Perceval Gibbon - "Vrouw Grobelaar and Her Leading Cases"

William Bligh - "A Narrative Of The Mutiny, On Board His Majesty's Ship Bounty; And The Subsequent Voyage Of Part Of The Crew, In The Ship's Boat"

Richard Harding Davis - "Cuba in War Time"

James M. Beck - "The Case of Edith Cavell"

Annual Bibliography of Commonwealth Literature 2007
This paper argues that discourses of love in Ghanaian market literature for youth offer a view into complex negotiations of agency and empowerment. Drawing on Deborah Durham's notion of youth as "social `shifters'" and Francis Nyamnjoh's conception of the "interconnectedness" of agency, I take Ghanaian market literature as one specific case of how African literature for youth foregrounds questions of continuity and change as African societies enter into increasingly complex global relations. In this literature for youth, received notions of love, often constructed out of impressions from American pop and hip hop music, carry new notions of agency that compete with existing "domesticated" forms. Authors like Ike Tandoh and Evelyn Tay employ discourses of love to offer youth alternative avenues for empowerment in a context of socio-economic disenfranchizement. In a creative process of "straddling", this writing both reveals and reproduces the contradictions that obtain in youth configurations of agency.

Ten Books on Architecture

V >> Vitruvius >> Ten Books on Architecture




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
preeminent 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:
hemiolios]; 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.

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