and the earthy, with as little of
moisture as possible, can more easily exist in moisture for the very
reason that they have less of it than of the other elements in their
bodies; and so, when they are drawn to land, they leave life and water
at the same moment. Similarly, the land animals, being moderately
supplied with the elements of air and heat, and having less of the
earthy and a great deal of moisture, cannot long continue alive in the
water, because their portion of moisture is already abundant.
8. Therefore, if all this is as we have explained, our reason showing us
that the bodies of animals are made up of the elements, and these
bodies, as we believe, giving way and breaking up as a result of excess
or deficiency in this or that element, we cannot but believe that we
must take great care to select a very temperate climate for the site of
our city, since healthfulness is, as we have said, the first requisite.
9. I cannot too strongly insist upon the need of a return to the method
of old times. Our ancestors, when about to build a town or an army post,
sacrificed some of the cattle that were wont to feed on the site
proposed and examined their livers. If the livers of the first victims
were dark-coloured or abnormal, they sacrificed others, to see whether
the fault was due to disease or their food. They never began to build
defensive works in a place until after they had made many such trials
and satisfied themselves that good water and food had made the liver
sound and firm. If they continued to find it abnormal, they argued from
this that the food and water supply found in such a place would be just
as unhealthy for man, and so they moved away and changed to another
neighbourhood, healthfulness being their chief object.
10. That pasturage and food may indicate the healthful qualities of a
site is a fact which can be observed and investigated in the case of
certain pastures in Crete, on each side of the river Pothereus, which
separates the two Cretan states of Gnosus and Gortyna. There are cattle
at pasture on the right and left banks of that river, but while the
cattle that feed near Gnosus have the usual spleen, those on the other
side near Gortyna have no perceptible spleen. On investigating the
subject, physicians discovered on this side a kind of herb which the
cattle chew and thus make their spleen small. The herb is therefore
gathered and used as a medicine for the cure of splenetic people. The
Cretans call it [Greek: hasplênon]. From food and water, then, we may
learn whether sites are naturally unhealthy or healthy.
11. If the walled town is built among the marshes themselves, provided
they are by the sea, with a northern or north-eastern exposure, and are
above the level of the seashore, the site will be reasonable enough. For
ditches can be dug to let out the water to the shore, and also in times
of storms the sea swells and comes backing up into the marshes, where
its bitter blend prevents the reproductions of the usual marsh
creatures, while any that swim down from the higher levels to the shore
are killed at once by the saltness to which they are unused. An instance
of this may be found in the Gallic marshes surrounding Altino, Ravenna,
Aquileia, and other towns in places of the kind, close by marshes. They
are marvellously healthy, for the reasons which I have given.
12. But marshes that are stagnant and have no outlets either by rivers
or ditches, like the Pomptine marshes, merely putrefy as they stand,
emitting heavy, unhealthy vapours. A case of a town built in such a spot
was Old Salpia in Apulia, founded by Diomede on his way back from Troy,
or, according to some writers, by Elpias of Rhodes. Year after year
there was sickness, until finally the suffering inhabitants came with a
public petition to Marcus Hostilius and got him to agree to seek and
find them a proper place to which to remove their city. Without delay he
made the most skilful investigations, and at once purchased an estate
near the sea in a healthy place, and asked the Senate and Roman people
for permission to remove the town. He constructed the walls and laid out
the house lots, granting one to each citizen for a mere trifle. This
done, he cut an opening from a lake into the sea, and thus made of the
lake a harbour for the town. The result is that now the people of Salpia
live on a healthy site and at a distance of only four miles from the old
town.
CHAPTER V
THE CITY WALLS
1. After insuring on these principles the healthfulness of the future
city, and selecting a neighbourhood that can supply plenty of food
stuffs to maintain the community, with good roads or else convenient
rivers or seaports affording easy means of transport to the city, the
next thing to do is to lay the foundations for the towers and walls. Dig
down to solid bottom, if it can be found, and lay them therein, going as
deep as the magnitude of the proposed work seems to require. They should
be much thicker than the part of the walls that will appear above
ground, and their structure should be as solid as it can possibly be
laid.
2. The towers must be projected beyond the line of wall, so that an
enemy wishing to approach the wall to carry it by assault may be exposed
to the fire of missiles on his open flank from the towers on his right
and left. Special pains should be taken that there be no easy avenue by
which to storm the wall. The roads should be encompassed at steep
points, and planned so as to approach the gates, not in a straight line,
but from the right to the left; for as a result of this, the right hand
side of the assailants, unprotected by their shields, will be next the
wall. Towns should be laid out not as an exact square nor with salient
angles, but in circular form, to give a view of the enemy from many
points. Defence is difficult where there are salient angles, because the
angle protects the enemy rather than the inhabitants.
3. The thickness of the wall should, in my opinion, be such that armed
men meeting on top of it may pass one another without interference. In
the thickness there should be set a very close succession of ties made
of charred olive wood, binding the two faces of the wall together like
pins, to give it lasting endurance. For that is a material which neither
decay, nor the weather, nor time can harm, but even though buried in the
earth or set in the water it keeps sound and useful forever. And so not
only city walls but substructures in general and all walls that require
a thickness like that of a city wall, will be long in falling to decay
if tied in this manner.
4. The towers should be set at intervals of not more than a bowshot
apart, so that in case of an assault upon any one of them, the enemy may
be repulsed with scorpiones and other means of hurling missiles from the
towers to the right and left. Opposite the inner side of every tower the
wall should be interrupted for a space the width of the tower, and have
only a wooden flooring across, leading to the interior of the tower but
not firmly nailed. This is to be cut away by the defenders in case the
enemy gets possession of any portion of the wall; and if the work is
quickly done, the enemy will not be able to make his way to the other
towers and the rest of the wall unless he is ready to face a fall.
5. The towers themselves must be either round or polygonal. Square
towers are sooner shattered by military engines, for the battering rams
pound their angles to pieces; but in the case of round towers they can
do no harm, being engaged, as it were, in driving wedges to their
centre. The system of fortification by wall and towers may be made
safest by the addition of earthen ramparts, for neither rams, nor
mining, nor other engineering devices can do them any harm.
[Illustration: CONSTRUCTION OF CITY WALLS
(From the edition of Vitruvius by Fra Giocondo, Venice, 1511)]
6. The rampart form of defence, however, is not required in all places,
but only where outside the wall there is high ground from which an
assault on the fortifications may be made over a level space lying
between. In places of this kind we must first make very wide, deep
ditches; next sink foundations for a wall in the bed of the ditch and
build them thick enough to support an earth-work with ease.
7. Then within this substructure lay a second foundation, far enough
inside the first to leave ample room for cohorts in line of battle to
take position on the broad top of the rampart for its defence. Having
laid these two foundations at this distance from one another, build
cross walls between them, uniting the outer and inner foundation, in a
comb-like arrangement, set like the teeth of a saw. With this form of
construction, the enormous burden of earth will be distributed into
small bodies, and will not lie with all its weight in one crushing mass
so as to thrust out the substructures.
8. With regard to the material of which the actual wall should be
constructed or finished, there can be no definite prescription, because
we cannot obtain in all places the supplies that we desire. Dimension
stone, flint, rubble, burnt or unburnt brick,--use them as you find
them. For it is not every neighbourhood or particular locality that can
have a wall built of burnt brick like that at Babylon, where there was
plenty of asphalt to take the place of lime and sand, and yet possibly
each may be provided with materials of equal usefulness so that out of
them a faultless wall may be built to last forever.
CHAPTER VI
THE DIRECTIONS OF THE STREETS; WITH REMARKS ON THE WINDS
1. The town being fortified, the next step is the apportionment of house
lots within the wall and the laying out of streets and alleys with
regard to climatic conditions. They will be properly laid out if
foresight is employed to exclude the winds from the alleys. Cold winds
are disagreeable, hot winds enervating, moist winds unhealthy. We must,
therefore, avoid mistakes in this matter and beware of the common
experience of many communities. For example, Mytilene in the island of
Lesbos is a town built with magnificence and good taste, but its
position shows a lack of foresight. In that community when the wind is
south, the people fall ill; when it is northwest, it sets them coughing;
with a north wind they do indeed recover but cannot stand about in the
alleys and streets, owing to the severe cold.
2. Wind is a flowing wave of air, moving hither and thither
indefinitely. It is produced when heat meets moisture, the rush of heat
generating a mighty current of air. That this is the fact we may learn
from bronze eolipiles, and thus by means of a scientific invention
discover a divine truth lurking in the laws of the heavens. Eolipiles
are hollow bronze balls, with a very small opening through which water
is poured into them. Set before a fire, not a breath issues from them
before they get warm; but as soon as they begin to boil, out comes a
strong blast due to the fire. Thus from this slight and very short
experiment we may understand and judge of the mighty and wonderful laws
of the heavens and the nature of winds.
3. By shutting out the winds from our dwellings, therefore, we shall not
only make the place healthful for people who are well, but also in the
case of diseases due perhaps to unfavourable situations elsewhere, the
patients, who in other healthy places might be cured by a different form
of treatment, will here be more quickly cured by the mildness that comes
from the shutting out of the winds. The diseases which are hard to cure
in neighbourhoods such as those to which I have referred above are
catarrh, hoarseness, coughs, pleurisy, consumption, spitting of blood,
and all others that are cured not by lowering the system but by building
it up. They are hard to cure, first, because they are originally due to
chills; secondly, because the patient's system being already exhausted
by disease, the air there, which is in constant agitation owing to winds
and therefore deteriorated, takes all the sap of life out of their
diseased bodies and leaves them more meagre every day. On the other
hand, a mild, thick air, without draughts and not constantly blowing
back and forth, builds up their frames by its unwavering steadiness, and
so strengthens and restores people who are afflicted with these
diseases.
4. Some have held that there are only four winds: Solanus from due east;
Auster from the south; Favonius from due west; Septentrio from the
north. But more careful investigators tell us that there are eight.
Chief among such was Andronicus of Cyrrhus who in proof built the marble
octagonal tower in Athens. On the several sides of the octagon he
executed reliefs representing the several winds, each facing the point
from which it blows; and on top of the tower he set a conical shaped
piece of marble and on this a bronze Triton with a rod outstretched in
its right hand. It was so contrived as to go round with the wind, always
stopping to face the breeze and holding its rod as a pointer directly
over the representation of the wind that was blowing.
5. Thus Eurus is placed to the southeast between Solanus and Auster:
Africus to the southwest between Auster and Favonius; Caurus, or, as
many call it, Corus, between Favonius and Septentrio; and Aquilo between
Septentrio and Solanus. Such, then, appears to have been his device,
including the numbers and names of the wind and indicating the
directions from which particular winds blow. These facts being thus
determined, to find the directions and quarters of the winds your method
of procedure should be as follows.
6. In the middle of the city place a marble amussium, laying it true by
the level, or else let the spot be made so true by means of rule and
level that no amussium is necessary. In the very centre of that spot set
up a bronze gnomon or "shadow tracker" (in Greek [Greek: skiathêras]).
At about the fifth hour in the morning, take the end of the shadow cast
by this gnomon, and mark it with a point. Then, opening your compasses
to this point which marks the length of the gnomon's shadow, describe a
circle from the centre. In the afternoon watch the shadow of your gnomon
as it lengthens, and when it once more touches the circumference of
this circle and the shadow in the afternoon is equal in length to
that of the morning, mark it with a point.
[Illustration: THE TOWER OF THE WINDS AT ATHENS]
7. From these two points describe with your compasses intersecting arcs,
and through their intersection and the centre let a line be drawn to the
circumference of the circle to give us the quarters of south and north.
Then, using a sixteenth part of the entire circumference of the circle
as a diameter, describe a circle with its centre on the line to the
south, at the point where it crosses the circumference, and put points
to the right and left on the circumference on the south side, repeating
the process on the north side. From the four points thus obtained draw
lines intersecting the centre from one side of the circumference to the
other. Thus we shall have an eighth part of the circumference set out
for Auster and another for Septentrio. The rest of the entire
circumference is then to be divided into three equal parts on each side,
and thus we have designed a figure equally apportioned among the eight
winds. Then let the directions of your streets and alleys be laid down
on the lines of division between the quarters of two winds.
8. On this principle of arrangement the disagreeable force of the winds
will be shut out from dwellings and lines of houses. For if the streets
run full in the face of the winds, their constant blasts rushing in from
the open country, and then confined by narrow alleys, will sweep through
them with great violence. The lines of houses must therefore be directed
away from the quarters from which the winds blow, so that as they come
in they may strike against the angles of the blocks and their force thus
be broken and dispersed.
9. Those who know names for very many winds will perhaps be surprised at
our setting forth that there are only eight. Remembering, however, that
Eratosthenes of Cyrene, employing mathematical theories and geometrical
methods, discovered from the course of the sun, the shadows cast by an
equinoctial gnomon, and the inclination of the heaven that the
circumference of the earth is two hundred and fifty-two thousand stadia,
that is, thirty-one one million five hundred thousand paces, and
observing that an eighth part of this, occupied by a wind, is three
million nine hundred and thirty-seven thousand five hundred paces, they
should not be surprised to find that a single wind, ranging over so wide
a field, is subject to shifts this way and that, leading to a variety of
breezes.
10. So we often have Leuconotus and Altanus blowing respectively to the
right and left of Auster; Libonotus and Subvesperus to the right and
left of Africus; Argestes, and at certain periods the Etesiae, on either
side of Favonius; Circias and Corus on the sides of Caurus; Thracias and
Gallicus on either side of Septentrio; Supernas and Caecias to the right
and left of Aquilo; Carbas, and at a certain period the Ornithiae, on
either side of Solanus; while Eurocircias and Volturnus blow on the
flanks of Eurus which is between them. There are also many other names
for winds derived from localities or from the squalls which sweep from
rivers or down mountains.
11. Then, too, there are the breezes of early morning; for the sun on
emerging from beneath the earth strikes humid air as he returns, and as
he goes climbing up the sky he spreads it out before him, extracting
breezes from the vapour that was there before the dawn. Those that still
blow on after sunrise are classed with Eurus, and hence appears to come
the Greek name [Greek: euros] as the child of the breezes, and the word
for "to-morrow," [Greek: aurion], named from the early morning breezes.
Some people do indeed say that Eratosthenes could not have inferred the
true measure of the earth. Whether true or untrue, it cannot affect the
truth of what I have written on the fixing of the quarters from which
the different winds blow.
[Illustration: DIAGRAM OF THE WINDS (From the edition of Vitruvius by
Fra Giocondo, Venice, 1511)]
12. If he was wrong, the only result will be that the individual winds
may blow, not with the scope expected from his measurement, but with
powers either more or less widely extended. For the readier
understanding of these topics, since I have treated them with brevity,
it has seemed best to me to give two figures, or, as the Greeks say,
[Greek: schêmata], at the end of this book: one designed to show the
precise quarters from which the winds arise; the other, how by turning
the directions of the rows of houses and the streets away from their
full force, we may avoid unhealthy blasts. Let A be the centre of a
plane surface, and B the point to which the shadow of the gnomon reaches
in the morning. Taking A as the centre, open the compasses to the point
B, which marks the shadow, and describe a circle. Put the gnomon back
where it was before and wait for the shadow to lessen and grow again
until in the afternoon it is equal to its length in the morning,
touching the circumference at the point C. Then from the points B and C
describe with the compasses two arcs intersecting at D. Next draw a line
from the point of intersection D through the centre of the circle to the
circumference and call it E F. This line will show where the south and
north lie.
[Illustration]
13. Then find with the compasses a sixteenth part of the entire
circumference; then centre the compasses on the point E where the line
to the south touches the circumference, and set off the points G and H
to the right and left of E. Likewise on the north side, centre the
compasses on the circumference at the point F on the line to the north,
and set off the points I and K to the right and left; then draw lines
through the centre from G to K and from H to I. Thus the space from G to
H will belong to Auster and the south, and the space from I to K will be
that of Septentrio. The rest of the circumference is to be divided
equally into three parts on the right and three on the left, those to
the east at the points L and M, those to the west at the points N and
O. Finally, intersecting lines are to be drawn from M to O and from L
to N. Thus we shall have the circumference divided into eight equal
spaces for the winds. The figure being finished, we shall have at the
eight different divisions, beginning at the south, the letter G between
Eurus and Auster, H between Auster and Africus, N between Africus and
Favonius, O between Favonius and Caurus, K between Caurus and
Septentrio, I between Septentrio and Aquilo, L between Aquilo and
Solanus, and M between Solanus and Eurus. This done, apply a gnomon to
these eight divisions and thus fix the directions of the different
alleys.
CHAPTER VII
THE SITES FOR PUBLIC BUILDINGS
1. Having laid out the alleys and determined the streets, we have next
to treat of the choice of building sites for temples, the forum, and all
other public places, with a view to general convenience and utility. If
the city is on the sea, we should choose ground close to the harbour as
the place where the forum is to be built; but if inland, in the middle
of the town. For the temples, the sites for those of the gods under
whose particular protection the state is thought to rest and for
Jupiter, Juno, and Minerva, should be on the very highest point
commanding a view of the greater part of the city. Mercury should be in
the forum, or, like Isis and Serapis, in the emporium: Apollo and Father
Bacchus near the theatre: Hercules at the circus in communities which
have no gymnasia nor amphitheatres; Mars outside the city but at the
training ground, and so Venus, but at the harbour. It is moreover shown
by the Etruscan diviners in treatises on their science that the fanes of
Venus, Vulcan, and Mars should be situated outside the walls, in order
that the young men and married women may not become habituated in the
city to the temptations incident to the worship of Venus, and that
buildings may be free from the terror of fires through the religious
rites and sacrifices which call the power of Vulcan beyond the walls.
As for Mars, when that divinity is enshrined outside the walls, the
citizens will never take up arms against each other, and he will defend
the city from its enemies and save it from danger in war.
2. Ceres also should be outside the city in a place to which people need
never go except for the purpose of sacrifice. That place should be under
the protection of religion, purity, and good morals. Proper sites should
be set apart for the precincts of the other gods according to the nature
of the sacrifices offered to them.
The principle governing the actual construction of temples and their
symmetry I shall explain in my third and fourth books. In the second I
have thought it best to give an account of the materials used in
buildings with their good qualities and advantages, and then in the
succeeding books to describe and explain the proportions of buildings,
their arrangements, and the different forms of symmetry.
BOOK II
INTRODUCTION
1. Dinocrates, an architect who was full of confidence in his own ideas
and skill, set out from Macedonia, in the reign of Alexander, to go to
the army, being eager to win the approbation of the king. He took with
him from his country letters from relatives and friends to the principal
military men and officers of the court, in order to gain access to them
more readily. Being politely received by them, he asked to be presented
to Alexander as soon as possible. They promised, but were rather slow,
waiting for a suitable opportunity. So Dinocrates, thinking that they
were playing with him, had recourse to his own efforts. He was of very
lofty stature and pleasing countenance, finely formed, and extremely
dignified. Trusting, therefore, to these natural gifts, he undressed
himself in his inn, anointed his body with oil, set a chaplet of poplar
leaves on his head, draped his left shoulder with a lion's skin, and
holding a club in his right hand stalked forth to a place in front of
the tribunal where the king was administering justice.
2. His strange appearance made the people turn round, and this led
Alexander to look at him. In astonishment he gave orders to make way for
him to draw near, and asked who he was. "Dinocrates," quoth he, "a
Macedonian architect, who brings thee ideas and designs worthy of thy
renown. I have made a design for the shaping of Mount Athos into the
statue of a man, in whose left hand I have represented a very spacious
fortified city, and in his right a bowl to receive the water of all the
streams which are in that mountain, so that it may pour from the bowl
into the sea."
3. Alexander, delighted with the idea of his design, immediately
inquired whether there were any fields in the neighbourhood that could
maintain the city in corn. On finding that this was impossible without
transport from beyond the sea, "Dinocrates," quoth he, "I appreciate
your design as excellent in composition, and I am delighted with it, but
I apprehend that anybody who should found a city in that spot would be
censured for bad judgement. For as a newborn babe cannot be nourished
without the nurse's milk, nor conducted to the approaches that lead to
growth in life, so a city cannot thrive without fields and the fruits
thereof pouring into its walls, nor have a large population without
plenty of food, nor maintain its population without a supply of it.
Therefore, while thinking that your design is commendable, I consider
the site as not commendable; but I would have you stay with me, because
I mean to make use of your services."
4. From that time, Dinocrates did not leave the king, but followed him
into Egypt. There Alexander, observing a harbour rendered safe by
nature, an excellent centre for trade, cornfields throughout all Egypt,
and the great usefulness of the mighty river Nile, ordered him to build
the city of Alexandria, named after the king. This was how Dinocrates,
recommended only by his good looks and dignified carriage, came to be so
famous. But as for me, Emperor, nature has not given me stature, age has
marred my face, and my strength is impaired by ill health. Therefore,
since these advantages fail me, I shall win your approval, as I hope, by
the help of my knowledge and my writings.
5. In my first book, I have said what I had to say about the functions
of architecture and the scope of the art, as well as about fortified
towns and the apportionment of building sites within the fortifications.
Although it would next be in order to explain the proper proportions and
symmetry of temples and public buildings, as well as of private houses,
I thought best to postpone this until after I had treated the practical
merits of the materials out of which, when they are brought together,
buildings are constructed with due regard to the proper kind of material
for each part, and until I had shown of what natural elements those
materials are composed. But before beginning to explain their natural
properties, I will prefix the motives which originally gave rise to
buildings and the development of inventions in this field, following in
the steps of early nature and of those writers who have devoted
treatises to the origins of civilization and the investigation of
inventions. My exposition will, therefore, follow the instruction which
I have received from them.
CHAPTER I
THE ORIGIN OF THE DWELLING HOUSE
1. The men of old were born like the wild beasts, in woods, caves, and
groves, and lived on savage fare. As time went on, the thickly crowded
trees in a certain place, tossed by storms and winds, and rubbing their
branches against one another, caught fire, and so the inhabitants of the
place were put to flight, being terrified by the furious flame. After it
subsided, they drew near, and observing that they were very comfortable
standing before the warm fire, they put on logs and, while thus keeping
it alive, brought up other people to it, showing them by signs how much
comfort they got from it. In that gathering of men, at a time when
utterance of sound was purely individual, from daily habits they fixed
upon articulate words just as these had happened to come; then, from
indicating by name things in common use, the result was that in this
chance way they began to talk, and thus originated conversation with one
another.
2. Therefore it was the discovery of fire that originally gave rise to
the coming together of men, to the deliberative assembly, and to social
intercourse. And so, as they kept coming together in greater numbers
into one place, finding themselves naturally gifted beyond the other
animals in not being obliged to walk with faces to the ground, but
upright and gazing upon the splendour of the starry firmament, and also
in being able to do with ease whatever they chose with their hands and
fingers, they began in that first assembly to construct shelters. Some
made them of green boughs, others dug caves on mountain sides, and some,
in imitation of the nests of swallows and the way they built, made
places of refuge out of mud and twigs. Next, by observing the shelters
of others and adding new details to their own inceptions, they
constructed better and better kinds of huts as time went on.
3. And since they were of an imitative and teachable nature, they would
daily point out to each other the results of their building, boasting of
the novelties in it; and thus, with their natural gifts sharpened by
emulation, their standards improved daily. At first they set up forked
stakes connected by twigs and covered these walls with mud. Others made
walls of lumps of dried mud, covering them with reeds and leaves to keep
out the rain and the heat. Finding that such roofs could not stand the
rain during the storms of winter, they built them with peaks daubed with
mud, the roofs sloping and projecting so as to carry off the rain water.
4. That houses originated as I have written above, we can see for
ourselves from the buildings that are to this day constructed of like
materials by foreign tribes: for instance, in Gaul, Spain, Portugal, and
Aquitaine, roofed with oak shingles or thatched. Among the Colchians in
Pontus, where there are forests in plenty, they lay down entire trees
flat on the ground to the right and the left, leaving between them a
space to suit the length of the trees, and then place above these
another pair of trees, resting on the ends of the former and at right
angles with them. These four trees enclose the space for the dwelling.
Then upon these they place sticks of timber, one after the other on the
four sides, crossing each other at the angles, and so, proceeding with
their walls of trees laid perpendicularly above the lowest, they build
up high towers. The interstices, which are left on account of the
thickness of the building material, are stopped up with chips and mud.
As for the roofs, by cutting away the ends of the crossbeams and making
them converge gradually as they lay them across, they bring them up to
the top from the four sides in the shape of a pyramid. They cover it
with leaves and mud, and thus construct the roofs of their towers in a
rude form of the "tortoise" style.
5. On the other hand, the Phrygians, who live in an open country, have
no forests and consequently lack timber. They therefore select a natural
hillock, run a trench through the middle of it, dig passages, and extend
the interior space as widely as the site admits. Over it they build a
pyramidal roof of logs fastened together, and this they cover with reeds
and brushwood, heaping up very high mounds of earth above their
dwellings. Thus their fashion in houses makes their winters very warm
and their summers very cool. Some construct hovels with roofs of rushes
from the swamps. Among other nations, also, in some places there are
huts of the same or a similar method of construction. Likewise at
Marseilles we can see roofs without tiles, made of earth mixed with
straw. In Athens on the Areopagus there is to this day a relic of
antiquity with a mud roof. The hut of Romulus on the Capitol is a
significant reminder of the fashions of old times, and likewise the
thatched roofs of temples or the Citadel.
6. From such specimens we can draw our inferences with regard to the
devices used in the buildings of antiquity, and conclude that they were
similar.
Furthermore, as men made progress by becoming daily more expert in
building, and as their ingenuity was increased by their dexterity so
that from habit they attained to considerable skill, their intelligence
was enlarged by their industry until the more proficient adopted the
trade of carpenters. From these early beginnings, and from the fact that
nature had not only endowed the human race with senses like the rest of
the animals, but had also equipped their minds with the powers of
thought and understanding, thus putting all other animals under their
sway, they next gradually advanced from the construction of buildings to
the other arts and sciences, and so passed from a rude and barbarous
mode of life to civilization and refinement.
7. Then, taking courage and looking forward from the standpoint of
higher ideas born of the multiplication of the arts, they gave up huts
and began to build houses with foundations, having brick or stone
walls, and roofs of timber and tiles; next, observation and application
led them from fluctuating and indefinite conceptions to definite rules
of symmetry. Perceiving that nature had been lavish in the bestowal of
timber and bountiful in stores of building material, they treated this
like careful nurses, and thus developing the refinements of life,
embellished them with luxuries. Therefore I shall now treat, to the best
of my ability, of the things which are suitable to be used in buildings,
showing their qualities and their excellencies.
8. Some persons, however, may find fault with the position of this book,
thinking that it should have been placed first. I will therefore explain
the matter, lest it be thought that I have made a mistake. Being engaged
in writing a complete treatise on architecture, I resolved to set forth
in the first book the branches of learning and studies of which it
consists, to define its departments, and to show of what it is composed.
Hence I have there declared what the qualities of an architect should
be. In the first book, therefore, I have spoken of the function of the
art, but in this I shall discuss the use of the building materials which
nature provides. For this book does not show of what architecture is
composed, but treats of the origin of the building art, how it was
fostered, and how it made progress, step by step, until it reached its
present perfection.
9. This book is, therefore, in its proper order and place.
I will now return to my subject, and with regard to the materials suited
to the construction of buildings will consider their natural formation
and in what proportions their elementary constituents were combined,
making it all clear and not obscure to my readers. For there is no kind
of material, no body, and no thing that can be produced or conceived of,
which is not made up of elementary particles; and nature does not admit
of a truthful exploration in accordance with the doctrines of the
physicists without an accurate demonstration of the primary causes of
things, showing how and why they are as they are.
CHAPTER II
ON THE PRIMORDIAL SUBSTANCE ACCORDING TO THE PHYSICISTS
1. First of all Thales thought that water was the primordial substance
of all things. Heraclitus of Ephesus, surnamed by the Greeks [Greek:
skoteinos] on account of the obscurity of his writings, thought that it
was fire. Democritus and his follower Epicurus thought that it was the
atoms, termed by our writers "bodies that cannot be cut up," or, by
some, "indivisibles." The school of the Pythagoreans added air and the
earthy to the water and fire. Hence, although Democritus did not in a
strict sense name them, but spoke only of indivisible bodies, yet he
seems to have meant these same elements, because when taken by
themselves they cannot be harmed, nor are they susceptible of
dissolution, nor can they be cut up into parts, but throughout time
eternal they forever retain an infinite solidity.
2. All things therefore appear to be made up and produced by the coming
together of these elements, so that they have been distributed by nature
among an infinite number of kinds of things. Hence I believed it right
to treat of the diversity and practical peculiarities of these things as
well as of the qualities which they exhibit in buildings, so that
persons who are intending to build may understand them and so make no
mistake, but may gather materials which are suitable to use in their
buildings.
CHAPTER III
BRICK
1. Beginning with bricks, I shall state of what kind of clay they ought
to be made. They should not be made of sandy or pebbly clay, or of fine
gravel, because when made of these kinds they are in the first place
heavy; and, secondly, when washed by the rain as they stand in walls,
they go to pieces and break up, and the straw in them does not hold
together on account of the roughness of the material. They should rather
be made of white and chalky or of red clay, or even of a coarse grained
gravelly clay. These materials are smooth and therefore durable; they
are not heavy to work with, and are readily laid.
2. Bricks should be made in Spring or Autumn, so that they may dry
uniformly. Those made in Summer are defective, because the fierce heat
of the sun bakes their surface and makes the brick seem dry while inside
it is not dry. And so the shrinking, which follows as they dry, causes
cracks in the parts which were dried before, and these cracks make the
bricks weak. Bricks will be most serviceable if made two years before
using; for they cannot dry thoroughly in less time. When fresh undried
bricks are used in a wall, the stucco covering stiffens and hardens into
a permanent mass, but the bricks settle and cannot keep the same height
as the stucco; the motion caused by their shrinking prevents them from
adhering to it, and they are separated from their union with it. Hence
the stucco, no longer joined to the core of the wall, cannot stand by
itself because it is so thin; it breaks off, and the walls themselves
may perhaps be ruined by their settling. This is so true that at Utica
in constructing walls they use brick only if it is dry and made five
years previously, and approved as such by the authority of a magistrate.
3. There are three kinds of bricks. First, the kind called in Greek
Lydian, being that which our people use, a foot and a half long and one
foot wide. The other two kinds are used by the Greeks in their
buildings. Of these, one is called [Greek: pentadôron], the other
[Greek: tetradôron]. [Greek: Dôron] is the Greek for "palm," for in
Greek [Greek: dôron] means the giving of gifts, and the gift is always
presented in the palm of the hand. A brick five palms square is called
"pentadoron"; one four palms square "tetradoron." Public buildings are
constructed of [Greek: pentadôra], private of [Greek: tetradôra].
4. With these bricks there are also half-bricks. When these are used in
a wall, a course of bricks is laid on one face and a course of
half-bricks on the other, and they are bedded to the line on each face.
The walls are bonded by alternate courses of the two different kinds,
and as the bricks are always laid so as to break joints, this lends
strength and a not unattractive appearance to both sides of such walls.
[Illustration: VITRUVIUS' BRICK-BOND ACCORDING TO REBER]
In the states of Maxilua and Callet, in Further Spain, as well as in
Pitane in Asia Minor, there are bricks which, when finished and dried,
will float on being thrown into water. The reason why they can float
seems to be that the clay of which they are made is like pumice-stone.
So it is light, and also it does not, after being hardened by exposure
to the air, take up or absorb liquid. So these bricks, being of this
light and porous quality, and admitting no moisture into their texture,
must by the laws of nature float in water, like pumice, no matter what
their weight may be. They have therefore great advantages; for they are
not heavy to use in building and, once made, they are not spoiled by bad
weather.
CHAPTER IV
SAND
1. In walls of masonry the first question must be with regard to the
sand, in order that it may be fit to mix into mortar and have no dirt in
it. The kinds of pitsand are these: black, gray, red, and carbuncular.
Of these the best will be found to be that which crackles when rubbed in
the hand, while that which has much dirt in it will not be sharp enough.
Again: throw some sand upon a white garment and then shake it out; if
the garment is not soiled and no dirt adheres to it, the sand is
suitable.
2. But if there are no sandpits from which it can be dug, then we must
sift it out from river beds or from gravel or even from the sea beach.
This kind, however, has these defects when used in masonry: it dries
slowly; the wall cannot be built up without interruption but from time
to time there must be pauses in the work; and such a wall cannot carry
vaultings. Furthermore, when sea-sand is used in walls and these are
coated with stucco, a salty efflorescence is given out which spoils the
surface.
3. But pitsand used in masonry dries quickly, the stucco coating is
permanent, and the walls can support vaultings. I am speaking of sand
fresh from the sandpits. For if it lies unused too long after being
taken out, it is disintegrated by exposure to sun, moon, or hoar frost,
and becomes earthy. So when mixed in masonry, it has no binding power on
the rubble, which consequently settles and down comes the load which the
walls can no longer support. Fresh pitsand, however, in spite of all its
excellence in concrete structures, is not equally useful in stucco, the
richness of which, when the lime and straw are mixed with such sand,
will cause it to crack as it dries on account of the great strength of
the mixture. But river sand, though useless in "signinum" on account of
its thinness, becomes perfectly solid in stucco when thoroughly worked
by means of polishing instruments.
CHAPTER V
LIME
1. Sand and its sources having been thus treated, next with regard to
lime we must be careful that it is burned from a stone which, whether
soft or hard, is in any case white. Lime made of close-grained stone of
the harder sort will be good in structural parts; lime of porous stone,
in stucco. After slaking it, mix your mortar, if using pitsand, in the
proportions of three parts of sand to one of lime; if using river or
sea-sand, mix two parts of sand with one of lime. These will be the
right proportions for the composition of the mixture. Further, in using
river or sea-sand, the addition of a third part composed of burnt brick,
pounded up and sifted, will make your mortar of a better composition to
use.
2. The reason why lime makes a solid structure on being combined with
water and sand seems to be this: that rocks, like all other bodies, are
composed of the four elements. Those which contain a larger proportion
of air, are soft; of water, are tough from the moisture; of earth, hard;
and of fire, more brittle. Therefore, if limestone, without being
burned, is merely pounded up small and then mixed with sand and so put
into the work, the mass does not solidify nor can it hold together. But
if the stone is first thrown into the kiln, it loses its former property
of solidity by exposure to the great heat of the fire, and so with its
strength burnt out and exhausted it is left with its pores open and
empty. Hence, the moisture and air in the body of the stone being burned
out and set free, and only a residuum of heat being left lying in it, if
the stone is then immersed in water, the moisture, before the water can
feel the influence of the fire, makes its way into the open pores; then
the stone begins to get hot, and finally, after it cools off, the heat
is rejected from the body of the lime.
3. Consequently, limestone when taken out of the kiln cannot be as heavy
as when it was thrown in, but on being weighed, though its bulk remains
the same as before, it is found to have lost about a third of its weight
owing to the boiling out of the water. Therefore, its pores being thus
opened and its texture rendered loose, it readily mixes with sand, and
hence the two materials cohere as they dry, unite with the rubble, and
make a solid structure.
CHAPTER VI
POZZOLANA
1. There is also a kind of powder which from natural causes produces
astonishing results. It is found in the neighbourhood of Baiae and in
the country belonging to the towns round about Mt. Vesuvius. This
substance, when mixed with lime and rubble, not only lends strength to
buildings of other kinds, but even when piers of it are constructed in
the sea, they set hard under water. The reason for this seems to be that
the soil on the slopes of the mountains in these neighbourhoods is hot
and full of hot springs. This would not be so unless the mountains had
beneath them huge fires of burning sulphur or alum or asphalt. So the
fire and the heat of the flames, coming up hot from far within through
the fissures, make the soil there light, and the tufa found there is
spongy and free from moisture. Hence, when the three substances, all
formed on a similar principle by the force of fire, are mixed together,
the water suddenly taken in makes them cohere, and the moisture quickly
hardens them so that they set into a mass which neither the waves nor
the force of the water can dissolve.
2. That there is burning heat in these regions may be proved by the
further fact that in the mountains near Baiae, which belongs to the
Cumaeans, there are places excavated to serve as sweating-baths, where
the intense heat that comes from far below bores its way through the
earth, owing to the force of the fire, and passing up appears in these
regions, thus making remarkably good sweating-baths. Likewise also it is
related that in ancient times the tides of heat, swelling and
overflowing from under Mt. Vesuvius, vomited forth fire from the
mountain upon the neighbouring country. Hence, what is called
"sponge-stone" or "Pompeian pumice" appears to have been reduced by
burning from another kind of stone to the condition of the kind which we
see.
3. The kind of sponge-stone taken from this region is not produced
everywhere else, but only about Aetna and among the hills of Mysia which
the Greeks call the "Burnt District," and in other places of the same
peculiar nature. Seeing that in such places there are found hot springs
and warm vapour in excavations on the mountains, and that the ancients
tell us that there were once fires spreading over the fields in those
very regions, it seems to be certain that moisture has been extracted
from the tufa and earth, by the force of fire, just as it is from
limestone in kilns.
4. Therefore, when different and unlike things have been subjected to
the action of fire and thus reduced to the same condition, if after
this, while in a warm, dry state, they are suddenly saturated with
water, there is an effervescence of the heat latent in the bodies of
them all, and this makes them firmly unite and quickly assume the
property of one solid mass.
There will still be the question why Tuscany, although it abounds in hot
springs, does not furnish a powder out of which, on the same principle,
a wall can be made which will set fast under water. I have therefore
thought best to explain how this seems to be, before the question should
be raised.
5. The same kinds of soil are not found in all places and countries
alike, nor is stone found everywhere. Some soils are earthy; others
gravelly, and again pebbly; in other places the material is sandy; in a
word, the properties of the soil are as different and unlike as are the
various countries. In particular, it may be observed that sandpits are
hardly ever lacking in any place within the districts of Italy and
Tuscany which are bounded by the Apennines; whereas across the Apennines
toward the Adriatic none are found, and in Achaea and Asia Minor or, in
short, across the sea, the very term is unknown. Hence it is not in all
the places where boiling springs of hot water abound, that there is the
same combination of favourable circumstances which has been described
above. For things are produced in accordance with the will of nature;
not to suit man's pleasure, but as it were by a chance distribution.
6. Therefore, where the mountains are not earthy but consist of soft
stone, the force of the fire, passing through the fissures in the stone,
sets it afire. The soft and delicate part is burned out, while the hard
part is left. Consequently, while in Campania the burning of the earth
makes ashes, in Tuscany the combustion of the stone makes carbuncular
sand. Both are excellent in walls, but one is better to use for
buildings on land, the other for piers under salt water. The Tuscan
stone is softer in quality than tufa but harder than earth, and being
thoroughly kindled by the violent heat from below, the result is the
production in some places of the kind of sand called carbuncular.
[Illustration: TRAVERTINE QUARRIES ON THE ROMAN CAMPAGNA
1. 2. Ancient quarries. 3. A similar modern quarry.
The top of the rock shows the original ground level. The present ground
level shows the depth to which the rock has been removed.]
CHAPTER VII
STONE
1. I have now spoken of lime and sand, with their varieties and points
of excellence. Next comes the consideration of stone-quarries from which
dimension stone and supplies of rubble to be used in building are taken
and brought together. The stone in quarries is found to be of different
and unlike qualities. In some it is soft: for example, in the environs
of the city at the quarries of Grotta Rossa, Palla, Fidenae, and of the
Alban hills; in others, it is medium, as at Tivoli, at Amiternum, or Mt.
Soracte, and in quarries of this sort; in still others it is hard, as in
lava quarries. There are also numerous other kinds: for instance, in
Campania, red and black tufas; in Umbria, Picenum, and Venetia, white
tufa which can be cut with a toothed saw, like wood.
2. All these soft kinds have the advantage that they can be easily
worked as soon as they have been taken from the quarries. Under cover
they play their part well; but in open and exposed situations the frost
and rime make them crumble, and they go to pieces. On the seacoast, too,
the salt eats away and dissolves them, nor can they stand great heat
either. But travertine and all stone of that class can stand injury
whether from a heavy load laid upon it or from the weather; exposure to
fire, however, it cannot bear, but splits and cracks to pieces at once.
This is because in its natural composition there is but little moisture
and not much of the earthy, but a great deal of air and of fire.
Therefore, it is not only without the earthy and watery elements, but
when fire, expelling the air from it by the operation and force of heat,
penetrates into its inmost parts and occupies the empty spaces of the
fissures, there comes a great glow and the stone is made to burn as
fiercely as do the particles of fire itself.
3. There are also several quarries called Anician in the territory of
Tarquinii, the stone being of the colour of peperino. The principal
workshops lie round the lake of Bolsena and in the prefecture of
Statonia. This stone has innumerable good qualities. Neither the season
of frost nor exposure to fire can harm it, but it remains solid and
lasts to a great age, because there is only a little air and fire in its
natural composition, a moderate amount of moisture, and a great deal of
the earthy. Hence its structure is of close texture and solid, and so it
cannot be injured by the weather or by the force of fire.
4. This may best be seen from monuments in the neighbourhood of the town
of Ferento which are made of stone from these quarries. Among them are
large statues exceedingly well made, images of smaller size, and flowers
and acanthus leaves gracefully carved. Old as these are, they look as
fresh as if they were only just finished. Bronze workers, also, make
moulds for the casting of bronze out of stone from these quarries, and
find it very useful in bronze-founding. If the quarries were only near
Rome, all our buildings might well be constructed from the products of
these workshops.
5. But since, on account of the proximity of the stone-quarries of
Grotta Rossa, Palla, and the others that are nearest to the city,
necessity drives us to make use of their products, we must proceed as
follows, if we wish our work to be finished without flaws. Let the stone
be taken from the quarry two years before building is to begin, and not
in winter but in summer. Then let it lie exposed in an open place. Such
stone as has been damaged by the two years of exposure should be used in
the foundations. The rest, which remains unhurt, has passed the test of
nature and will endure in those parts of the building which are above
ground. This precaution should be observed, not only with dimension
stone, but also with the rubble which is to be used in walls.
[Illustration: Photo. Moscioni
EXAMPLE OF OPUS INCERTUM. THE CIRCULAR TEMPLE AT TIVOLI]
CHAPTER VIII
METHODS OF BUILDING WALLS
1. There are two styles of walls: "opus reticulatum," now used by
everybody, and the ancient style called "opus incertum." Of these, the
reticulatum looks better, but its construction makes it likely to crack,
because its beds and builds spread out in every direction. On the other
hand, in the opus incertum, the rubble, lying in courses and imbricated,
makes a wall which, though not beautiful, is stronger than the
reticulatum.
2. Both kinds should be constructed of the smallest stones, so that the
walls, being thoroughly puddled with the mortar, which is made of lime
and sand, may hold together longer. Since the stones used are soft and
porous, they are apt to suck the moisture out of the mortar and so to
dry it up. But when there is abundance of lime and sand, the wall,
containing more moisture, will not soon lose its strength, for they will
hold it together. But as soon as the moisture is sucked out of the
mortar by the porous rubble, and the lime and sand separate and
disunite, the rubble can no longer adhere to them and the wall will in
time become a ruin.
3. This we may learn from several monuments in the environs of the city,
which are built of marble or dimension stone, but on the inside packed
with masonry between the outer walls. In the course of time, the mortar
has lost its strength, which has been sucked out of it by the porousness
of the rubble; and so the monuments are tumbling down and going to
pieces, with their joints loosened by the settling of the material that
bound them together.
4. He who wishes to avoid such a disaster should leave a cavity behind
the facings, and on the inside build walls two feet thick, made of red
dimension stone or burnt brick or lava in courses, and then bind them to
the fronts by means of iron clamps and lead. For thus his work, being no
mere heap of material but regularly laid in courses, will be strong
enough to last forever without a flaw, because the beds and builds, all
settling equally and bonded at the joints, will not let the work bulge
out, nor allow the fall of the face walls which have been tightly
fastened together.
5. Consequently, the method of construction employed by the Greeks is
not to be despised. They do not use a structure of soft rubble polished
on the outside, but whenever they forsake dimension stone, they lay
courses of lava or of some hard stone, and, as though building with
brick, they bind the upright joints by interchanging the direction of
the stones as they lie in the courses. Thus they attain to a perfection
that will endure to eternity. These structures are of two kinds. One of
them is called "isodomum," the other "pseudisodomum."
6. A wall is called isodomum when all the courses are of equal height;
pseudisodomum, when the rows of courses do not match but run unequally.
Both kinds are strong: first, because the rubble itself is of close
texture and solid, unable to suck the moisture out of the mortar, but
keeping it in its moist condition for a very long period; secondly,
because the beds of the stones, being laid smooth and level to begin
with, keep the mortar from falling, and, as they are bonded throughout
the entire thickness of the wall, they hold together for a very long
period.
7. Another method is that which they call [Greek: emplekton], used also
among us in the country. In this the facings are finished, but the other
stones left in their natural state and then laid with alternate bonding
stones. But our workmen, in their hurry to finish, devote themselves
only to the facings of the walls, setting them upright but filling the
space between with a lot of broken stones and mortar thrown in anyhow.
This makes three different sections in the same structure; two
consisting of facing and one of filling between them. The Greeks,
however, do not build so; but laying their stones level and building
every other stone length-wise into the thickness, they do not fill the
space between, but construct the thickness of their walls in one solid
and unbroken mass from the facings to the interior. Further, at
intervals they lay single stones which run through the entire
thickness of the wall. These stones, which show at each end, are called
[Greek: diatonoi], and by their bonding powers they add very greatly to
the solidity of the walls.
[Illustration: Photo. Moscioni
OPUS RETICULATUM FROM THE THERMAE OF HADRIAN'S VILLA AT TIVOLI]
[Illustration: Photo. Moscioni
EXAMPLE OF OPUS RETICULATUM FROM THE DOORWAY OF THE STOA POECILE. VILLA
OF HADRIAN AT TIVOLI]
8. One who in accordance with these notes will take pains in selecting
his method of construction, may count upon having something that will
last. No walls made of rubble and finished with delicate beauty--no such
walls can escape ruin as time goes on. Hence, when arbitrators are
chosen to set a valuation on party walls, they do not value them at what
they cost to build, but look up the written contract in each case and
then, after deducting from the cost one eightieth for each year that the
wall has been standing, decide that the remainder is the sum to be paid.
They thus in effect pronounce that such walls cannot last more than
eighty years.
9. In the case of brick walls, however, no deduction is made provided
that they are still standing plumb, but they are always valued at what
they cost to build. Hence in some states we may see public buildings and
private houses, as well as those of kings, built of brick: in Athens,
for example, the part of the wall which faces Mt. Hymettus and
Pentelicus; at Patras, the cellae of the temple of Jupiter and Hercules,
which are brick, although on the outside the entablature and columns of
the temple are of stone; in Italy, at Arezzo, an ancient wall
excellently built; at Tralles, the house built for the kings of the
dynasty of Attalus, which is now always granted to the man who holds the
state priesthood. In Sparta, paintings have been taken out of certain
walls by cutting through the bricks, then have been placed in wooden
frames, and so brought to the Comitium to adorn the aedileship of Varro
and Murena.
10. Then there is the house of Croesus which the people of Sardis have
set apart as a place of repose for their fellow-citizens in the
retirement of age,--a "Gerousia" for the guild of the elder men. At
Halicarnassus, the house of that most potent king Mausolus, though
decorated throughout with Proconnesian marble, has walls built of brick
which are to this day of extraordinary strength, and are covered with
stucco so highly polished that they seem to be as glistening as glass.
That king did not use brick from poverty; for he was choke-full of
revenues, being ruler of all Caria.
11. As for his skill and ingenuity as a builder, they may be seen from
what follows. He was born at Melassa, but recognizing the natural
advantages of Halicarnassus as a fortress, and seeing that it was
suitable as a trading centre and that it had a good harbour, he fixed
his residence there. The place had a curvature like that of the seats in
a theatre. On the lowest tier, along the harbour, was built the forum.
About halfway up the curving slope, at the point where the curved
cross-aisle is in a theatre, a broad wide street was laid out, in the
middle of which was built the Mausoleum, a work so remarkable that it is
classed among the Seven Wonders of the World. At the top of the hill, in
the centre, is the fane of Mars, containing a colossal acrolithic statue
by the famous hand of Leochares. That is, some think that this statue is
by Leochares, others by Timotheus. At the extreme right of the summit is
the fane of Venus and Mercury, close to the spring of Salmacis.
12. There is a mistaken idea that this spring infects those who drink of
it with an unnatural lewdness. It will not be out of place to explain
how this idea came to spread throughout the world from a mistake in the
telling of the tale. It cannot be that the water makes men effeminate
and unchaste, as it is said to do; for the spring is of remarkable
clearness and excellent in flavour. The fact is that when Melas and
Arevanias came there from Argos and Troezen and founded a colony
together, they drove out the Carians and Lelegans who were barbarians.
These took refuge in the mountains, and, uniting there, used to make
raids, plundering the Greeks and laying their country waste in a cruel
manner. Later, one of the colonists, to make money, set up a
well-stocked shop, near the spring because the water was so good, and
the way in which he carried it on attracted the barbarians. So they
began to come down, one at a time, and to meet with society, and thus
they were brought back of their own accord, giving up their rough and
savage ways for the delights of Greek customs. Hence this water acquired
its peculiar reputation, not because it really induced unchastity, but
because those barbarians were softened by the charm of civilization.
[Illustration: THE MAUSOLEUM AT HALICARNASSUS AS RESTORED BY FRIEDRICH
ADLER]
13. But since I have been tempted into giving a description of this
fortified place, it remains to finish my account of it. Corresponding to
the fane of Venus and the spring described above, which are on the
right, we have on the extreme left the royal palace which king Mausolus
built there in accordance with a plan all his own. To the right it
commands a view of the forum, the harbour, and the entire line of
fortifications, while just below it, to the left, there is a concealed
harbour, hidden under the walls in such a way that nobody could see or
know what was going on in it. Only the king himself could, in case of
need, give orders from his own palace to the oarsmen and soldiers,
without the knowledge of anybody else.
14. After the death of Mausolus, his wife Artemisia became queen, and
the Rhodians, regarding it as an outrage that a woman should be ruler of
the states of all Caria, fitted out a fleet and sallied forth to seize
upon the kingdom. When news of this reached Artemisia, she gave orders
that her fleet should be hidden away in that harbour with oarsmen and
marines mustered and concealed, but that the rest of the citizens should
take their places on the city wall. After the Rhodians had landed at the
larger harbour with their well-equipped fleet, she ordered the people on
the wall to cheer them and to promise that they would deliver up the
town. Then, when they had passed inside the wall, leaving their fleet
empty, Artemisia suddenly made a canal which led to the sea, brought her
fleet thus out of the smaller harbour, and so sailed into the larger.
Disembarking her soldiers, she towed the empty fleet of the Rhodians out
to sea. So the Rhodians were surrounded without means of retreat, and
were slain in the very forum.
15. So Artemisia embarked her own soldiers and oarsmen in the ships of
the Rhodians and set forth for Rhodes. The Rhodians, beholding their own
ships approaching wreathed with laurel, supposed that their
fellow-citizens were returning victorious, and admitted the enemy. Then
Artemisia, after taking Rhodes and killing its leading men, put up in
the city of Rhodes a trophy of her victory, including two bronze
statues, one representing the state of the Rhodians, the other herself.
Herself she fashioned in the act of branding the state of the Rhodians.
In later times the Rhodians, labouring under the religious scruple which
makes it a sin to remove trophies once they are dedicated, constructed a
building to surround the place, and thus by the erection of the "Grecian
Station" covered it so that nobody could see it, and ordered that the
building be called "[Greek: abaton]."
16. Since such very powerful kings have not disdained walls built of
brick, although with their revenues and from booty they might often have
had them not only of masonry or dimension stone but even of marble, I
think that one ought not to reject buildings made of brick-work,
provided that they are properly "topped." But I shall explain why this
kind of structure should not be used by the Roman people within the
city, not omitting the reasons and the grounds for them.
17. The laws of the state forbid that walls abutting on public property
should be more than a foot and a half thick. The other walls are built
of the same thickness in order to save space. Now brick walls, unless
two or three bricks thick, cannot support more than one story; certainly
not if they are only a foot and a half in thickness. But with the
present importance of the city and the unlimited numbers of its
population, it is necessary to increase the number of dwelling-places
indefinitely. Consequently, as the ground floors could not admit of so
great a number living in the city, the nature of the case has made it
necessary to find relief by making the buildings high. In these tall
piles reared with piers of stone, walls of burnt brick, and partitions
of rubble work, and provided with floor after floor, the upper stories
can be partitioned off into rooms to very great advantage. The
accommodations within the city walls being thus multiplied as a result
of the many floors high in the air, the Roman people easily find
excellent places in which to live.
18. It has now been explained how limitations of building space
necessarily forbid the employment of brick walls within the city. When
it becomes necessary to use them outside the city, they should be
constructed as follows in order to be perfect and durable. On the top of
the wall lay a structure of burnt brick, about a foot and a half in
height, under the tiles and projecting like a coping. Thus the defects
usual in these walls can be avoided. For when the tiles on the roof are
broken or thrown down by the wind so that rainwater can leak through,
this burnt brick coating will prevent the crude brick from being
damaged, and the cornice-like projection will throw off the drops beyond
the vertical face, and thus the walls, though of crude brick structure,
will be preserved intact.
19. With regard to burnt brick, nobody can tell offhand whether it is of
the best or unfit to use in a wall, because its strength can be tested
only after it has been used on a roof and exposed to bad weather and
time--then, if it is good it is accepted. If not made of good clay or if
not baked sufficiently, it shows itself defective there when exposed to
frosts and rime. Brick that will not stand exposure on roofs can never
be strong enough to carry its load in a wall. Hence the strongest burnt
brick walls are those which are constructed out of old roofing tiles.
20. As for "wattle and daub" I could wish that it had never been
invented. The more it saves in time and gains in space, the greater and
the more general is the disaster that it may cause; for it is made to
catch fire, like torches. It seems better, therefore, to spend on walls
of burnt brick, and be at expense, than to save with "wattle and daub,"
and be in danger. And, in the stucco covering, too, it makes cracks from
the inside by the arrangement of its studs and girts. For these swell
with moisture as they are daubed, and then contract as they dry, and, by
their shrinking, cause the solid stucco to split. But since some are
obliged to use it either to save time or money, or for partitions on an
unsupported span, the proper method of construction is as follows. Give
it a high foundation so that it may nowhere come in contact with the
broken stone-work composing the floor; for if it is sunk in this, it
rots in course of time, then settles and sags forward, and so breaks
through the surface of the stucco covering.
I have now explained to the best of my ability the subject of walls, and
the preparation of the different kinds of material employed, with their
advantages and disadvantages. Next, following the guidance of Nature, I
shall treat of the framework and the kinds of wood used in it, showing
how they may be procured of a sort that will not give way as time goes
on.
CHAPTER IX
TIMBER
1. Timber should be felled between early Autumn and the time when
Favonius begins to blow. For in Spring all trees become pregnant, and
they are all employing their natural vigour in the production of leaves
and of the fruits that return every year. The requirements of that
season render them empty and swollen, and so they are weak and feeble
because of their looseness of texture. This is also the case with women
who have conceived. Their bodies are not considered perfectly healthy
until the child is born; hence, pregnant slaves, when offered for sale,
are not warranted sound, because the fetus as it grows within the body
takes to itself as nourishment all the best qualities of the mother's
food, and so the stronger it becomes as the full time for birth
approaches, the less compact it allows that body to be from which it is
produced. After the birth of the child, what was heretofore taken to
promote the growth of another creature is now set free by the delivery
of the newborn, and the channels being now empty and open, the body will
take it in by lapping up its juices, and thus becomes compact and
returns to the natural strength which it had before.
2. On the same principle, with the ripening of the fruits in Autumn the
leaves begin to wither and the trees, taking up their sap from the earth
through the roots, recover themselves and are restored to their former
solid texture. But the strong air of winter compresses and solidifies
them during the time above mentioned. Consequently, if the timber is
felled on the principle and at the time above mentioned, it will be
felled at the proper season.
3. In felling a tree we should cut into the trunk of it to the very
heart, and then leave it standing so that the sap may drain out drop by
drop throughout the whole of it. In this way the useless liquid which is
within will run out through the sapwood instead of having to die in a
mass of decay, thus spoiling the quality of the timber. Then and not
till then, the tree being drained dry and the sap no longer dripping,
let it be felled and it will be in the highest state of usefulness.
4. That this is so may be seen in the case of fruit trees. When these
are tapped at the base and pruned, each at the proper time, they pour
out from the heart through the tapholes all the superfluous and
corrupting fluid which they contain, and thus the draining process makes
them durable. But when the juices of trees have no means of escape, they
clot and rot in them, making the trees hollow and good for nothing.
Therefore, if the draining process does not exhaust them while they are
still alive, there is no doubt that, if the same principle is followed
in felling them for timber, they will last a long time and be very
useful in buildings.
5. Trees vary and are unlike one another in their qualities. Thus it is
with the oak, elm, poplar, cypress, fir, and the others which are most
suitable to use in buildings. The oak, for instance, has not the
efficacy of the fir, nor the cypress that of the elm. Nor in the case of
other trees, is it natural that they should be alike; but the individual
kinds are effective in building, some in one way, some in another, owing
to the different properties of their elements.
6. To begin with fir: it contains a great deal of air and fire with very
little moisture and the earthy, so that, as its natural properties are
of the lighter class, it is not heavy. Hence, its consistence being
naturally stiff, it does not easily bend under the load, and keeps its
straightness when used in the framework. But it contains so much heat
that it generates and encourages decay, which spoils it; and it also
kindles fire quickly because of the air in its body, which is so open
that it takes in fire and so gives out a great flame.
7. The part which is nearest to the earth before the tree is cut down
takes up moisture through the roots from the immediate neighbourhood and
hence is without knots and is "clear." But the upper part, on account of
the great heat in it, throws up branches into the air through the knots;
and this, when it is cut off about twenty feet from the ground and then
hewn, is called "knotwood" because of its hardness and knottiness. The
lowest part, after the tree is cut down and the sapwood of the same
thrown away, is split up into four pieces and prepared for joiner's
work, and so is called "clearstock."
8. Oak, on the other hand, having enough and to spare of the earthy
among its elements, and containing but little moisture, air, and fire,
lasts for an unlimited period when buried in underground structures. It
follows that when exposed to moisture, as its texture is not loose and
porous, it cannot take in liquid on account of its compactness, but,
withdrawing from the moisture, it resists it and warps, thus making
cracks in the structures in which it is used.
9. The winter oak, being composed of a moderate amount of all the
elements, is very useful in buildings, but when in a moist place, it
takes in water to its centre through its pores, its air and fire being
expelled by the influence of the moisture, and so it rots. The Turkey
oak and the beech, both containing a mixture of moisture, fire, and the
earthy, with a great deal of air, through this loose texture take in
moisture to their centre and soon decay. White and black poplar, as well
as willow, linden, and the agnus castus, containing an abundance of
fire and air, a moderate amount of moisture, and only a small amount of
the earthy, are composed of a mixture which is proportionately rather
light, and so they are of great service from their stiffness. Although
on account of the mixture of the earthy in them they are not hard, yet
their loose texture makes them gleaming white, and they are a convenient
material to use in carving.
10. The alder, which is produced close by river banks, and which seems
to be altogether useless as building material, has really excellent
qualities. It is composed of a very large proportion of air and fire,
not much of the earthy, and only a little moisture. Hence, in swampy
places, alder piles driven close together beneath the foundations of
buildings take in the water which their own consistence lacks and remain
imperishable forever, supporting structures of enormous weight and
keeping them from decay. Thus a material which cannot last even a little
while above ground, endures for a long time when covered with moisture.
11. One can see this at its best in Ravenna; for there all the
buildings, both public and private, have piles of this sort beneath
their foundations. The elm and the ash contain a very great amount of
moisture, a minimum of air and fire, and a moderate mixture of the
earthy in their composition. When put in shape for use in buildings they
are tough and, having no stiffness on account of the weight of moisture
in them, soon bend. But when they become dry with age, or are allowed to
lose their sap and die standing in the open, they get harder, and from
their toughness supply a strong material for dowels to be used in joints
and other articulations.
12. The hornbeam, which has a very small amount of fire and of the
earthy in its composition, but a very great proportion of air and
moisture, is not a wood that breaks easily, and is very convenient to
handle. Hence, the Greeks call it "zygia," because they make of it yokes
for their draught-animals, and their word for yoke is [Greek: zyga].
Cypress and pine are also just as admirable; for although they contain
an abundance of moisture mixed with an equivalent composed of all the
other elements, and so are apt to warp when used in buildings on account
of this superfluity of moisture, yet they can be kept to a great age
without rotting, because the liquid contained within their substances
has a bitter taste which by its pungency prevents the entrance of decay
or of those little creatures which are destructive. Hence, buildings
made of these kinds of wood last for an unending period of time.
13. The cedar and the juniper tree have the same uses and good
qualities, but, while the cypress and pine yield resin, from the cedar
is produced an oil called cedar-oil. Books as well as other things
smeared with this are not hurt by worms or decay. The foliage of this
tree is like that of the cypress but the grain of the wood is straight.
The statue of Diana in the temple at Ephesus is made of it, and so are
the coffered ceilings both there and in all other famous fanes, because
that wood is everlasting. The tree grows chiefly in Crete, Africa, and
in some districts of Syria.
14. The larch, known only to the people of the towns on the banks of the
river Po and the shores of the Adriatic, is not only preserved from
decay and the worm by the great bitterness of its sap, but also it
cannot be kindled with fire nor ignite of itself, unless like stone in a
limekiln it is burned with other wood. And even then it does not take
fire nor produce burning coals, but after a long time it slowly consumes
away. This is because there is a very small proportion of the elements
of fire and air in its composition, which is a dense and solid mass of
moisture and the earthy, so that it has no open pores through which fire
can find its way; but it repels the force of fire and does not let
itself be harmed by it quickly. Further, its weight will not let it
float in water, so that when transported it is loaded on shipboard or on
rafts made of fir.
15. It is worth while to know how this wood was discovered. The divine
Caesar, being with his army in the neighbourhood of the Alps, and having
ordered the towns to furnish supplies, the inhabitants of a fortified
stronghold there, called Larignum, trusting in the natural strength of
their defences, refused to obey his command. So the general ordered his
forces to the assault. In front of the gate of this stronghold there
was a tower, made of beams of this wood laid in alternating directions
at right angles to each other, like a funeral pyre, and built high, so
that they could drive off an attacking party by throwing stakes and
stones from the top. When it was observed that they had no other
missiles than stakes, and that these could not be hurled very far from
the wall on account of the weight, orders were given to approach and to
throw bundles of brushwood and lighted torches at this outwork. These
the soldiers soon got together.
16. The flames soon kindled the brushwood which lay about that wooden
structure and, rising towards heaven, made everybody think that the
whole pile had fallen. But when the fire had burned itself out and
subsided, and the tower appeared to view entirely uninjured, Caesar in
amazement gave orders that they should be surrounded with a palisade,
built beyond the range of missiles. So the townspeople were frightened
into surrendering, and were then asked where that wood came from which
was not harmed by fire. They pointed to trees of the kind under
discussion, of which there are very great numbers in that vicinity. And
so, as that stronghold was called Larignum, the wood was called larch.
It is transported by way of the Po to Ravenna, and is to be had in Fano,
Pesaro, Ancona, and the other towns in that neighbourhood. If there were
only a ready method of carrying this material to Rome, it would be of
the greatest use in buildings; if not for general purposes, yet at least
if the boards used in the eaves running round blocks of houses were made
of it, the buildings would be free from the danger of fire spreading
across to them, because such boards can neither take fire from flames or
from burning coals, nor ignite spontaneously.
17. The leaves of these trees are like those of the pine; timber from
them comes in long lengths, is as easily wrought in joiner's work as is
the clearwood of fir, and contains a liquid resin, of the colour of
Attic honey, which is good for consumptives.
With regard to the different kinds of timber, I have now explained of
what natural properties they appear to be composed, and how they were
produced. It remains to consider the question why the highland fir, as
it is called in Rome, is inferior, while the lowland fir is extremely
useful in buildings so far as durability is concerned; and further to
explain how it is that their bad or good qualities seem to be due to the
peculiarities of their neighbourhood, so that this subject may be
clearer to those who examine it.
CHAPTER X
HIGHLAND AND LOWLAND FIR
1. The first spurs of the Apennines arise from the Tuscan sea between
the Alps and the most distant borders of Tuscany. The mountain range
itself bends round and, almost touching the shores of the Adriatic in
the middle of the curve, completes its circuit by extending to the
strait on the other shore. Hence, this side of the curve, sloping
towards the districts of Tuscany and Campania, lies basking in the sun,
being constantly exposed to the full force of its rays all day. But the
further side, sloping towards the Upper Sea and having a northern
exposure, is constantly shrouded in shadowy darkness. Hence the trees
which grow on that side, being nourished by the moisture, not only
themselves attain to a very large size, but their fibre too, filled full
of moisture, is swollen and distended with abundance of liquid. When
they lose their vitality after being felled and hewn, the fibre retains
its stiffness, and the trees as they dry become hollow and frail on
account of their porosity, and hence cannot last when used in buildings.
2. But trees which grow in places facing the course of the sun are not
of porous fibre but are solid, being drained by the dryness; for the sun
absorbs moisture and draws it out of trees as well as out of the earth.
The trees in sunny neighbourhoods, therefore, being solidified by the
compact texture of their fibre, and not being porous from moisture, are
very useful, so far as durability goes, when they are hewn into timber.
Hence the lowland firs, being conveyed from sunny places, are better
than those highland firs, which are brought here from shady places.
3. To the best of my mature consideration, I have now treated the
materials which are necessary in the construction of buildings, the
proportionate amount of the elements which are seen to be contained in
their natural composition, and the points of excellence and defects of
each kind, so that they may be not unknown to those who are engaged in
building. Thus those who can follow the directions contained in this
treatise will be better informed in advance, and able to select, among
the different kinds, those which will be of use in their works.
Therefore, since the preliminaries have been explained, the buildings
themselves will be treated in the remaining books; and first, as due
order requires, I shall in the next book write of the temples of the
immortal gods and their symmetrical proportions.
BOOK III
INTRODUCTION
1. Apollo at Delphi, through the oracular utterance of his priestess,
pronounced Socrates the wisest of men. Of him it is related that he said
with sagacity and great learning that the human breast should have been
furnished with open windows, so that men might not keep their feelings
concealed, but have them open to the view. Oh that nature, following his
idea, had constructed them thus unfolded and obvious to the view! For if
it had been so, not merely the virtues and vices of the mind would be
easily visible, but also its knowledge of branches of study, displayed
to the contemplation of the eyes, would not need testing by
untrustworthy powers of judgement, but a singular and lasting influence
would thus be lent to the learned and wise. However, since they are not
so constructed, but are as nature willed them to be, it is impossible
for men, while natural abilities are concealed in the breast, to form a
judgement on the quality of the knowledge of the arts which is thus
deeply hidden. And if artists themselves testify to their own skill,
they can never, unless they are wealthy or famous from the age of their
studios, or unless they are also possessed of the public favour and of
eloquence, have an influence commensurate with their devotion to their
pursuits, so that people may believe them to have the knowledge which
they profess to have.
2. In particular we can learn this from the case of the sculptors and
painters of antiquity. Those among them who were marked by high station
or favourably recommended have come down to posterity with a name that
will last forever; for instance, Myron, Polycletus, Phidias, Lysippus,
and the others who have attained to fame by their art. For they acquired
it by the execution of works for great states or for kings or for
citizens of rank. But those who, being men of no less enthusiasm,
natural ability, and dexterity than those famous artists, and who
executed no less perfectly finished works for citizens of low station,
are unremembered, not because they lacked diligence or dexterity in
their art, but because fortune failed them; for instance, Teleas of
Athens, Chion of Corinth, Myager the Phocaean, Pharax of Ephesus, Boedas
of Byzantium, and many others. Then there were painters like Aristomenes
of Thasos, Polycles and Andron of Ephesus, Theo of Magnesia, and others
who were not deficient in diligence or enthusiasm for their art or in
dexterity, but whose narrow means or ill-luck, or the higher position of
their rivals in the struggle for honour, stood in the way of their
attaining distinction.
3. Of course, we need not be surprised if artistic excellence goes
unrecognized on account of being unknown; but there should be the
greatest indignation when, as often, good judges are flattered by the
charm of social entertainments into an approbation which is a mere
pretence. Now if, as Socrates wished, our feelings, opinions, and
knowledge gained by study had been manifest and clear to see, popularity
and adulation would have no influence, but men who had reached the
height of knowledge by means of correct and definite courses of study,
would be given commissions without any effort on their part. However,
since such things are not plain and apparent to the view, as we think
they should have been, and since I observe that the uneducated rather
than the educated are in higher favour, thinking it beneath me to engage
with the uneducated in the struggle for honour, I prefer to show the
excellence of our department of knowledge by the publication of this
treatise.
4. In my first book, Emperor, I described to you the art, with its
points of excellence, the different kinds of training with which the
architect ought to be equipped, adding the reasons why he ought to be
skilful in them, and I divided up the subject of architecture as a whole
among its departments, duly defining the limits of each. Next, as was
preëminent and necessary, I explained on scientific principles the
method of selecting healthy sites for fortified towns, pointed out by
geometrical figures the different winds and the quarters from which they
blow, and showed the proper way to lay out the lines of streets and rows
of houses within the walls. Here I fixed the end of my first book. In
the second, on building materials, I treated their various advantages in
structures, and the natural properties of which they are composed. In
this third book I shall speak of the temples of the immortal gods,
describing and explaining them in the proper manner.
CHAPTER I
ON SYMMETRY: IN TEMPLES AND IN THE HUMAN BODY
1. The design of a temple depends on symmetry, the principles of which
must be most carefully observed by the architect. They are due to
proportion, in Greek [Greek: analogia]. Proportion is a correspondence
among the measures of the members of an entire work, and of the whole to
a certain part selected as standard. From this result the principles of
symmetry. Without symmetry and proportion there can be no principles in
the design of any temple; that is, if there is no precise relation
between its members, as in the case of those of a well shaped man.
2. For the human body is so designed by nature that the face, from the
chin to the top of the forehead and the lowest roots of the hair, is a
tenth part of the whole height; the open hand from the wrist to the tip
of the middle finger is just the same; the head from the chin to the
crown is an eighth, and with the neck and shoulder from the top of the
breast to the lowest roots of the hair is a sixth; from the middle of
the breast to the summit of the crown is a fourth. If we take the height
of the face itself, the distance from the bottom of the chin to the
under side of the nostrils is one third of it; the nose from the under
side of the nostrils to a line between the eyebrows is the same; from
there to the lowest roots of the hair is also a third, comprising the
forehead. The length of the foot is one sixth of the height of the body;
of the forearm, one fourth; and the breadth of the breast is also one
fourth. The other members, too, have their own symmetrical proportions,
and it was by employing them that the famous painters and sculptors of
antiquity attained to great and endless renown.
3. Similarly, in the members of a temple there ought to be the greatest
harmony in the symmetrical relations of the different parts to the
general magnitude of the whole. Then again, in the human body the
central point is naturally the navel. For if a man be placed flat on his
back, with his hands and feet extended, and a pair of compasses centred
at his navel, the fingers and toes of his two hands and feet will touch
the circumference of a circle described therefrom. And just as the human
body yields a circular outline, so too a square figure may be found from
it. For if we measure the distance from the soles of the feet to the top
of the head, and then apply that measure to the outstretched arms, the
breadth will be found to be the same as the height, as in the case of
plane surfaces which are perfectly square.
4. Therefore, since nature has designed the human body so that its
members are duly proportioned to the frame as a whole, it appears that
the ancients had good reason for their rule, that in perfect buildings
the different members must be in exact symmetrical relations to the
whole general scheme. Hence, while transmitting to us the proper
arrangements for buildings of all kinds, they were particularly careful
to do so in the case of temples of the gods, buildings in which merits
and faults usually last forever.
5. Further, it was from the members of the body that they derived the
fundamental ideas of the measures which are obviously necessary in all
works, as the finger, palm, foot, and cubit. These they apportioned so
as to form the "perfect number," called in Greek [Greek: teleion], and
as the perfect number the ancients fixed upon ten. For it is from the
number of the fingers of the hand that the palm is found, and the foot
from the palm. Again, while ten is naturally perfect, as being made up
by the fingers of the two palms, Plato also held that this number was
perfect because ten is composed of the individual units, called by the
Greeks [Greek: monades]. But as soon as eleven or twelve is reached, the
numbers, being excessive, cannot be perfect until they come to ten for
the second time; for the component parts of that number are the
individual units.
6. The mathematicians, however, maintaining a different view, have said
that the perfect number is six, because this number is composed of
integral parts which are suited numerically to their method of
reckoning: thus, one is one sixth; two is one third; three is one half;
four is two thirds, or [Greek: dimoiros] as they call it; five is five
sixths, called [Greek: pentamoiros]; and six is the perfect number. As
the number goes on growing larger, the addition of a unit above six is
the [Greek: ephektos]; eight, formed by the addition of a third part of
six, is the integer and a third, called [Greek: epitritos]; the addition
of one half makes nine, the integer and a half, termed [Greek:
hêmiolios]; the addition of two thirds, making the number ten, is the
integer and two thirds, which they call [Greek: epidimoiros]; in the
number eleven, where five are added, we have the five sixths, called
[Greek: epipemptos]; finally, twelve, being composed of the two simple
integers, is called [Greek: diplasios].
7. And further, as the foot is one sixth of a man's height, the height
of the body as expressed in number of feet being limited to six, they
held that this was the perfect number, and observed that the cubit
consisted of six palms or of twenty-four fingers. This principle seems
to have been followed by the states of Greece. As the cubit consisted of
six palms, they made the drachma, which they used as their unit, consist
in the same way of six bronze coins, like our _asses_, which they call
obols; and, to correspond to the fingers, divided the drachma into
twenty-four quarter-obols, which some call dichalca others trichalca.
8. But our countrymen at first fixed upon the ancient number and made
ten bronze pieces go to the denarius, and this is the origin of the name
which is applied to the denarius to this day. And the fourth part of it,
consisting of two asses and half of a third, they called "sesterce." But
later, observing that six and ten were both of them perfect numbers,
they combined the two, and thus made the most perfect number, sixteen.
They found their authority for this in the foot. For if we take two
palms from the cubit, there remains the foot of four palms; but the palm
contains four fingers. Hence the foot contains sixteen fingers, and the
denarius the same number of bronze _asses_.
9. Therefore, if it is agreed that number was found out from the human
fingers, and that there is a symmetrical correspondence between the
members separately and the entire form of the body, in accordance with a
certain part selected as standard, we can have nothing but respect for
those who, in constructing temples of the immortal gods, have so
arranged the members of the works that both the separate parts and the
whole design may harmonize in their proportions and symmetry.
CHAPTER II
CLASSIFICATION OF TEMPLES
1. There are certain elementary forms on which the general aspect of a
temple depends. First there is the temple in antis, or [Greek: naos en
parastasin] as it is called in Greek; then the prostyle, amphiprostyle,
peripteral, pseudodipteral, dipteral, and hypaethral. These different
forms may be described as follows.
2. It will be a temple in antis when it has antae carried out in front
of the walls which enclose the cella, and in the middle, between the
antae, two columns, and over them the pediment constructed in the
symmetrical proportions to be described later in this work. An example
will be found at the Three Fortunes, in that one of the three which is
nearest the Colline gate.
3. The prostyle is in all respects like the temple in antis, except that
at the corners, opposite the antae, it has two columns, and that it has
architraves not only in front, as in the case of the temple in antis,
but also one to the right and one to the left in the wings. An example
of this is the temple of Jove and Faunus in the Island of the Tiber.
4. The amphiprostyle is in all other respects like the prostyle, but has
besides, in the rear, the same arrangement of columns and pediment.
5. A temple will be peripteral that has six columns in front and six in
the rear, with eleven on each side including the corner columns. Let
the columns be so placed as to leave a space, the width of an
intercolumniation, all round between the walls and the rows of columns
on the outside, thus forming a walk round the cella of the temple, as
in the cases of the temple of Jupiter Stator by Hermodorus in the
Portico of Metellus, and the Marian temple of Honour and Valour
constructed by Mucius, which has no portico in the rear.
[Illustration: THE CLASSIFICATION OF TEMPLES ACCORDING TO THE
ARRANGEMENTS OF THE COLONNADES]
[Illustration: THE HYPAETHRAL TEMPLE OF VITRUVIUS COMPARED WITH THE
PARTHENON AND THE TEMPLE OF APOLLO NEAR MILETUS]
6. The pseudodipteral is so constructed that in front and in the rear
there are in each case eight columns, with fifteen on each side,
including the corner columns. The walls of the cella in front and in the
rear should be directly over against the four middle columns. Thus there
will be a space, the width of two intercolumniations plus the thickness
of the lower diameter of a column, all round between the walls and the
rows of columns on the outside. There is no example of this in Rome, but
at Magnesia there is the temple of Diana by Hermogenes, and that of
Apollo at Alabanda by Mnesthes.
7. The dipteral also is octastyle in both front and rear porticoes, but
it has two rows of columns all round the temple, like the temple of
Quirinus, which is Doric, and the temple of Diana at Ephesus, planned by
Chersiphron, which is Ionic.
8. The hypaethral is decastyle in both front and rear porticoes. In
everything else it is the same as the dipteral, but inside it has two
tiers of columns set out from the wall all round, like the colonnade of
a peristyle. The central part is open to the sky, without a roof.
Folding doors lead to it at each end, in the porticoes in front and in
the rear. There is no example of this sort in Rome, but in Athens there
is the octastyle in the precinct of the Olympian.
CHAPTER III
THE PROPORTIONS OF INTERCOLUMNIATIONS AND OF COLUMNS
1. There are five classes of temples, designated as follows: pycnostyle,
with the columns close together; systyle, with the intercolumniations a
little wider; diastyle, more open still; araeostyle, farther apart than
they ought to be; eustyle, with the intervals apportioned just right.
[Illustration: THE CLASSIFICATION OF TEMPLES ACCORDING TO
INTERCOLUMNIATION]
2. The pycnostyle is a temple in an intercolumniation of which the
thickness of a column and a half can be inserted: for example, the
temple of the Divine Caesar, that of Venus in Caesar's forum, and others
constructed like them. The systyle is a temple in which the thickness
of two columns can be placed in an intercolumniation, and in which the
plinths of the bases are equivalent to the distance between two plinths:
for example, the temple of Equestrian Fortune near the stone theatre,
and the others which are constructed on the same principles.
3. These two kinds have practical disadvantages. When the matrons mount
the steps for public prayer or thanksgiving, they cannot pass through
the intercolumniations with their arms about one another, but must form
single file; then again, the effect of the folding doors is thrust out
of sight by the crowding of the columns, and likewise the statues are
thrown into shadow; the narrow space interferes also with walks round
the temple.
4. The construction will be diastyle when we can insert the thickness of
three columns in an intercolumniation, as in the case of the temple of
Apollo and Diana. This arrangement involves the danger that the
architraves may break on account of the great width of the intervals.
5. In araeostyles we cannot employ stone or marble for the architraves,
but must have a series of wooden beams laid upon the columns. And
moreover, in appearance these temples are clumsy-roofed, low, broad, and
their pediments are adorned in the Tuscan fashion with statues of
terra-cotta or gilt bronze: for example, near the Circus Maximus, the
temple of Ceres and Pompey's temple of Hercules; also the temple on the
Capitol.
6. An account must now be given of the eustyle, which is the most
approved class, and is arranged on principles developed with a view to
convenience, beauty, and strength. The intervals should be made as wide
as the thickness of two columns and a quarter, but the middle
intercolumniations, one in front and the other in the rear, should be of
the thickness of three columns. Thus built, the effect of the design
will be beautiful, there will be no obstruction at the entrance, and the
walk round the cella will be dignified.
[Illustration: THE EUSTYLE TEMPLE OF VITRUVIUS COMPARED WITH THE TEMPLE
OF TEOS]
7. The rule of this arrangement may be set forth as follows. If a
tetrastyle is to be built, let the width of the front which shall have
already been determined for the temple, be divided into eleven parts and
a half, not including the substructures and the projections of the
bases; if it is to be of six columns, into eighteen parts. If an
octastyle is to be constructed, let the front be divided into
twenty-four parts and a half. Then, whether the temple is to be
tetrastyle, hexastyle, or octastyle, let one of these parts be taken,
and it will be the module. The thickness of the columns will be equal to
one module. Each of the intercolumniations, except those in the middle,
will measure two modules and a quarter. The middle intercolumniations in
front and in the rear will each measure three modules. The columns
themselves will be nine modules and a half in height. As a result of
this division, the intercolumniations and the heights of the columns
will be in due proportion.
8. We have no example of this in Rome, but at Teos in Asia Minor there
is one which is hexastyle, dedicated to Father Bacchus.
These rules for symmetry were established by Hermogenes, who was also
the first to devise the principle of the pseudodipteral octastyle. He
did so by dispensing with the inner rows of thirty-eight columns which
belonged to the symmetry of the dipteral temple, and in this way he made
a saving in expense and labour. He thus provided a much wider space for
the walk round the cella between it and the columns, and without
detracting at all from the general effect, or making one feel the loss
of what had been really superfluous, he preserved the dignity of the
whole work by his new treatment of it.
9. For the idea of the pteroma and the arrangement of the columns round
a temple were devised in order that the intercolumniations might give
the imposing effect of high relief; and also, in case a multitude of
people should be caught in a heavy shower and detained, that they might
have in the temple and round the cella a wide free space in which to
wait. These ideas are developed, as I have described, in the
pseudodipteral arrangement of a temple. It appears, therefore, that
Hermogenes produced results which exhibit much acute ingenuity, and
that he left sources from which those who came after him could derive
instructive principles.
[Illustration: VITRUVIUS' RULES FOR THE DIAMETER AND HEIGHT OF COLUMNS
IN THE DIFFERENT CLASSES OF TEMPLE COMPARED WITH ACTUAL EXAMPLES]
10. In araeostyle temples, the columns should be constructed so that
their thickness is one eighth part of their height. In the diastyle, the
height of a column should be measured off into eight and a half parts,
and the thickness of the column fixed at one of these parts. In the
systyle, let the height be divided into nine and a half parts, and one
of these given to the thickness of the column. In the pycnostyle, the
height should be divided into ten parts, and one of these used for the
thickness of the column. In the eustyle temple, let the height of a
column be divided, as in the systyle, into nine and a half parts, and
let one part be taken for the thickness at the bottom of the shaft. With
these dimensions we shall be taking into account the proportions of the
intercolumniations.
11. For the thickness of the shafts must be enlarged in proportion to
the increase of the distance between the columns. In the araeostyle, for
instance, if only a ninth or tenth part is given to the thickness, the
column will look thin and mean, because the width of the
intercolumniations is such that the air seems to eat away and diminish
the thickness of such shafts. On the other hand, in pycnostyles, if an
eighth part is given to the thickness, it will make the shaft look
swollen and ungraceful, because the intercolumniations are so close to
each other and so narrow. We must therefore follow the rules of symmetry
required by each kind of building. Then, too, the columns at the corners
should be made thicker than the others by a fiftieth of their own
diameter, because they are sharply outlined by the unobstructed air
round them, and seem to the beholder more slender than they are. Hence,
we must counteract the ocular deception by an adjustment of proportions.
[Illustration: THE DIMINUTION OF COLUMNS IN RELATION TO THEIR DIMENSIONS
OF HEIGHT]
12. Moreover, the diminution in the top of a column at the necking seems
to be regulated on the following principles: if a column is fifteen feet
or under, let the thickness at the bottom be divided into six parts,
and let five of those parts form the thickness at the top. If it is from
fifteen feet to twenty feet, let the bottom of the shaft be divided into
six and a half parts, and let five and a half of those parts be the
upper thickness of the column. In a column of from twenty feet to thirty
feet, let the bottom of the shaft be divided into seven parts, and let
the diminished top measure six of these. A column of from thirty to
forty feet should be divided at the bottom into seven and a half parts,
and, on the principle of diminution, have six and a half of these at the
top. Columns of from forty feet to fifty should be divided into eight
parts, and diminish to seven of these at the top of the shaft under the
capital. In the case of higher columns, let the diminution be determined
proportionally, on the same principles.
13. These proportionate enlargements are made in the thickness of
columns on account of the different heights to which the eye has to
climb. For the eye is always in search of beauty, and if we do not
gratify its desire for pleasure by a proportionate enlargement in these
measures, and thus make compensation for ocular deception, a clumsy and
awkward appearance will be presented to the beholder. With regard to the
enlargement made at the middle of columns, which among the Greeks is
called [Greek: entasis], at the end of the book a figure and calculation
will be subjoined, showing how an agreeable and appropriate effect may
be produced by it.
CHAPTER IV
THE FOUNDATIONS AND SUBSTRUCTURES OF TEMPLES
1. The foundations of these works should be dug out of the solid ground,
if it can be found, and carried down into solid ground as far as the
magnitude of the work shall seem to require, and the whole substructure
should be as solid as it can possibly be laid. Above ground, let walls
be laid under the columns, thicker by one half than the columns are to
be, so that the lower may be stronger than the higher. Hence they are
called "stereobates"; for they take the load. And the projections of the
bases should not extend beyond this solid foundation. The wall-thickness
is similarly to be preserved above ground likewise, and the intervals
between these walls should be vaulted over, or filled with earth rammed
down hard, to keep the walls well apart.
[Illustration: THE ENTASIS OF COLUMNS
1. The entasis as given by Fra Giocondo in the edition of 1511.
2. The entasis from the temple of Mars Ultor in Rome compared with
Vignola's rule for entasis.]
2. If, however, solid ground cannot be found, but the place proves to be
nothing but a heap of loose earth to the very bottom, or a marsh, then
it must be dug up and cleared out and set with piles made of charred
alder or olive wood or oak, and these must be driven down by machinery,
very closely together like bridge-piles, and the intervals between them
filled in with charcoal, and finally the foundations are to be laid on
them in the most solid form of construction. The foundations having been
brought up to the level, the stylobates are next to be put in place.
3. The columns are then to be distributed over the stylobates in the
manner above described: close together in the pycnostyle; in the
systyle, diastyle, or eustyle, as they are described and arranged above.
In araeostyle temples one is free to arrange them as far apart as one
likes. Still, in peripterals, the columns should be so placed that there
are twice as many intercolumniations on the sides as there are in front;
for thus the length of the work will be twice its breadth. Those who
make the number of columns double, seem to be in error, because then the
length seems to be one intercolumniation longer than it ought to be.
4. The steps in front must be arranged so that there shall always be an
odd number of them; for thus the right foot, with which one mounts the
first step, will also be the first to reach the level of the temple
itself. The rise of such steps should, I think, be limited to not more
than ten nor less than nine inches; for then the ascent will not be
difficult. The treads of the steps ought to be made not less than a foot
and a half, and not more than two feet deep. If there are to be steps
running all round the temple, they should be built of the same size.
5. But if a podium is to be built on three sides round the temple, it
should be so constructed that its plinths, bases, dies, coronae, and
cymatiumare appropriate to the actual stylobate which is to be under the
bases of the columns.
[Illustration: FRA GIOCONDO'S IDEA OF THE "SCAMILLI IMPARES"
(From his edition of Vitruvius, Venice, 1511)]
The level of the stylobate must be increased along the middle by the
scamilli impares; for if it is laid perfectly level, it will look to the
eye as though it were hollowed a little. At the end of the book a figure
will be found, with a description showing how the scamilli may be made
to suit this purpose.
CHAPTER V
PROPORTIONS OF THE BASE, CAPITALS, AND ENTABLATURE IN THE IONIC ORDER
1. This finished, let the bases of the columns be set in place, and
constructed in such proportions that their height, including the plinth,
may be half the thickness of a column, and their projection (called in
Greek [Greek: ekphora]) the same.[1] Thus in both length and breadth it
will be one and one half thicknesses of a column.
[Note 1: Reading _aeque tantam_ as in new _Rose._ Codd. _sextantem;_
Schn. _quadrantem._]
2. If the base is to be in the Attic style, let its height be so divided
that the upper part shall be one third part of the thickness of the
column, and the rest left for the plinth. Then, excluding the plinth,
let the rest be divided into four parts, and of these let one fourth
constitute the upper torus, and let the other three be divided equally,
one part composing the lower torus, and the other, with its fillets, the
scotia, which the Greeks call [Greek: trochilos].
3. But if Ionic bases are to be built, their proportions shall be so
determined that the base may be each way equal in breadth to the
thickness of a column plus three eighths of the thickness; its height
that of the Attic base, and so too its plinth; excluding the plinth, let
the rest, which will be a third part of the thickness of a column, be
divided into seven parts. Three of these parts constitute the torus at
the top, and the other four are to be divided equally, one part
constituting the upper trochilus with its astragals and overhang, the
other left for the lower trochilus. But the lower will seem to be
larger, because it will project to the edge of the plinth. The astragals
must be one eighth of the trochilus. The projection of the base will be
three sixteenths of the thickness of a column.
[Illustration: THE IONIC ORDER ACCORDING TO VITRUVIUS COMPARED WITH THE
ORDER OF THE MAUSOLEUM AT HALICARNASSUS
The difference between the Roman and the Greek relation of the
baluster-side of the capital to the echinus is to be noted.]
4. The bases being thus finished and put in place, the columns are to be
put in place: the middle columns of the front and rear porticoes
perpendicular to their own centre; the corner columns, and those which
are to extend in a line from them along the sides of the temple to the
right and left, are to be set so that their inner sides, which face
toward the cella wall, are perpendicular, but their outer sides in the
manner which I have described in speaking of their diminution. Thus, in
the design of the temple the lines will be adjusted with due regard to
the diminution.
5. The shafts of the columns having been erected, the rule for the
capitals will be as follows. If they are to be cushion-shaped, they
should be so proportioned that the abacus is in length and breadth
equivalent to the thickness of the shaft at its bottom plus one
eighteenth thereof, and the height of the capital, including the
volutes, one half of that amount. The faces of the volutes must recede
from the edge of the abacus inwards by one and a half eighteenths of
that same amount. Then, the height of the capital is to be divided into
nine and a half parts, and down along the abacus on the four sides of
the volutes, down along the fillet at the edge of the abacus, lines
called "catheti" are to be let fall. Then, of the nine and a half parts
let one and a half be reserved for the height of the abacus, and let the
other eight be used for the volutes.
6. Then let another line be drawn, beginning at a point situated at a
distance of one and a half parts toward the inside from the line
previously let fall down along the edge of the abacus. Next, let these
lines be divided in such a way as to leave four and a half parts under
the abacus; then, at the point which forms the division between the four
and a half parts and the remaining three and a half, fix the centre of
the eye, and from that centre describe a circle with a diameter equal to
one of the eight parts. This will be the size of the eye, and in it draw
a diameter on the line of the "cathetus." Then, in describing the
quadrants, let the size of each be successively less, by half the
diameter of the eye, than that which begins under the abacus, and
proceed from the eye until that same quadrant under the abacus is
reached.
7. The height of the capital is to be such that, of the nine and a half
parts, three parts are below the level of the astragal at the top of the
shaft, and the rest, omitting the abacus and the channel, belongs to
its echinus. The projection of the echinus beyond the fillet of the
abacus should be equal to the size of the eye. The projection of the
bands of the cushions should be thus obtained: place one leg of a pair
of compasses in the centre of the capital and open out the other to the
edge of the echinus; bring this leg round and it will touch the outer
edge of the bands. The axes of the volutes should not be thicker than
the size of the eye, and the volutes themselves should be channelled out
to a depth which is one twelfth of their height. These will be the
symmetrical proportions for capitals of columns twenty-five feet high
and less. For higher columns the other proportions will be the same, but
the length and breadth of the abacus will be the thickness of the lower
diameter of a column plus one ninth part thereof; thus, just as the
higher the column the less the diminution, so the projection of its
capital is proportionately increased and its breadth[2] is
correspondingly enlarged.
[Note 2: Codd. _altitudo_.]
8. With regard to the method of describing volutes, at the end of the
book a figure will be subjoined and a calculation showing how they may
be described so that their spirals may be true to the compass.
The capitals having been finished and set up in due proportion to the
columns (not exactly level on the columns, however, but with the same
measured adjustment, so that in the upper members there may be an
increase corresponding to that which was made in the stylobates), the
rule for the architraves is to be as follows. If the columns are at
least twelve feet and not more than fifteen feet high, let the height of
the architrave be equal to half the thickness of a column at the bottom.
If they are from fifteen feet to twenty, let the height of a column be
measured off into thirteen parts, and let one of these be the height of
the architrave. If they are from twenty to twenty-five feet, let this
height be divided into twelve and one half parts, and let one of them
form the height of the architrave. If they are from twenty-five feet to
thirty, let it be divided into twelve parts, and let one of them form
the height. If they are higher, the heights of the architraves are to be
worked out proportionately in the same manner from the height of the
columns.
9. For the higher that the eye has to climb, the less easily can it make
its way through the thicker and thicker mass of air. So it fails when
the height is great, its strength is sucked out of it, and it conveys to
the mind only a confused estimate of the dimensions. Hence there must
always be a corresponding increase in the symmetrical proportions of the
members, so that whether the buildings are on unusually lofty sites or
are themselves somewhat colossal, the size of the parts may seem in due
proportion. The depth of the architrave on its under side just above the
capital, is to be equivalent to the thickness of the top of the column
just under the capital, and on its uppermost side equivalent to the foot
of the shaft.
10. The cymatium of the architrave should be one seventh of the height
of the whole architrave, and its projection the same. Omitting the
cymatium, the rest of the architrave is to be divided into twelve parts,
and three of these will form the lowest fascia, four, the next, and
five, the highest fascia. The frieze, above the architrave, is one
fourth less high than the architrave, but if there are to be reliefs
upon it, it is one fourth higher than the architrave, so that the
sculptures may be more imposing. Its cymatium is one seventh of the
whole height of the frieze, and the projection of the cymatium is the
same as its height.
11. Over the frieze comes the line of dentils, made of the same height
as the middle fascia of the architrave and with a projection equal to
their height. The intersection (or in Greek [Greek: metopê]) is
apportioned so that the face of each dentil is half as wide as its
height and the cavity of each intersection two thirds of this face in
width. The cymatium here is one sixth of the whole height of this part.
The corona with its cymatium, but not including the sima, has the height
of the middle fascia of the architrave, and the total projection of the
corona and dentils should be equal to the height from the frieze to the
cymatium at the top of the corona.
[Illustration: A COMPARISON OF THE IONIC ORDER ACCORDING TO VITRUVIUS
WITH ACTUAL EXAMPLES AND WITH VIGNOLA'S ORDER
A: Showing the orders reduced to equal lower diameters. B: Showing the
orders to a uniform scale.]
And as a general rule, all projecting parts have greater beauty when
their projection is equal to their height.
12. The height of the tympanum, which is in the pediment, is to be
obtained thus: let the front of the corona, from the two ends of its
cymatium, be measured off into nine parts, and let one of these parts be
set up in the middle at the peak of the tympanum, taking care that it is
perpendicular to the entablature and the neckings of the columns. The
coronae over the tympanum are to be made of equal size with the coronae
under it, not including the simae. Above the coronae are the simae (in
Greek [Greek: epaietides]), which should be made one eighth higher than
the height of the coronae. The acroteria at the corners have the height
of the centre of the tympanum, and those in the middle are one eighth
part higher than those at the corners.
13. All the members which are to be above the capitals of the columns,
that is, architraves, friezes, coronae, tympana, gables, and acroteria,
should be inclined to the front a twelfth part of their own height, for
the reason that when we stand in front of them, if two lines are drawn
from the eye, one reaching to the bottom of the building and the other
to the top, that which reaches to the top will be the longer. Hence, as
the line of sight to the upper part is the longer, it makes that part
look as if it were leaning back. But when the members are inclined to
the front, as described above, they will seem to the beholder to be
plumb and perpendicular.
14. Each column should have twenty-four flutes, channelled out in such a
way that if a carpenter's square be placed in the hollow of a flute and
turned, the arm will touch the corners of the fillets on the right and
left, and the tip of the square may keep touching some point in the
concave surface as it moves through it. The breadth of the flutes is to
be equivalent to the enlargement in the middle of a column, which will
be found in the figure.
15. In the simae which are over the coronae on the sides of the temple,
lion's heads are to be carved and arranged at intervals thus: First one
head is marked out directly over the axis of each column, and then the
others are arranged at equal distances apart, and so that there shall be
one at the middle of every roof-tiling. Those that are over the columns
should have holes bored through them to the gutter which receives the
rainwater from the tiles, but those between them should be solid. Thus
the mass of water that falls by way of the tiles into the gutter will
not be thrown down along the intercolumniations nor drench people who
are passing through them, while the lion's heads that are over the
columns will appear to be vomiting as they discharge streams of water
from their mouths.
In this book I have written as clearly as I could on the arrangements of
Ionic temples. In the next I shall explain the proportions of Doric and
Corinthian temples.
BOOK IV
INTRODUCTION
1. I have observed, Emperor, that many in their treatises and volumes of
commentaries on architecture have not presented the subject with
well-ordered completeness, but have merely made a beginning and left, as
it were, only desultory fragments. I have therefore thought that it
would be a worthy and very useful thing to reduce the whole of this
great art to a complete and orderly form of presentation, and then in
different books to lay down and explain the required characteristics of
different departments. Hence, Caesar, in my first book I have set forth
to you the function of the architect and the things in which he ought to
be trained. In the second I have discussed the supplies of material of
which buildings are constructed. In the third, which deals with the
arrangements of temples and their variety of form, I showed the nature
and number of their classes, with the adjustments proper to each form
according to the usage of the Ionic order, one of the three which
exhibit the greatest delicacy of proportion in their symmetrical
measurements. In the present book I shall speak of the established rules
for the Doric and Corinthian orders, and shall explain their differences
and peculiarities.
CHAPTER I
THE ORIGINS OF THE THREE ORDERS, AND THE PROPORTIONS OF THE CORINTHIAN
CAPITAL
1. Corinthian columns are, excepting in their capitals, of the same
proportions in all respects as Ionic; but the height of their capitals
gives them proportionately a taller and more slender effect. This is
because the height of the Ionic capital is only one third of the
thickness of the column, while that of the Corinthian is the entire
thickness of the shaft. Hence, as two thirds are added in Corinthian
capitals, their tallness gives a more slender appearance to the columns
themselves.
2. The other members which are placed above the columns, are, for
Corinthian columns, composed either of the Doric proportions or
according to the Ionic usages; for the Corinthian order never had any
scheme peculiar to itself for its cornices or other ornaments, but may
have mutules in the coronae and guttae on the architraves according to
the triglyph system of the Doric style, or, according to Ionic
practices, it may be arranged with a frieze adorned with sculptures and
accompanied with dentils and coronae.
3. Thus a third architectural order, distinguished by its capital, was
produced out of the two other orders. To the forms of their columns are
due the names of the three orders, Doric, Ionic, and Corinthian, of
which the Doric was the first to arise, and in early times. For Dorus,
the son of Hellen and the nymph Phthia, was king of Achaea and all the
Peloponnesus, and he built a fane, which chanced to be of this order, in
the precinct of Juno at Argolis, a very ancient city, and subsequently
others of the same order in the other cities of Achaea, although the
rules of symmetry were not yet in existence.
4. Later, the Athenians, in obedience to oracles of the Delphic Apollo,
and with the general agreement of all Hellas, despatched thirteen
colonies at one time to Asia Minor, appointing leaders for each colony
and giving the command-in-chief to Ion, son of Xuthus and Creusa (whom
further Apollo at Delphi in the oracles had acknowledged as his son).
Ion conducted those colonies to Asia Minor, took possession of the land
of Caria, and there founded the grand cities of Ephesus, Miletus, Myus
(long ago engulfed by the water, and its sacred rites and suffrage
handed over by the Ionians to the Milesians), Priene, Samos, Teos,
Colophon, Chius, Erythrae, Phocaea, Clazomenae, Lebedos, and Melite.
This Melite, on account of the arrogance of its citizens, was destroyed
by the other cities in a war declared by general agreement, and in its
place, through the kindness of King Attalus and Arsinoe, the city of the
Smyrnaeans was admitted among the Ionians.
5. Now these cities, after driving out the Carians and Lelegans, called
that part of the world Ionia from their leader Ion, and there they set
off precincts for the immortal gods and began to build fanes: first of
all, a temple to Panionion Apollo such as they had seen in Achaea,
calling it Doric because they had first seen that kind of temple built
in the states of the Dorians.
6. Wishing to set up columns in that temple, but not having rules for
their symmetry, and being in search of some way by which they could
render them fit to bear a load and also of a satisfactory beauty of
appearance, they measured the imprint of a man's foot and compared this
with his height. On finding that, in a man, the foot was one sixth of
the height, they applied the same principle to the column, and reared
the shaft, including the capital, to a height six times its thickness at
its base. Thus the Doric column, as used in buildings, began to exhibit
the proportions, strength, and beauty of the body of a man.
7. Just so afterwards, when they desired to construct a temple to Diana
in a new style of beauty, they translated these footprints into terms
characteristic of the slenderness of women, and thus first made a column
the thickness of which was only one eighth of its height, so that it
might have a taller look. At the foot they substituted the base in
place of a shoe; in the capital they placed the volutes, hanging down at
the right and left like curly ringlets, and ornamented its front with
cymatia and with festoons of fruit arranged in place of hair, while they
brought the flutes down the whole shaft, falling like the folds in the
robes worn by matrons. Thus in the invention of the two different kinds
of columns, they borrowed manly beauty, naked and unadorned, for the
one, and for the other the delicacy, adornment, and proportions
characteristic of women.
8. It is true that posterity, having made progress in refinement and
delicacy of feeling, and finding pleasure in more slender proportions,
has established seven diameters of the thickness as the height of the
Doric column, and nine as that of the Ionic. The Ionians, however,
originated the order which is therefore named Ionic.
The third order, called Corinthian, is an imitation of the slenderness
of a maiden; for the outlines and limbs of maidens, being more slender
on account of their tender years, admit of prettier effects in the way
of adornment.
9. It is related that the original discovery of this form of capital was
as follows. A free-born maiden of Corinth, just of marriageable age, was
attacked by an illness and passed away. After her burial, her nurse,
collecting a few little things which used to give the girl pleasure
while she was alive, put them in a basket, carried it to the tomb, and
laid it on top thereof, covering it with a roof-tile so that the things
might last longer in the open air. This basket happened to be placed
just above the root of an acanthus. The acanthus root, pressed down
meanwhile though it was by the weight, when springtime came round put
forth leaves and stalks in the middle, and the stalks, growing up along
the sides of the basket, and pressed out by the corners of the tile
through the compulsion of its weight, were forced to bend into volutes
at the outer edges.
[Illustration: Photo. Sommer
THE BASILICA AT POMPEII]
[Illustration: THE CORINTHIAN CAPITAL OF VITRUVIUS COMPARED WITH THE
MONUMENTS]
10. Just then Callimachus, whom the Athenians called [Greek:
katatêxitechnos] for the refinement and delicacy of his artistic
work, passed by this tomb and observed the basket with the tender
young leaves growing round it. Delighted with the novel style and form,
he built some columns after that pattern for the Corinthians, determined
their symmetrical proportions, and established from that time forth the
rules to be followed in finished works of the Corinthian order.
11. The proportions of this capital should be fixed as follows. Let the
height of the capital, including its abacus, be equivalent to the
thickness of the base of a column. Let the breadth of the abacus be
proportioned so that diagonals drawn from one corner of it to the other
shall be twice the height of the capitals, which will give the proper
breadth to each face of the abacus. The faces should curve inwards, by
one ninth of the breadth of the face, from the outside edge of the
corners of the abacus. At the bottom the capital should be of the
thickness of the top of the column omitting the congé and astragal. The
height of the abacus is one seventh of the height of the capital.
12. Omitting the height of the abacus, let the rest be divided into
three parts, of which one should be given to the lowest leaf. Let the
second leaf occupy the middle part of the height. Of the same height
should be the stalks, out of which grow leaves projected so as to
support the volutes which proceed from the stalks, and run out to the
utmost corners of the abacus; the smaller spirals between them should be
carved just under the flower which is on the abacus. The flowers on the
four sides are to be made as large as the height of the abacus. On these
principles of proportion, Corinthian capitals will be finished as they
ought to be.
There are other kinds of capitals set upon these same columns and called
by various names, but they have no peculiarities of proportion of which
we can speak, nor can we recognize from them another order of columns.
Even their very names are, as we can see, derived with some changes from
the Corinthian, the cushion-shaped, and the Doric, whose symmetrical
proportions have been thus transferred to delicate sculptures of novel
form.
CHAPTER II
THE ORNAMENTS OF THE ORDERS
1. Since the origin and invention of the orders of columns have been
described above, I think it not out of place to speak in the same way
about their ornaments, showing how these arose and from what original
elements they were devised. The upper parts of all buildings contain
timber work to which various terms are applied. And not only in its
terminology but actually in its uses it exhibits variety. The main beams
are those which are laid upon columns, pilasters, and antae; tie-beams
and rafters are found in the framing. Under the roof, if the span is
pretty large, are the crossbeams and struts; if it is of moderate
extent, only the ridgepole, with the principal rafters extending to the
outer edge of the eaves. Over the principal rafters are the purlines,
and then above these and under the roof-tiles come the common rafters,
extending so far that the walls are covered by their projection.
2. Thus each and every detail has a place, origin, and order of its own.
In accordance with these details, and starting from carpenter's work,
artists in building temples of stone and marble imitated those
arrangements in their sculptures, believing that they must follow those
inventions. So it was that some ancient carpenters, engaged in building
somewhere or other, after laying the tie-beams so that they projected
from the inside to the outside of the walls, closed up the space between
the beams, and above them ornamented the coronae and gables with
carpentry work of beauty greater than usual; then they cut off the
projecting ends of the beams, bringing them into line and flush with the
face of the walls; next, as this had an ugly look to them, they fastened
boards, shaped as triglyphs are now made, on the ends of the beams,
where they had been cut off in front, and painted them with blue wax so
that the cutting off of the ends of the beams, being concealed, would
not offend the eye. Hence it was in imitation of the arrangement of the
tie-beams that men began to employ, in Doric buildings, the device of
triglyphs and the metopes between the beams.
3. Later, others in other buildings allowed the projecting principal
rafters to run out till they were flush with the triglyphs, and then
formed their projections into simae. From that practice, like the
triglyphs from the arrangement of the tie-beams, the system of mutules
under the coronae was devised from the projections of the principal
rafters. Hence generally, in buildings of stone and marble, the mutules
are carved with a downward slant, in imitation of the principal rafters.
For these necessarily have a slanting and projecting position to let the
water drip down. The scheme of triglyphs and mutules in Doric buildings
was, therefore, the imitative device that I have described.
4. It cannot be that the triglyphs represent windows, as some have
erroneously said, since the triglyphs are placed at the corners and over
the middle of columns--places where, from the nature of the case, there
can be no windows at all. For buildings are wholly disconnected at the
corners if openings for windows are left at those points. Again, if we
are to suppose that there were open windows where the triglyphs now
stand, it will follow, on the same principle, that the dentils of the
Ionic order have likewise taken the places of windows. For the term
"metope" is used of the intervals between dentils as well as of those
between triglyphs. The Greeks call the seats of tie-beams and rafters
[Greek: opai], while our people call these cavities columbaria
(dovecotes). Hence, the space between the tie-beams, being the space
between two "opae," was named by them [Greek: metopê].
5. The system of triglyphs and mutules was invented for the Doric order,
and similarly the scheme of dentils belongs to the Ionic, in which there
are proper grounds for its use in buildings. Just as mutules represent
the projection of the principal rafters, so dentils in the Ionic are an
imitation of the projections of the common rafters. And so in Greek
works nobody ever put dentils under mutules, as it is impossible that
common rafters should be underneath principal rafters. Therefore, if
that which in the original must be placed above the principal rafters,
is put in the copy below them, the result will be a work constructed on
false principles. Neither did the ancients approve of or employ mutules
or dentils in pediments, but only plain coronae, for the reason that
neither principal nor common rafters tail into the fronts of pediments,
nor can they overhang them, but they are laid with a slope towards the
eaves. Hence the ancients held that what could not happen in the
original would have no valid reason for existence in the copy.
6. For in all their works they proceeded on definite principles of
fitness and in ways derived from the truth of Nature. Thus they reached
perfection, approving only those things which, if challenged, can be
explained on grounds of the truth. Hence, from the sources which have
been described they established and left us the rules of symmetry and
proportion for each order. Following in their steps, I have spoken above
on the Ionic and Corinthian styles, and I shall now briefly explain the
theory of the Doric and its general appearance.
CHAPTER III
PROPORTIONS OF DORIC TEMPLES
1. Some of the ancient architects said that the Doric order ought not to
be used for temples, because faults and incongruities were caused by the
laws of its symmetry. Arcesius and Pytheos said so, as well as
Hermogenes. He, for instance, after getting together a supply of marble
for the construction of a Doric temple, changed his mind and built an
Ionic temple to Father Bacchus with the same materials. This is not
because it is unlovely in appearance or origin or dignity of form, but
because the arrangement of the triglyphs and metopes (lacunaria) is an
embarrassment and inconvenience to the work.
2. For the triglyphs ought to be placed so as to correspond to the
centres of the columns, and the metopes between the triglyphs ought to
be as broad as they are high. But in violation of this rule, at the
corner columns triglyphs are placed at the outside edges and not
corresponding to the centre of the columns. Hence the metopes next to
the corner columns do not come out perfectly square, but are too broad
by half the width of a triglyph. Those who would make the metopes all
alike, make the outermost intercolumniations narrower by half the width
of a triglyph. But the result is faulty, whether it is attained by
broader metopes or narrower intercolumniations. For this reason, the
ancients appear to have avoided the scheme of the Doric order in their
temples.
3. However, since our plan calls for it, we set it forth as we have
received it from our teachers, so that if anybody cares to set to work
with attention to these laws, he may find the proportions stated by
which he can construct correct and faultless examples of temples in the
Doric fashion.
Let the front of a Doric temple, at the place where the columns are put
up, be divided, if it is to be tetrastyle, into twenty-seven parts; if
hexastyle, into forty-two. One of these parts will be the module (in
Greek [Greek: embatês]); and this module once fixed, all the parts of
the work are adjusted by means of calculations based upon it.
4. The thickness of the columns will be two modules, and their height,
including the capitals, fourteen. The height of a capital will be one
module, and its breadth two and one sixth modules. Let the height of the
capital be divided into three parts, of which one will form the abacus
with its cymatium, the second the echinus with its annulets, and the
third the necking. The diminution of the column should be the same as
described for Ionic columns in the third book. The height of the
architrave, including taenia and guttae, is one module, and of the
taenia, one seventh of a module. The guttae, extending as wide as the
triglyphs and beneath the taenia, should hang down for one sixth of a
module, including their regula. The depth of the architrave on its under
side should answer to the necking at the top of the column. Above the
architrave, the triglyphs and metopes are to be placed: the triglyphs
one and one half modules high, and one module wide in front. They are to
be arranged so that one is placed to correspond to the centre of each
corner and intermediate column, and two over each intercolumniation
except the middle intercolumniations of the front and rear porticoes,
which have three each. The intervals in the middle being thus extended,
a free passage will be afforded to those who would approach the statues
of the gods.
[Illustration: VITRUVIUS' DORIC ORDER COMPARED WITH THE TEMPLE AT CORI
AND THE DORIC ORDER OF THE THEATRE OF MARCELLUS]
5. The width of the triglyph should be divided into six parts, and five
of these marked off in the middle by means of the rule, and two half
parts at the right and left. Let one part, that in the centre, form a
"femur" (in Greek [Greek: mêros]). On each side of it are the channels,
to be cut in to fit the tip of a carpenter's square, and in succession
the other femora, one at the right and the other at the left of a
channel. To the outsides are relegated the semichannels. The triglyphs
having been thus arranged, let the metopes between the triglyphs be as
high as they are wide, while at the outer corners there should be
semimetopes inserted, with the width of half a module.
In these ways all defects will be corrected, whether in metopes or
intercolumniations or lacunaria, as all the arrangements have been made
with uniformity.
6. The capitals of each triglyph are to measure one sixth of a module.
Over the capitals of the triglyphs the corona is to be placed, with a
projection of two thirds of a module, and having a Doric cymatium at the
bottom and another at the top. So the corona with its cymatia is half a
module in height. Set off on the under side of the corona, vertically
over the triglyphs and over the middle of the metopes, are the viae in
straight lines and the guttae arranged in rows, six guttae broad and
three deep. The spaces left (due to the fact that the metopes are
broader than the triglyphs) may be left unornamented or may have
thunderbolts carved on them. Just at the edge of the corona a line
should be cut in, called the scotia. All the other parts, such as
tympana and the simae of the corona, are to be constructed as described
above in the case of the Ionic order.
7. Such will be the scheme established for diastyle buildings. But if
the building is to be systyle and monotriglyphic, let the front of the
temple, if tetrastyle, be divided into nineteen and a half parts; if
hexastyle, into twenty-nine and a half parts. One of these parts will
form the module in accordance with which the adjustments are to be made
as above described.
8. Thus, over each portion of the architrave two metopes and two
triglyphs[3] will be placed; and, in addition, at the corners half a
triglyph and besides a space large enough for a half triglyph. At the
centre, vertically under the gable, there should be room for three
triglyphs and three metopes, in order that the centre intercolumniation,
by its greater width, may give ample room for people to enter the
temple, and may lend an imposing effect to the view of the statues of
the gods.
[Note 3: That is: two metopes with a triglyph between them, and half
of the triglyph on either side.]
9. The columns should be fluted with twenty flutes. If these are to be
left plane, only the twenty angles need be marked off. But if they are
to be channelled out, the contour of the channelling may be determined
thus: draw a square with sides equal in length to the breadth of the
fluting, and centre a pair of compasses in the middle of this square.
Then describe a circle with a circumference touching the angles of the
square, and let the channellings have the contour of the segment formed
by the circumference and the side of the square. The fluting of the
Doric column will thus be finished in the style appropriate to it.
10. With regard to the enlargement to be made in the column at its
middle, let the description given for Ionic columns in the third book be
applied here also in the case of Doric.
Since the external appearance of the Corinthian, Doric, and Ionic
proportions has now been described, it is necessary next to explain the
arrangements of the cella and the pronaos.
CHAPTER IV
THE CELLA AND PRONAOS
1. The length of a temple is adjusted so that its width may be half its
length, and the actual cella one fourth greater in length than in width,
including the wall in which the folding doors are placed. Let the
remaining three parts, constituting the pronaos, extend to the antae
terminating the walls, which antae ought to be of the same thickness as
the columns. If the temple is to be more than twenty feet in width, let
two columns be placed between the two antae, to separate the pteroma
from the pronaos. The three intercolumniations between the antae and the
columns should be closed by low walls made of marble or of joiner's
work, with doors in them to afford passages into the pronaos.
2. If the width is to be more than forty feet, let columns be placed
inside and opposite to the columns between the antae. They should have
the same height as the columns in front of them, but their thickness
should be proportionately reduced: thus, if the columns in front are in
thickness one eighth of their height, these should be one tenth; if the
former are one ninth or one tenth, these should be reduced in the same
proportion. For their reduction will not be discernible, as the air has
not free play about them. Still, in case they look too slender, when the
outer columns have twenty or twenty-four flutes, these may have
twenty-eight or thirty-two. Thus the additional number of flutes will
make up proportionately for the loss in the body of the shaft,
preventing it from being seen, and so in a different way the columns
will be made to look equally thick.
[Illustration: VITRUV
Showing first 200,000 characters. Full text: gutenberg.org/ebooks/20239