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Caryatides (From the edition of Vitruvius by Fra Giocondo,
Venice, 1511)
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Persians (From the edition of Vitruvius by Fra Giocondo,
Venice, 1511)
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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.
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
φυσιολογἱα)
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.
9. In theatres, likewise, there are the bronze vessels
(in Greek ἡχεια) 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 κλἱματα), 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
λὁγος ὁπτικὁς); 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.
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Construction of city
walls (From the edition of Vitruvius by Fra Giocondo, Venice, 1511)
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4. The towers should be set at intervals of not more than a bowshot apart, so
that in case of an assault upon any one of them, the enemy may be repulsed with
scorpiones and other means of hurling missiles from the towers to the right and
left. Opposite the inner side of every tower the wall should be interrupted for
a space the width of the tower, and have only a wooden flooring across, leading
to the interior of the tower but not firmly nailed. This is to be cut away by
the defenders in case the enemy gets possession of any portion of the wall; and
if the work is quickly
done, the enemy will not be able to make his way to
the other towers and the rest of the wall unless he is ready to face a fall.
5. The towers themselves must be either round or polygonal. Square towers are
sooner shattered by military engines, for the battering rams pound their angles
to pieces; but in the case of round towers they can do no harm, being engaged,
as it were, in driving wedges to their centre. The system of fortification by
wall and towers may be made safest by the addition of earthen ramparts, for
neither rams, nor mining, nor other engineering devices can do them any
harm.
6. The rampart form of defence, however, is not required in all places, but
only where outside the wall there is high ground from[24] which an assault on the fortifications
may be made over a level space lying between. In places of this kind we must
first make very wide, deep ditches; next sink foundations for a wall in the bed
of the ditch and build them thick enough to support an earth-work with ease.
7. Then within this substructure lay a second foundation, far enough inside
the first to leave ample room for cohorts in line of battle to take position on
the broad top of the rampart for its defence. Having laid these two foundations
at this distance from one another, build cross walls between them, uniting the
outer and inner foundation, in a comb-like arrangement, set like the teeth of a
saw. With this form of construction, the enormous burden of earth will be
distributed into small bodies, and will not lie with all its weight in one
crushing mass so as to thrust out the substructures.
8. With regard to the material of which the actual wall should be constructed
or finished, there can be no definite prescription, because we cannot obtain in
all places the supplies that we desire. Dimension stone, flint, rubble, burnt or
unburnt brick,—use them as you find them. For it is not every neighbourhood or
particular locality that can have a wall built of burnt brick like that at
Babylon, where there was plenty of asphalt to take the place of lime and sand,
and yet possibly each may be provided with materials of equal usefulness so that
out of them a faultless wall may be built to last forever.
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Chapter Six
The Directions of the Streets; with Remarks on the Winds
1. The town being fortified, the next step is the apportionment of house lots
within the wall and the laying out of streets and alleys with regard to climatic
conditions. They will be properly laid out if foresight is employed to exclude
the winds from the alleys. Cold winds are disagreeable, hot winds enervating,
moist winds
unhealthy. We must, therefore, avoid mistakes in this matter and beware of the
common experience of many communities. For example, Mytilene in the island of
Lesbos is a town built with magnificence and good taste, but its position shows
a lack of foresight. In that community when the wind is south, the people fall
ill; when it is northwest, it sets them coughing; with a north wind they do
indeed recover but cannot stand about in the alleys and streets, owing to the
severe cold.
2. Wind is a flowing wave of air, moving hither and thither indefinitely. It
is produced when heat meets moisture, the rush of heat generating a mighty
current of air. That this is the fact we may learn from bronze eolipiles, and
thus by means of a scientific invention discover a divine truth lurking in the
laws of the heavens. Eolipiles are hollow bronze balls, with a very small
opening through which water is poured into them. Set before a fire, not a breath
issues from them before they get warm; but as soon as they begin to boil, out
comes a strong blast due to the fire. Thus from this slight and very short
experiment we may understand and judge of the mighty and wonderful laws of the
heavens and the nature of winds.
3. By shutting out the winds from our dwellings, therefore, we shall not only
make the place healthful for people who are well, but also in the case of
diseases due perhaps to unfavourable situations elsewhere, the patients, who in
other healthy places might be cured by a different form of treatment, will here
be more quickly cured by the mildness that comes from the shutting out of the
winds. The diseases which are hard to cure in neighbourhoods such as those to
which I have referred above are catarrh, hoarseness, coughs, pleurisy,
consumption, spitting of blood, and all others that are cured not by lowering
the system but by building it up. They are hard to cure, first, because they are
originally due to chills; secondly, because the patient's system being already
exhausted by disease, the air there, which is in constant agitation owing to
winds and therefore deteriorated, takes all the sap of life out of their
diseased bodies and leaves them more meagre every day. On the other hand, a mild, thick
air, without draughts and not constantly blowing back and forth, builds up their
frames by its unwavering steadiness, and so strengthens and restores people who
are afflicted with these diseases.
4. Some have held that there are only four winds: Solanus from due east;
Auster from the south; Favonius from due west; Septentrio from the north. But
more careful investigators tell us that there are eight. Chief among such was
Andronicus of Cyrrhus who in proof built the marble octagonal tower in Athens.
On the several sides of the octagon he executed reliefs representing the several
winds, each facing the point from which it blows; and on top of the tower he set
a conical shaped piece of marble and on this a bronze Triton with a rod
outstretched in its right hand. It was so contrived as to go round with the
wind, always stopping to face the breeze and holding its rod as a pointer
directly over the representation of the wind that was blowing.
5. Thus Eurus is placed to the southeast between Solanus and Auster: Africus
to the southwest between Auster and Favonius; Caurus, or, as many call it,
Corus, between Favonius and Septentrio; and Aquilo between Septentrio and
Solanus. Such, then, appears to have been his device, including the numbers and
names of the wind and indicating the directions from which particular winds
blow. These facts being thus determined, to find the directions and quarters of
the winds your method of procedure should be as follows.
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The Tower of the Winds at Athens
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6. In the middle of the city place a marble amussium, laying it true by the
level, or else let the spot be made so true by means of rule and level that no
amussium is necessary. In the very centre of that spot set up a bronze gnomon or
"shadow tracker" (in Greek σκιαθἡρας). At about the fifth hour in the morning,
take the end of the shadow cast by this gnomon, and mark it with a point. Then,
opening your compasses to this point which marks the length of the gnomon's
shadow, describe a circle from the centre. In the afternoon watch the shadow of
your gnomon as it lengthens, and when it once more touches the circumference of
this circle and
the shadow in the afternoon is equal in length to that of the morning, mark it
with a point.
7. From these two points describe with your compasses intersecting arcs, and
through their intersection and the centre let a line be drawn to the
circumference of the circle to give us the quarters of south and north. Then,
using a sixteenth part of the entire circumference of the circle as a diameter,
describe a circle with its centre on the line to the south, at the point where
it crosses the circumference, and put points to the right and left on the
circumference on the south side, repeating the process on the north side. From
the four points thus obtained draw lines intersecting the centre from one side
of the circumference to the other. Thus we shall have an eighth part of the
circumference set out for Auster and another for Septentrio. The rest of the
entire circumference is then to be divided into three equal parts on each side,
and thus we have designed a figure equally apportioned among the eight winds.
Then let the directions of your streets and alleys be laid down on the lines of
division between the quarters of two winds.
8. On this principle of arrangement the disagreeable force of the winds will
be shut out from dwellings and lines of houses. For if the streets run full in
the face of the winds, their constant blasts rushing in from the open country,
and then confined by narrow alleys, will sweep through them with great violence.
The lines of houses must therefore be directed away from the quarters from which
the winds blow, so that as they come in they may strike against the angles of
the blocks and their force thus be broken and dispersed.
9. Those who know names for very many winds will perhaps be surprised at our
setting forth that there are only eight. Remembering, however, that Eratosthenes
of Cyrene, employing mathematical theories and geometrical methods, discovered
from the course of the sun, the shadows cast by an equinoctial gnomon, and the
inclination of the heaven that the circumference of the earth is two hundred and
fifty-two thousand stadia, that is, thirty-one
one million five hundred thousand paces, and
observing that an eighth part of this, occupied by a wind, is three million nine
hundred and thirty-seven thousand five hundred paces, they should not be
surprised to find that a single wind, ranging over so wide a field, is subject
to shifts this way and that, leading to a variety of breezes.
10. So we often have Leuconotus and Altanus blowing respectively to the right
and left of Auster; Libonotus and Subvesperus to the right and left of Africus;
Argestes, and at certain periods the Etesiae, on either side of Favonius;
Circias and Corus on the sides of Caurus; Thracias and Gallicus on either side
of Septentrio; Supernas and Caecias to the right and left of Aquilo; Carbas, and
at a certain period the Ornithiae, on either side of Solanus; while Eurocircias
and Volturnus blow on the flanks of Eurus which is between them. There are also
many other names for winds derived from localities or from the squalls which
sweep from rivers or down mountains.
11. Then, too, there are the breezes of early morning; for the sun on
emerging from beneath the earth strikes humid air as he returns, and as he goes
climbing up the sky he spreads it out before him, extracting breezes from the
vapour that was there before the dawn. Those that still blow on after sunrise
are classed with Eurus, and hence appears to come the Greek
name ευρος as the
child of the breezes, and the word for
"to-morrow," αὑριον,
named from the early
morning breezes. Some people do indeed say that Eratosthenes could not have
inferred the true measure of the earth. Whether true or untrue, it cannot affect
the truth of what I have written on the fixing of the quarters from which the
different winds blow.
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Diagram of the winds (from the edition of vitruvius by Fra
Giocondo, Venice, 1511)
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12. If he was wrong, the only result will be that the individual winds may
blow, not with the scope expected from his measurement, but with powers either
more or less widely extended. For the readier understanding of these topics,
since I have treated them with brevity, it has seemed best to me to give two
figures, or, as the Greeks say, σχἡματα, at
the end of this book: one designed to show the
precise quarters from which the winds arise; the other, how by turning the
directions of the rows of houses and the streets away from their full force, we
may avoid unhealthy blasts. Let A be the centre of a plane surface, and B the
point to which the shadow of the gnomon reaches in the morning. Taking A as the
centre, open the compasses to the point B, which marks the shadow, and describe
a circle. Put the gnomon back where it was before and wait for the shadow to
lessen and grow again until in the afternoon it is equal to its length in the
morning, touching the circumference at the point C. Then from the
points B and C describe
with the compasses two arcs intersecting at D. Next draw a line from the point
of intersection D through the centre of the circle to the circumference and call
it E F. This line will show where the south and north lie.
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13. Then find with the compasses a sixteenth part of the entire
circumference; then centre the compasses on the point E where
the line to the south touches the circumference, and set off the
points G and H to the right and left of E. Likewise on the north side, centre
the compasses on the circumference at the point F on the line to the north, and
set off the points I and K to the right and left; then draw lines through the
centre from G to K and from H to I. Thus the space from G to H will belong to
Auster and the south, and the space from I to K will be that of Septentrio. The
rest of the circumference is to be divided equally into three parts on the right
and three on the left, those to the east at the points L and M, those to the
west at the points N and O. Finally, intersecting lines are to be drawn from M
to O and from L to N. Thus we shall have the circumference divided into eight
equal spaces for the winds. The figure being finished, we shall have at the
eight different divisions, beginning at the south, the letter G between Eurus
and Auster, H between Auster and Africus, N between Africus and Favonius, O
between Favonius and Caurus, K between Caurus and Septentrio, I between
Septentrio and Aquilo, L between Aquilo and Solanus, and M between Solanus and
Eurus. This done, apply a gnomon to these eight divisions and thus fix the
directions of the different alleys.
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