Ten Books on Architecture

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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:
echeia]) 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: posotes]).
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:
peritretos]; in a ship, from the space between the tholepins [Greek:
(diapegma)]; 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: (thematismo)], 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.

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