Vitruvius
Vitruvius | |
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military engineer | |
Notable work | De architectura |
Vitruvius (/vɪˈtruːviəs/ vi-TROO-vee-əs, Latin: [wɪˈtruːwi.ʊs]; c. 80–70 BC – after c. 15 BC) was a Roman architect and engineer during the 1st century BC, known for his multi-volume work titled De architectura.[1] As the only treatise on architecture to survive from antiquity, it has been regarded since the Renaissance as the first book on architectural theory, as well as a major source on the canon of classical architecture.[2] It is not clear to what extent his contemporaries regarded his book as original or important.
He states that all buildings should have three attributes: firmitas, utilitas, and venustas ("strength", "utility", and "beauty"),[3] principles reflected in much Ancient Roman architecture. His discussion of perfect proportion in architecture and the human body led to the famous Renaissance drawing of the Vitruvian Man by Leonardo da Vinci.
Little is known about Vitruvius' life, but by his own description
Vitruvius' De architectura was well-known and widely copied in the Middle Ages and survives in many dozens of manuscripts,
Life and career
Little is known about Vitruvius' life. Most inferences about him are extracted from his only surviving work
Vitruvius was a military engineer (
Likely born a free Roman citizen, by his own account Vitruvius served in the Roman army under Caesar with the otherwise poorly identified Marcus Aurelius, Publius Minidius and Gnaeus Cornelius. These names vary depending on the edition of De architectura. Publius Minidius is also written as Publius Numidicus and Publius Numidius, speculated as the same Publius Numisius inscribed on the Roman Theatre at Heraclea.[10]
As an
The locations where he served can be reconstructed from, for example, descriptions of the building methods of various "foreign tribes". Although he describes places throughout De Architectura, he does not say he was present. His service likely included
.To place the role of Vitruvius the military engineer in context, a description of "The Prefect of the camp" or army engineer is quoted here as given by
The Prefect of the camp, though inferior in rank to the [Prefect], had a post of no small importance. The position of the camp, the direction of the entrenchments, the inspection of the tents or huts of the soldiers and the baggage were comprehended in his province. His authority extended over the sick, and the physicians who had the care of them; and he regulated the expenses relative thereto. He had the charge of providing carriages, bathhouses and the proper tools for sawing and cutting wood, digging trenches, raising parapets, sinking wells and bringing water into the camp. He likewise had the care of furnishing the troops with wood and straw, as well as the rams,
onagri, balistae and all the other engines of war under his direction. This post was always conferred on an officer of great skill, experience and long service, and who consequently was capable of instructing others in those branches of the profession in which he had distinguished himself.[12]
At various locations described by Vitruvius,
- The siege and massacre of the 40,000 residents at Avaricum in 52 BC. Vercingetorix commented that "the Romans did not conquer by valour nor in the field, but by a kind of art and skill in assault, with which they [Gauls] themselves were unacquainted."[15]
- The broken siege at Gergovia in 52 BC.
- The circumvallation and Battle of Alesia in 52 BC. The women and children of the encircled city were evicted to conserve food, and then starved to death between the opposing walls of the defenders and besiegers.
- The siege of Uxellodunum in 51 BC.
These are all sieges of large Gallic , of which ballista would be an auxiliary unit.
Mainly known for his writings, Vitruvius was himself an architect. In Roman times architecture was a broader subject than at present including the modern fields of architecture,
In his work describing the construction of military installations, he also commented on the miasma theory – the idea that unhealthy air from wetlands was the cause of illness, saying:
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 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.[19]
In later years the emperor Augustus, through his sister
Whether De architectura was written by one author or is a compilation completed by subsequent librarians and copyists, remains an open question. The date of his death is unknown, which suggests that he had enjoyed only a little popularity during his lifetime.[citation needed]
Gerolamo Cardano, in his 1552 book De subtilitate rerum, ranks Vitruvius as one of the 12 persons whom he supposes to have excelled all men in the force of genius and invention; and might have given him first place if it was clear that he had set down his own discoveries.[25]
James Anderson's "The Constitutions of the Free-Masons" (1734), reprinted by Benjamin Franklin, describes Vitruvius as "the Father of all true Architects to this Day."[26]
De architectura
Vitruvius is the author of De architectura, libri decem, known today as The Ten Books on Architecture,
However, we know there was a significant body of writing about architecture in Greek, where "architects habitually wrote books about their work", including two we know of about the Parthenon alone. To A. W. Lawrence, Vituvius "has recorded a most elaborate set of rules taken from Greek authors, who must have compiled them gradually in the course of the preceding centuries".[28]
Vitruvius is famous for asserting in his book De architectura that a structure must exhibit the three qualities of firmitatis, utilitatis, venustatis – that is, stability, utility, and beauty. These are sometimes termed the Vitruvian virtues or the Vitruvian Triad. According to Vitruvius, architecture is an imitation of nature. As birds and bees built their nests, so humans constructed housing from natural materials, that gave them shelter against the elements. When perfecting this art of building, the Greeks invented the architectural orders: Doric, Ionic and Corinthian. It gave them a sense of proportion, culminating in understanding the proportions of the greatest work of art: the human body. This led Vitruvius in defining his Vitruvian Man, as drawn later by Leonardo da Vinci: the human body inscribed in the circle and the square (the fundamental geometric patterns of the cosmic order). In this book series, Vitruvius also wrote about climate in relation to housing architecture and how to choose locations for cities.[29][30]
Scope
Vitruvius is the first Roman architect to have written surviving records of his field. He himself cites older but less complete works. He was less an original thinker or creative intellect than a codifier of existing architectural practice.
In Book I, Chapter 1, titled The Education of the Architect, Vitruvius instructs...
1. Architecture is a science arising out of many other sciences, and adorned with much and varied learning; by the help of which a judgment is formed of those works which are the result of other arts. Practice and theory are its parents. Practice is the frequent and continued contemplation of the mode of executing any given work, or of the mere operation of the hands, for the conversion of the material in the best and readiest way. Theory is the result of that reasoning which demonstrates and explains that the material wrought has been so converted as to answer the end proposed.
2. Wherefore the mere practical architect is not able to assign sufficient reasons for the forms he adopts; and the theoretic architect also fails, grasping the shadow instead of the substance. He who is theoretic as well as practical, is therefore doubly armed; able not only to prove the propriety of his design, but equally so to carry it into execution.[31]
He goes on to say that the architect should be versed in drawing, geometry, optics (lighting), history, philosophy, music, theatre, medicine, and law.
In Book I, Chapter 3 (The Departments of Architecture), Vitruvius divides architecture into three branches, namely; building; the construction of
Proportions of man
In Book III, Chapter 1, Paragraph 3, Vitruvius writes about the proportions of man:
3. Just so the parts of Temples should correspond with each other, and with the whole. The navel is naturally placed in the centre of the human body, and, if in a man lying with his face upward, and his hands and feet extended, from his navel as the centre, a circle be described, it will touch his fingers and toes. It is not alone by a circle, that the human body is thus circumscribed, as may be seen by placing it within a square. For measuring from the feet to the crown of the head, and then across the arms fully extended, we find the latter measure equal to the former; so that lines at right angles to each other, enclosing the figure, will form a square.[35]
It was upon these writings that Renaissance engineers, architects and artists like Mariano di Jacopo Taccola, Pellegrino Prisciani and Francesco di Giorgio Martini and finally Leonardo da Vinci based the illustration of the Vitruvian Man.[36]
Vitruvius described the human figure as being the principal source of proportion.
The drawing itself is often used as an implied symbol of the essential symmetry of the human body, and by extension, of the universe as a whole.[37]
Lists of names given in Book VII Introduction
In the introduction to book seven, Vitruvius goes to great lengths to present why he is qualified to write De Architectura. This is the only location in the work where Vitruvius specifically addresses his personal breadth of knowledge. Similar to a modern reference section, the author's position as one who is knowledgeable and educated is established. The topics range across many fields of expertise reflecting that in Roman times as today construction is a diverse field. Vitruvius is clearly a well-read man.[citation needed]
In addition to providing his qualification, Vitruvius summarizes a recurring theme throughout the 10 books, a non-trivial and core contribution of his treatise beyond simply being a construction book. Vitruvius makes the point that the work of some of the most talented is unknown, while many of those of lesser talent but greater political position are famous.[27] This theme runs through Vitruvius's ten books repeatedly – echoing an implicit prediction that he and his works will also be forgotten.
Vitruvius illustrates this point by naming what he considers the most talented individuals in history.[27] Implicitly challenging the reader that they have never heard of some of these people, Vitruvius goes on and predicts that some of these individuals will be forgotten and their works lost, while other, less deserving political characters of history will be forever remembered with pageantry.
- List of physicists:
- List of philosophers: Socrates, Plato, Aristotle, Zeno, Epicurus
- List of kings: Croesus, Alexander the Great, Darius
- On plagiarism: Aristophanes, Ptolemy I Soter, a person named Attalus
- On abusing dead authors: Zoilus Homeromastix, Ptolemy II Philadelphus
- On divergence of the visual rays: Agatharchus, Aeschylus, Democritus, Anaxagoras
- List of writers on temples: Silenus, Theodorus,
- List of artists: Leochares, Bryaxis, Scopas, Praxiteles, Timotheos
- List of writers on laws of symmetry: Nexaris, Theocydes, a person named Demophilus, Pollis, a person named Leonidas, Silanion, Melampus, Sarnacus, Euphranor
- List of writers on machinery: Pyrrus, Agesistratus
- List of writers on architecture: Fuficius, Terentius Varro, Publius Septimius (writer)
- List of architects: Antistates, Callaeschrus, Antimachides, Pormus, Cossutius
- List of greatest temple architects: Chersiphron of Gnosus, Metagenes, Demetrius, Paeonius the Milesian, Ephesian Daphnis, Ictinus, Philo, Cossutius, Gaius Mucianus
Rediscovery
Vitruvius'
The surviving ruins of Roman antiquity, the
Notable editions
Latin
- 1495–1496 De architectura (in Latin). Venezia: Cristoforo Pensi.
- 1543 De architectura (in Latin). Strasbourg: Georg Messerschmidt.
- 1800 Augustus Rode, Berlin[41]
- 1857 TeubnerEdition by Valentin Rose
- 1899 TeubnerEdition
- 1912 Teubner edition at The Latin Library[42]
- Bill Thayer, transcription of the 1912 Teubner Edition[43]
Italian
- Como, Italy, includes illustrations by Cesare Cesariano
- Danielle Barbaro, includes illustration by Andrea Palladio
French
- Jean Martin, 1547[44]
- Claude Perrault, 1673[45]
- Auguste Choisy, 1909
English
- Henry Wotton, 1624
- Joseph Gwilt, 1826
- Bill Thayer transcription of the Gwilt 1826 Edition[31]
- Morris H. Morgan, with illustrations prepared by Herbert Langford Warren, 1914, Harvard University Press[46]
- Frank Granger, Loeb Edition, 1931[47]
- Ingrid Rowland, 2001[48]
- Thomas Gordon Smith, The Monacelli Press (5 January 2004)[49]
Roman technology
Books VIII, IX and X form the basis of much of what we know about Roman technology, now augmented by archaeological studies of extant remains, such as the
Machines
The work is important for its descriptions of the many different machines used for engineering structures such as
Aqueducts
His description of
Materials
He describes many different
Vitruvius is cited as one of the earliest sources to connect lead mining and manufacture, its use in drinking water pipes, and its adverse effects on health. For this reason, he recommended the use of clay pipes and masonry channels in the provision of piped drinking-water.[50]
Vitruvius is the source for the anecdote that credits Archimedes with the discovery of the mass-to-volume ratio while relaxing in his bath. Having been asked to investigate the suspected adulteration of the gold used to make a crown, Archimedes realised that the crown's volume could be measured exactly by its displacement of water, and ran into the street with the cry of Eureka!
Dewatering machines
He describes the construction of
Surveying instruments
That he must have been well practised in surveying is shown by his descriptions of surveying instruments, especially the water level or
Central heating
He describes the many innovations made in building design to improve the living conditions of the inhabitants. Foremost among them is the development of the
Legacy
- Vitruvian Man – a drawing by Leonardo da Vinci
- Vitruvius Britannicus – 18th century work on British architecture named after Vitruvius.
- Den Danske Vitruvius – 18th century work on Danish architecture – inspired by Vitruvius Britannicus.[51]
- The American Vitruvius – 20th century work on civil architecture by Werner Hegemann
- Sir Richard Morrisonand himself a noted architect of great houses, bridges, court houses and prisons.
- A small lunar crater has been named after Vitruvius and also an elongated lunar mountain Mons Vitruvius close by.
- The Design Quality Indicator(DQI) tool for buildings uses Vitruvius's principles.
See also
- Aristotle
- Ctesibius
- Colen Campbell
- Frontinus
- Pliny the Elder
- Roman architecture
- Roman aqueducts
- Roman engineering
- Roman technology
- Vitruvian man
- Vitruvian scroll
- Lucius Vitruvius Cordo
References
- ^ a b Middleton, John Henry (1911). . Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 28 (11th ed.). pp. 150–151.
- ^ Kruft, Hanno-Walter. A History of Architectural Theory from Vitruvius to the Present (New York, Princeton Architectural Press: 1994).
- )
- ^ a b De Arch. Book 1, preface. section 2.
- ISBN 0-415-22295-8.
- S2CID 195019013.
- ^ John Oksanish, Vitruvian Man: Rome under Construction, Oxford UP (2019), p. 33
- ^ Pais, E. Ricerche sulla storia e sul diritto publico di Roma (Rome, 1916).
- S2CID 191364921.
- ^ Niccolò Marcello Venuti Description of the First Discoveries of the Ancient City of Heraclea, Found Near Portici A Country Palace Belonging to the King of the Two Sicilies published by R. Baldwin, translated by Wickes Skurray, 1750. p62 [1]
- ^ Trumbull, David (2007). "Classical Sources, Greek and Roman Esthetics Reading: The Grand Tour Reader; Vitruvius Background: Life of Marcus Vitruvius Pollio (c. 90–20 BC)". An Epitome of Book III of Vitruvius. Retrieved 18 November 2009.[dead link]
- ^ Flavius Vegetius Renatus (390 BC). John Clarke (tr. 1767). The Military Institutions of the Romans Archived 21 April 2020 at the Wayback Machine.
- ^ "Works that pre-date 1900 – Firmness, Commodity, and Delight – The University of Chicago Library". www.lib.uchicago.edu. Retrieved 6 April 2022.
- ^ Mary Corbin Sies and Christopher Silver (1996). Planning the twentieth-century American city. JHU Press, 1996, p. 42.
- ^ Julius Caesar, De bello Gallico 7.29 Archived 8 July 2012 at archive.today
- ^ Vitruvius mentions Massilia several times, and the siege itself in Book X.
- ^ a b Liukkonen, Petri. "Vitruvius". Books and Writers (kirjasto.sci.fi). Finland: Kuusankoski Public Library. Archived from the original on 13 January 2015.
- ^ The "Vitruvius Project". Carnegie Mellon University, Computer Science Department. Retrieved 2008.
- ISBN 978-0-486-20645-5. Retrieved 26 February 2021 – via Project Gutenberg.
- ^ De Aquis, I.25 (in Latin) ebook of work also known as De aquaeductu, accessed August 2008
- ISSN 0262-4079. Retrieved 6 May 2013.]
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has generic name (help)[permanent dead link - ^ De Arch., Book V.i.6) (in Latin) but with link to English translation, accessed August 2008
- ^ Fausto Pugnaloni and Paolo Clini. "Vitruvius Basilica in Fano, Italy, journey through the virtual space of the reconstructed memory". GISdevelopment.net last accessed 3 August 2008
- ^ Clini, P. (2002). "Vitruvius' basilica at Fano: the drawings of a lost building from De architectura libri decem" (PDF). The International Archives of the Photogrammetry, Remote Sensing and Spatial Information Sciences. vol. XXXIV, part 5/W12, pp. 121–126. Archived from the original (PDF) on 17 May 2012. Retrieved 3 February 2016.
- ^ Charles Hutton (1795), Mathematical and Philosophical Dictionary Archived 5 June 2011 at the Wayback Machine
- ^ Anderson, James A.M. (1734). The Constitutions of the Free-Masons (1734). An Online Electronic Edition (25 ed.). Faculty Publications, UNL Libraries. p. 25.
- ^ ISBN 0-486-20645-9.
- ^ Lawrence, A. W., Greek Architecture, p. 169, 1957, Penguin, Pelican history of art
- ^ "Philosophy of Architecture". Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. 2015.
- ^ "Vitruvius The Ten Books On Architecture". The Project Gutenberg.
- ^ a b c "LacusCurtius • Vitruvius on Architecture — Book I". penelope.uchicago.edu. Retrieved 20 June 2017.
- ^ Turner, A. J., in Folkrets, M., and Lorch, R., (Editors), "Sic itur ad astra", Studien zur Geschichte der Mathematik und Naturwissenschaften – Festschrift für den Arabisten Paul Kunitzsch zum 70, Harrassowitz Verlag, 2000, p.563 ff.
- ^ Long, Pamela O., in Galison, Peter, and Thompson, Emily (Editors), The Architecture of Science, The MIT Press, 1999, p. 81
- ^ Borys, Ann Marie, Vincenzo Scamozzi and the Chorography of Early Modern Architecture, Routledge, 2014, pp. 85, 179
- ^ "LacusCurtius • Vitruvius on Architecture — Book III". penelope.uchicago.edu. Retrieved 20 June 2017.
- ISBN 978-3-00-063700-1
- ^ "Bibliographic reference". The Whole Universe Book. Retrieved 30 November 2011.
- ^ "CPSA Palladio's Literary Predecessors". www.palladiancenter.org. Archived from the original on 17 December 2018. Retrieved 20 June 2017.
- ^ Architectura – Les livres d'Architecture (in French)
- ^ "Architectura – Les livres d'Architecture". architectura.cesr.univ-tours.fr. Retrieved 20 June 2017.
- ^ "bibliotheca Augustana". www.hs-augsburg.de. Retrieved 20 June 2017.
- ^ "Vitruvius". www.thelatinlibrary.com. Archived from the original on 13 June 2017. Retrieved 20 June 2017.
- ^ "LacusCurtius • Vitruvius de Architectura — Liber Primus". penelope.uchicago.edu. Retrieved 20 June 2017.
- ^ http://homes.chass.utoronto.ca/~wulfric/vitruve/ http://homes.chass.utoronto.ca/~wulfric/vitruve/
- ^ Books on architecture by Claude Perrault, Architectura website. Retrieved on 18 January 2020.
- ^ Vitruvius, Pollio (1914). The Ten Books on Architecture. Translated by Morgan, Morris Hicky. Illustrations prepared by Herbert Langford Warren. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.
- ISBN 0674992776.
- ISBN 0521002923.
- ISBN 1885254989.
- S2CID 193094209.)
{{cite journal}}
: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link - ^ "Den Danske Vitruvius". AOK. Retrieved 23 June 2009.
Sources
- Indra Kagis McEwen, Vitruvius: Writing the Body of Architecture. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2004. ISBN 0-262-63306-X
- B. Baldwin, "The Date, Identity, and Career of Vitruvius". In Latomus 49 (1990), 425–34.
- ISBN 978-3-7374-0998-8
Further reading
- Clarke, Georgia. 2002. "Vitruvian Paradigms". Papers of the British School at Rome 70:319–346.
- De Angelis, Francesco. 2015. "Greek and Roman Specialized Writing on Art and Architecture". In The Oxford Handbook of Greek and Roman Art and Architecture. Edited by Clemente Marconi, 41–69. Oxford: Oxford Univ. Press.
- König, Alice. 2009. "From Architect to Imperator: Vitruvius and his Addressee in the De Architectura". In Authorial Voices in Greco-Roman Technical Writing. Edited by Liba Chaia Taub and Aude Doody, 31–52. Trier, Germany: WVT Wissenschaftlicher Verlag Trier.
- Milnor, Kristina L. 2005. "Other Men's Wives". In Gender, Domesticity and the Age of Augustus: Inventing Private Life. By Kristina Milnor, 94–139. Oxford: Oxford Univ. Press.
- Nichols, Marden Fitzpatrick. 2017".Author and Audience in Vitruvius’ De Architectura". Cambridge, UK: Cambridge Univ. Press.
- Rowland, Ingrid D. 2014. "Vitruvius and His Influence". In A Companion to Roman Architecture. Edited by Roger B. Ulrich and Caroline K. Quenemoen, 412–425. Malden, MA, and Oxford: Blackwell.
- Sear, Frank B. 1990. "Vitruvius and Roman Theater Design". American Journal of Archaeology 94.2: 249–258.
- Smith, Thomas Gordon. 2004. Vitruvius on Architecture. New York: Monacelli Press.
- Wallace-Hadrill, Andrew. 1994. "The Articulation of the House". In Houses and Society in Pompeii and Herculaneum. By Andrew Wallace-Hadrill, 38–61. Princeton, NJ: Princeton Univ. Press.
- Wallace-Hadrill, Andrew. 2008. "Vitruvius: Building Roman Identity". In Rome's Cultural Revolution. By Andrew Wallace-Hadrill, 144–210. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge Univ. Press.
External links
- Works by Vitruvius at Project Gutenberg
- Works by or about Vitruvius at Internet Archive
- Works by Vitruvius at LibriVox (public domain audiobooks)
- The Ten Books on Architecture online: cross-linked Latin text and English translation
- The Ten Books on Architecture at the Perseus Classics Collection. Latin and English text. Latin text has hyperlinks to pop-up dictionary.
- Palladio's Literary Predecessors Archived 17 December 2018 at the Wayback Machine
- Latin text, version 2
- An Abridgment of the Architecture of Vitruvius
- Ten Books on Architecture at Project Gutenberg (Morris Hicky Morgan translation with illustrations)
- Vitruvius online
- Leonardo da Vincis Vitruvian man as an algorithm for the approximation of the squaring of the circle
- Vitruvius' theories of beauty – a learning resource from the British Library
- Animation: The Odometer of Vitruv
- Discussion of the inventions of Vitruvius
- Online Galleries, History of Science Collections, University of Oklahoma Libraries High resolution images of works by Vitruvius in .jpg and .tiff format.
- digital scans in high resolution of 73 editions of Vitruvius from 1497 to 1909 from the Werner Oechslin Library, Einsiedeln, Switzerland
- Vitruvius Summary
- VITRUVII, M. De architectura. Naples, (c. 1480). At Somni.