De architectura
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De architectura (Latin: "On architecture") was a treatise on architecture written by the Roman architect Vitruvius and dedicated to his patron, the emperor Caesar Augustus.
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[edit] De architectura in summary
Probably written between 27 and 23 BC, it is the only contemporary source on classical architecture to have survived. Divided into ten sections or "books", it covers almost every aspect of Roman architecture. The books break down as follows:
- Town planning, architecture in general, and the qualifications required of an architect
- Building materials
- Temples and the orders of architecture;
- continuation of book 3
- Civil buildings
- Domestic buildings
- Pavements and decorative plasterwork
- Water supplies
- Sciences influencing architecture - geometry, mensuration, astronomy etc.
- Use and construction of machines
Roman architects were significantly different from their modern counterparts, acting as engineers, architects, artists, and craftsmen combined. Vitruvius was very much of this type, a fact reflected in De architectura. He covers a wide variety of subjects which he saw as touching on architecture. This included many aspects which would seem non-obvious to modern eyes, ranging from mathematics to astronomy, to meteorology and medicine. In the Roman conception, architecture needed to take into account everything touching on the physical and intellectual life of man and his surroundings.
Vitruvius thus deals with many theoretical issues concerning architecture. For instance, in Book 2 of De architectura, he advises architects working with bricks to familiarise themselves with pre-Socratic theories of matter so as to understand how their materials will behave. Book 9 relates the abstract geometry of Plato to the everyday work of the surveyor, while the mathematics. Astrology is cited for its insights into the organisation of human life, while astronomy is required for the understanding of sundials. Similarly, Vitruvius cites Ctesibius of Alexandria and Archimedes for their inventions, Aristoxenus (Aristotle's apprentice) for music, Agatharchus for theatre, and Varro for architecture.
He sought to address the ethos of architecture, declaring that quality depends on the social relevance of the artist's work, not on the form or workmanship of the work itself. Perhaps the most famous declaration from De architectura is one still quoted by architects: "Well building hath three conditions: firmness, commodity, and delight." This quote is taken from Sir Henry Wotton's version of 1624, and is a plain and accurate translation of the passage in Vitruvius (I.iii.2): but English has changed since then, especially in regard to the word "commodity", and the tag is usually misunderstood.
Vitruvius also studied human proportions (Book 3) and his canones were later encoded in a very famous drawing by Leonardo da Vinci (Homo Vitruvianus, "Vitruvian Man").
Vitruvius ranges so widely that De architectura is almost a primer on classical science. Indeed, much detail of early classical science (especially that of ancient Greece) is known only from Vitruvius. The famous story of Archimedes discovering the law of buoyancy in his bathtub comes from Book 9 of De architectura.
[edit] Survival and rediscovery
Vitruvius' work is one of many examples of Latin texts that owe their survival to the palace scriptorium of Charlemagne in the early 9th century. (This activity of finding and recopying classical manuscripts is part of what is called the Carolingian Renaissance.) Many of the surviving manuscripts of Vitruvius' work derive from an existing manuscript that was written there, British Library manuscript Harley 2767. These texts were not just copied but also were known at the court of Charlemagne, since his historian, the bishop Einhard, asked for explanations of some technical terms at the visiting English churchman Alcuin.
Fifty-five copies of De architectura did exist in manuscript form during the Middle Ages but appear to have received little attention. Vitrivius' work was "rediscovered" in 1414 by the Florentine humanist Poggio Bracciolini, who found it in the Abbey of St Gallen, Switzerland. He publicised the manuscript to a receptive audience of Renaissance thinkers, just as interest in the classical cultural and scientific heritage was reviving.
The first printed edition, an incunabula version, was published by the Veronese scholar Fra Giovanni Sulpitius in 1486. The Dominican friar Fra Giovanni Giocondo produced the first version illustrated with woodcuts in Venice in 1511. It had a thorough philosophical approach and superb illustrations. Translations into Italian were in circulation by the 1520s, such as the translation by Cesare Cesariano in Como in 1521. It was rapidly translated into other European languages – the first German version was published in 1528 – though, curiously, English-speakers had to wait until 1771 for a full translation of the first five volumes and 1791 for the whole thing. Sir Henry Wotton's 1624 version, The Elements of Architecture, was more of a free adaptation than a literal translation, while a 1692 translation was much abbreviated.
[edit] Impact
The rediscovery of Vitruvius' work had a profound influence on architects of the Renaissance, prompting the rise of the Neo-Classical style. Renaissance architects, such as Niccoli, Brunelleschi and Leon Battista Alberti, found in "De Architectura" their rationale for raising their branch of knowledge to a scientific discipline instead of an artisanal discipline.
The English architect Inigo Jones and the Frenchman Salomon De Caus were among the first to re-evaluate and implement those disciplines that Vitruvius considered a necessary element of architecture: arts and sciences based upon number and proportion. The 16th century architect Palladio considered Vitrivius his master and guide, and made some drawings based on Vitruvius' work before conceiving his own architectural precepts.
[edit] Reference works
- B. Baldwin: The Date, Identity, and Career of Vitruvius. In: Latomus 49 (1990), 425-34
- D. Rowland - T.N. Howe: Vitruvius. Ten Books on Architecture. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge 1999, ISBN 0-521-00292-3
