G. A. Henty - "A Final Reckoning"

John Finley - "The French in the Heart of America"

Victor Appleton - "Tom Swift and his Wireless Message"

Scott Nearing - "The Debs Decision"

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




3. If the doorways are to be of the Ionic style, the height of the
aperture should be reached in the same manner as in the Doric. Let its
width be determined by dividing the height into two and one half parts
and letting one of them form the width at the bottom. The diminutions
should be the same as for Doric. The width of the faces of the jambs
should be one fourteenth of the height of the aperture, and the cymatium
one sixth of the width. Let the rest, excluding the cymatium, be divided
into twelve parts. Let three of these compose the first fascia with its
astragal, four the second, and five the third, the fasciae with their
astragals running side by side all round.

4. The cornices of Ionic doorways should be constructed in the same
manner as those of Doric, in due proportions. The consoles, otherwise
called brackets, carved at the right and left, should hang down to the
level of the bottom of the lintel, exclusive of the leaf. Their width on
the face should be two thirds of the width of the jamb, but at the
bottom one fourth slenderer than above.

Doors should be constructed with the hinge-stiles one twelfth of the
width of the whole aperture. The panels between two stiles should each
occupy three of the twelve parts.

5. The rails will be apportioned thus: divide the height into five
parts, of which assign two to the upper portion and three to the lower;
above the centre place the middle rails; insert the others at the top
and at the bottom. Let the height of a rail be one third of the breadth
of a panel, and its cymatium one sixth of the rail. The width of the
meeting-stiles should be one half the rail, and the cover-joint two
thirds of the rail. The stiles toward the side of the jambs should be
one half the rail. If the doors have folds in them, the height will
remain as before, but the width should be double that of a single door;
if the door is to have four folds, its height should be increased.

[Illustration: VITRUVIUS' RULE FOR DOORWAYS COMPARED WITH TWO EXAMPLES]

6. Attic doorways are built with the same proportions as Doric. Besides,
there are fasciae running all round under the cymatia on the jambs, and
apportioned so as to be equal to three sevenths of a jamb, excluding the
cymatium. The doors are without lattice-work, are not double but have
folds in them, and open outward.

The laws which should govern the design of temples built in the Doric,
Ionic, and Corinthian styles, have now, so far as I could arrive at
them, been set forth according to what may be called the accepted
methods. I shall next speak of the arrangements in the Tuscan style,
showing how they should be treated.




CHAPTER VII

TUSCAN TEMPLES


1. The place where the temple is to be built having been divided on its
length into six parts, deduct one and let the rest be given to its
width. Then let the length be divided into two equal parts, of which let
the inner be reserved as space for the cellae, and the part next the
front left for the arrangement of the columns.

2. Next let the width be divided into ten parts. Of these, let three on
the right and three on the left be given to the smaller cellae, or to
the alae if there are to be alae, and the other four devoted to the
middle of the temple. Let the space in front of the cellae, in the
pronaos, be marked out for columns thus: the corner columns should be
placed opposite the antae on the line of the outside walls; the two
middle columns, set out on the line of the walls which are between the
antae and the middle of the temple; and through the middle, between the
antae and the front columns, a second row, arranged on the same lines.
Let the thickness of the columns at the bottom be one seventh of their
height, their height one third of the width of the temple, and the
diminution of a column at the top, one fourth of its thickness at the
bottom.

[Illustration: THE TUSCAN TEMPLE ACCORDING TO VITRUVIUS.]

3. The height of their bases should be one half of that thickness. The
plinth of their bases should be circular, and in height one half the
height of the bases, the torus above it and conge being of the same
height as the plinth. The height of the capital is one half the
thickness of a column. The abacus has a width equivalent to the
thickness of the bottom of a column. Let the height of the capital be
divided into three parts, and give one to the plinth (that is, the
abacus), the second to the echinus, and the third to the necking with
its conge.

4. Upon the columns lay the main beams, fastened together, to a height
commensurate with the requirements of the size of the building. These
beams fastened together should be laid so as to be equivalent in
thickness to the necking at the top of a column, and should be fastened
together by means of dowels and dove-tailed tenons in such a way that
there shall be a space two fingers broad between them at the fastening.
For if they touch one another, and so do not leave airholes and admit
draughts of air to blow between them, they get heated and soon begin to
rot.

5. Above the beams and walls let the mutules project to a distance equal
to one quarter of the height of a column; along the front of them nail
casings; above, build the tympanum of the pediment either in masonry or
in wood. The pediment with its ridgepole, principal rafters, and
purlines are to be built in such a way that the eaves shall be
equivalent to one third of the completed roof.




CHAPTER VIII

CIRCULAR TEMPLES AND OTHER VARIETIES


1. There are also circular temples, some of which are constructed in
monopteral form, surrounded by columns but without a cella, while
others are termed peripteral. Those that are without a cella have a
raised platform and a flight of steps leading to it, one third of the
diameter of the temple. The columns upon the stylobates are constructed
of a height equivalent to the diameter taken between the outer edges of
the stylobate walls, and of a thickness equivalent to one tenth of their
height including the capitals and bases. The architrave has the height
of one half of the thickness of a column. The frieze and the other parts
placed above it are such as I have described in the third[5] book, on
the subject of symmetrical proportions.

[Illustration: _Photo. Anderson_

THE CIRCULAR TEMPLE AT TIVOLI]

[Illustration: THE MAISON CARREE AT NIMES, A PSEUDO-PERIPTERAL TEMPLE]

[Note 5: 1 Codd. _quarto._]

[Illustration: TEMPLE AT TIVOLI]

[Illustration: _From Durm_

PLAN OF THE TEMPLE OF VESTA AT ROME]

2. But if such a temple is to be constructed in peripteral form, let two
steps and then the stylobate be constructed below. Next, let the cella
wall be set up, recessed within the stylobate about one fifth of the
breadth thereof, and let a place for folding doors be left in the middle
to afford entrance. This cella, excluding its walls and the passage
round the outside, should have a diameter equivalent to the height of a
column above the stylobate. Let the columns round the cella be arranged
in the symmetrical proportions just given.

3. The proportions of the roof in the centre should be such that the
height of the rotunda, excluding the finial, is equivalent to one half
the diameter of the whole work. The finial, excluding its pyramidal
base, should have the dimensions of the capital of a column. All the
rest must be built in the symmetrical proportions described above.

[Illustration: _From Durm_

THE CIRCULAR TEMPLE ACCORDING TO VITRUVIUS]

4. There are also other kinds of temples, constructed in the same
symmetrical proportions and yet with a different kind of plan: for
example, the temple of Castor in the district of the Circus Flaminius,
that of Vejovis between the two groves, and still more ingeniously the
temple of Diana in her sacred grove, with columns added on the right and
left at the flanks of the pronaos. Temples of this kind, like that of
Castor in the Circus, were first built in Athens on the Acropolis, and
in Attica at Sunium to Pallas Minerva. The proportions of them are not
different, but the same as usual. For the length of their cellae is
twice the width, as in other temples; but all that we regularly find in
the fronts of others is in these transferred to the sides.

5. Some take the arrangement of columns belonging to the Tuscan order
and apply it to buildings in the Corinthian and Ionic styles, and where
there are projecting antae in the pronaos, set up two columns in a line
with each of the cella walls, thus making a combination of the
principles of Tuscan and Greek buildings.

6. Others actually remove the temple walls, transferring them to the
intercolumniations, and thus, by dispensing with the space needed for a
pteroma, greatly increase the extent of the cella. So, while leaving all
the rest in the same symmetrical proportions, they appear to have
produced a new kind of plan with the new name "pseudoperipteral." These
kinds, however, vary according to the requirements of the sacrifices.
For we must not build temples according to the same rules to all gods
alike, since the performance of the sacred rites varies with the various
gods.

7. I have now set forth, as they have come down to me, all the
principles governing the building of temples, have marked out under
separate heads their arrangements and proportions, and have set forth,
so far as I could express them in writing, the differences in their
plans and the distinctions which make them unlike one another. Next,
with regard to the altars of the immortal gods, I shall state how they
may be constructed so as to conform to the rules governing sacrifices.




CHAPTER IX

ALTARS


Altars should face the east, and should always be placed on a lower
level than are the statues in the temples, so that those who are praying
and sacrificing may look upwards towards the divinity. They are of
different heights, being each regulated so as to be appropriate to its
own god. Their heights are to be adjusted thus: for Jupiter and all the
celestials, let them be constructed as high as possible; for Vesta and
Mother Earth, let them be built low. In accordance with these rules
will altars be adjusted when one is preparing his plans.

Having described the arrangements of temples in this book, in the
following we shall give an exposition of the construction of public
buildings.




BOOK V




INTRODUCTION


1. Those who have filled books of unusually large size, Emperor, in
setting forth their intellectual ideas and doctrines, have thus made a
very great and remarkable addition to the authority of their writings. I
could wish that circumstances made this as permissible in the case of
our subject, so that the authority of the present treatise might be
increased by amplifications; but this is not so easy as it may be
thought. Writing on architecture is not like history or poetry. History
is captivating to the reader from its very nature; for it holds out the
hope of various novelties. Poetry, with its measures and metrical feet,
its refinement in the arrangement of words, and the delivery in verse of
the sentiments expressed by the several characters to one another,
delights the feelings of the reader, and leads him smoothly on to the
very end of the work.

2. But this cannot be the case with architectural treatises, because
those terms which originate in the peculiar needs of the art, give rise
to obscurity of ideas from the unusual nature of the language. Hence,
while the things themselves are not well known, and their names not in
common use, if besides this the principles are described in a very
diffuse fashion without any attempt at conciseness and explanation in a
few pellucid sentences, such fullness and amplitude of treatment will be
only a hindrance, and will give the reader nothing but indefinite
notions. Therefore, when I mention obscure terms, and the symmetrical
proportions of members of buildings, I shall give brief explanations, so
that they may be committed to memory; for thus expressed, the mind will
be enabled to understand them the more easily.

3. Furthermore, since I have observed that our citizens are distracted
with public affairs and private business, I have thought it best to
write briefly, so that my readers, whose intervals of leisure are small,
may be able to comprehend in a short time.

Then again, Pythagoras and those who came after him in his school
thought it proper to employ the principles of the cube in composing
books on their doctrines, and, having determined that the cube consisted
of 216[6] lines, held that there should be no more than three cubes in
any one treatise.

[Note 6: Codd. _CC. & L._]

4. A cube is a body with sides all of equal breadth and their surfaces
perfectly square. When thrown down, it stands firm and steady so long as
it is untouched, no matter on which of its sides it has fallen, like the
dice which players throw on the board. The Pythagoreans appear to have
drawn their analogy from the cube, because the number of lines mentioned
will be fixed firmly and steadily in the memory when they have once
settled down, like a cube, upon a man's understanding. The Greek comic
poets, also, divided their plays into parts by introducing a choral
song, and by this partition on the principle of the cubes, they relieve
the actor's speeches by such intermissions.

5. Since these rules, founded on the analogy of nature, were followed by
our predecessors, and since I observe that I have to write on unusual
subjects which many persons will find obscure, I have thought it best to
write in short books, so that they may the more readily strike the
understanding of the reader: for they will thus be easy to comprehend. I
have also arranged them so that those in search of knowledge on a
subject may not have to gather it from different places, but may find it
in one complete treatment, with the various classes set forth each in a
book by itself. Hence, Caesar, in the third and fourth books I gave the
rules for temples; in this book I shall treat of the laying out of
public places. I shall speak first of the proper arrangement of the
forum, for in it the course of both public and private affairs is
directed by the magistrates.




CHAPTER I

THE FORUM AND BASILICA


1. The Greeks lay out their forums in the form of a square surrounded by
very spacious double colonnades, adorn them with columns set rather
closely together, and with entablatures of stone or marble, and
construct walks above in the upper story. But in the cities of Italy the
same method cannot be followed, for the reason that it is a custom
handed down from our ancestors that gladiatorial shows should be given
in the forum.

[Illustration: _From Gsell_

FORUM AT TIMGAD

A, Forum. B, Basilica. C, Curia. C', Official Building. D, Small Temple.
E, Latrina. F, Atrium.]

2. Therefore let the intercolumniations round the show place be pretty
wide; round about in the colonnades put the bankers' offices; and have
balconies on the upper floor properly arranged so as to be convenient,
and to bring in some public revenue.

The size of a forum should be proportionate to the number of
inhabitants, so that it may not be too small a space to be useful, nor
look like a desert waste for lack of population. To determine its
breadth, divide its length into three parts and assign two of them to
the breadth. Its shape will then be oblong, and its ground plan
conveniently suited to the conditions of shows.

3. The columns of the upper tier should be one fourth smaller than those
of the lower, because, for the purpose of bearing the load, what is
below ought to be stronger than what is above, and also, because we
ought to imitate nature as seen in the case of things growing; for
example, in round smooth-stemmed trees, like the fir, cypress, and pine,
every one of which is rather thick just above the roots and then, as it
goes on increasing in height, tapers off naturally and symmetrically in
growing up to the top. Hence, if nature requires this in things growing,
it is the right arrangement that what is above should be less in height
and thickness than what is below.

4. Basilicas should be constructed on a site adjoining the forum and in
the warmest possible quarter, so that in winter business men may gather
in them without being troubled by the weather. In breadth they should be
not less than one third nor more than one half of their length, unless
the site is naturally such as to prevent this and to oblige an
alteration in these proportions. If the length of the site is greater
than necessary, Chalcidian porches may be constructed at the ends, as in
the Julia Aquiliana.

5. It is thought that the columns of basilicas ought to be as high as
the side-aisles are broad; an aisle should be limited to one third of
the breadth which the open space in the middle is to have. Let the
columns of the upper tier be smaller than those of the lower, as written
above. The screen, to be placed between the upper and the lower tiers of
columns, ought to be, it is thought, one fourth lower than the columns
of the upper tier, so that people walking in the upper story of the
basilica may not be seen by the business men. The architraves, friezes,
and cornices should be adjusted to the proportions of the columns, as
we have stated in the third book.

[Illustration: _From Mau_

FORUM AT POMPEII

A, Forum. B, Basilica. C, Temple of Apollo. D, D', Market Buildings. E,
Latrina. F, City Treasury. G, Memorial Arch. H, Temple of Jupiter. I,
Arch of Tiberius. K, Macellum (provision market). L, Sanctuary of the
City Lares. M, Temple of Vespasian. N, Building of Eumachia. O,
Comitium. P, Office of the Duumvirs. Q, The City Council. R, Office of
the Aediles.]

6. But basilicas of the greatest dignity and beauty may also be
constructed in the style of that one which I erected, and the building
of which I superintended at Fano. Its proportions and symmetrical
relations were established as follows. In the middle, the main roof
between the columns is 120 feet long and sixty feet wide. Its aisle
round the space beneath the main roof and between the walls and the
columns is twenty feet broad. The columns, of unbroken height, measuring
with their capitals fifty feet, and being each five feet thick, have
behind them pilasters, twenty feet high, two and one half feet broad,
and one and one half feet thick, which support the beams on which is
carried the upper flooring of the aisles. Above them are other
pilasters, eighteen feet high, two feet broad, and a foot thick, which
carry the beams supporting the principal raftering and the roof of the
aisles, which is brought down lower than the main roof.

[Illustration: _From Durm_

PLAN OF THE BASILICA AT POMPEII]

7. The spaces remaining between the beams supported by the pilasters and
the columns, are left for windows between the intercolumniations. The
columns are: on the breadth of the main roof at each end, four,
including the corner columns at right and left; on the long side which
is next to the forum, eight, including the same corner columns; on the
other side, six, including the corner columns. This is because the two
middle columns on that side are omitted, in order not to obstruct the
view of the pronaos of the temple of Augustus (which is built at the
middle of the side wall of the basilica, facing the middle of the forum
and the temple of Jupiter) and also the tribunal which is in the former
temple, shaped as a hemicycle whose curvature is less than a semicircle.

[Illustration: VITRUVIUS' BASILICA AT FANO]

8. The open side of this hemicycle is forty-six feet along the front,
and its curvature inwards is fifteen feet, so that those who are
standing before the magistrates may not be in the way of the business
men in the basilica. Round about, above the columns, are placed the
architraves, consisting of three two-foot timbers fastened together.
These return from the columns which stand third on the inner side to the
antae which project from the pronaos, and which touch the edges of the
hemicycle at right and left.

9. Above the architraves and regularly dispersed on supports directly
over the capitals, piers are placed, three feet high and four feet broad
each way. Above them is placed the projecting cornice round about, made
of two two-foot timbers. The tie-beams and struts, being placed above
them, and directly over the shafts of the columns and the antae and
walls of the pronaos, hold up one gable roof along the entire basilica,
and another from the middle of it, over the pronaos of the temple.

10. Thus the gable tops run in two directions, like the letter T, and
give a beautiful effect to the outside and inside of the main roof.
Further, by the omission of an ornamental entablature and of a line of
screens and a second tier of columns, troublesome labour is saved and
the total cost greatly diminished. On the other hand, the carrying of
the columns themselves in unbroken height directly up to the beams that
support the main roof, seems to add an air of sumptuousness and dignity
to the work.




CHAPTER II

THE TREASURY, PRISON, AND SENATE HOUSE


1. The treasury, prison, and senate house ought to adjoin the forum, but
in such a way that their dimensions may be proportionate to those of the
forum. Particularly, the senate house should be constructed with special
regard to the importance of the town or city. If the building is square,
let its height be fixed at one and one half times its breadth; but if it
is to be oblong, add together its length and breadth and, having got the
total, let half of it be devoted to the height up to the coffered
ceiling.

2. Further, the inside walls should be girdled, at a point halfway up
their height, with coronae made of woodwork or of stucco. Without these,
the voice of men engaged in discussion there will be carried up to the
height above, and so be unintelligible to their listeners. But when the
walls are girdled with coronae, the voice from below, being detained
before rising and becoming lost in the air, will be intelligible to the
ear.




CHAPTER III

THE THEATRE: ITS SITE, FOUNDATIONS AND ACOUSTICS


1. After the forum has been arranged, next, for the purpose of seeing
plays or festivals of the immortal gods, a site as healthy as possible
should be selected for the theatre, in accordance with what has been
written in the first book, on the principles of healthfulness in the
sites of cities. For when plays are given, the spectators, with their
wives and children, sit through them spell-bound, and their bodies,
motionless from enjoyment, have the pores open, into which blowing winds
find their way. If these winds come from marshy districts or from other
unwholesome quarters, they will introduce noxious exhalations into the
system. Hence, such faults will be avoided if the site of the theatre is
somewhat carefully selected.

2. We must also beware that it has not a southern exposure. When the sun
shines full upon the rounded part of it, the air, being shut up in the
curved enclosure and unable to circulate, stays there and becomes
heated; and getting glowing hot it burns up, dries out, and impairs the
fluids of the human body. For these reasons, sites which are unwholesome
in such respects are to be avoided, and healthy sites selected.

3. The foundation walls will be an easier matter if they are on a
hillside; but if they have to be laid on a plain or in a marshy place,
solidity must be assured and substructures built in accordance with what
has been written in the third book, on the foundations of temples. Above
the foundation walls, the ascending rows of seats, from the
substructures up, should be built of stone and marble materials.

4. The curved cross-aisles should be constructed in proportionate
relation, it is thought, to the height of the theatre, but not higher
than the footway of the passage is broad. If they are loftier, they will
throw back the voice and drive it away from the upper portion, thus
preventing the case-endings of words from reaching with distinct meaning
the ears of those who are in the uppermost seats above the cross-aisles.
In short, it should be so contrived that a line drawn from the lowest to
the highest seat will touch the top edges and angles of all the seats.
Thus the voice will meet with no obstruction.

5. The different entrances ought to be numerous and spacious, the upper
not connected with the lower, but built in a continuous straight line
from all parts of the house, without turnings, so that the people may
not be crowded together when let out from shows, but may have separate
exits from all parts without obstructions.

Particular pains must also be taken that the site be not a "deaf" one,
but one through which the voice can range with the greatest clearness.
This can be brought about if a site is selected where there is no
obstruction due to echo.

6. Voice is a flowing breath of air, perceptible to the hearing by
contact. It moves in an endless number of circular rounds, like the
innumerably increasing circular waves which appear when a stone is
thrown into smooth water, and which keep on spreading indefinitely from
the centre unless interrupted by narrow limits, or by some obstruction
which prevents such waves from reaching their end in due formation. When
they are interrupted by obstructions, the first waves, flowing back,
break up the formation of those which follow.

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