Vitruvius

Vitruvius (Right)
Neither natural ability without instruction nor instruction without natural ability can make the perfect artist.

Marcus Vitruvius Pollio (born ca. 80/70 BC?; died ca. 25 BC) was a Roman writer, architect and engineer, active in the 1st century BC.

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The Ten Books On Architecture

(Morris Hicky Morgan translation (1914) unless other-wise stated...)

• Owing to this favor I need to have no fear of want to the end of my life, and being thus laid under obligation I began to write this work for you, because I saw that you have built and are now building extensively, and that in future also you will take care that our public and private buildings shall be worthy to go down to posterity by the side of your other splendid achievements.
  • Book I, Preface, Sec. 3 (dedication to Imperator Caesar)

• Neither natural ability without instruction nor instruction without natural ability can make the perfect artist.
  • Book I, Chapter I, Sec. 3

• An architect ought to be an educated man so as to leave a more lasting remembrance in his treatises.
  • Book I, Chapter I, Sec. 4

• 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.
  • Book I, Chapter I, Sec. 7

• Consequently, since this study is 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.
  • Book I, Chapter I, Sec. 11

Architecture depends on Order, Arrangement, Eurythmy, Symmetry, Propriety, and Economy.

• 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 heart, that I have striven to write this work, but as an architect who has had only a dip into those studies.
  • Book I, Chapter I, Sec. 17

• Architecture depends on Order, Arrangement, Eurythmy, Symmetry, Propriety, and Economy.
  • Book I, Chapter II, Sec. 1

• Reflexion is careful and laborious thought, and watchful attention directed to the agreeable effect of one's plan. Invention, on the other hand, is the solving of intricate problems and the discovery of new principles by means of brilliancy and versatility.
  • Book I, Chapter II, Sec. 2

• Economy denotes the the proper management of materials and of site, as well as a thrifty balancing of cost and common sense in the construction of works.
  • Book I, Chapter II, Sec. 8

• There are three departments of architecture: the art of building, the making of time-pieces, and the construction of machinery.
  • Book I, Chapter III, Sec. 1

• They never begin to to build defensive works in a place until after they had made many such trials and satisfied themselves that good water and food had made the liver sound and firm. If they continued to find it abnormal, they argued from this that the food and water supply found in such a place would be just as unhealthy for man, and so they moved away and changed to another neighbourhood, healthfulness being their chief object.
  • Book I, Chapter IV, Sec. 9

• The thickness of the wall should, in my opinion, be such that armed men meeting on top of it may pass one another without interference.
  • Book I, Chapter V, Sec. 3

• Dimension stone, flint, rubble, burnt or unburnt brick, - use them as you find them.
  • Book I, Chapter V, Sec. 8

The third order, called Corinthian, is an imitation of the slenderness of a maiden;

• 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 is the fact we may learn from bronze eolipiles, and thus by means of a scientific invention discover a divine truth in the laws of the heavens.
  • Book I, Chapter VI, Sec. 2

• Some have held that there are only four winds: Solanus from the east; Auster from the south; Favonius from due west; Septentrio from the north. But more careful investigators tell us that there are eight.
  • Book I, Chapter VI, Sec. 4

• But as for me, Emperor, nature has not given me stature, age has marred my face, and my strength is impaired by ill health. Therefore, since these advantages fail me, I shall win your approval, as I hope, by the help of my knowledge and my writings.
  • Book II, Introduction, Sec. 4

• Therefore it was the discovery of fire that originally gave rise to the coming together of men, to the deliberate assembly, and to social intercourse.
  • Book II, Chapter I, Sec.2

• For there is no kind of material, no body, and no thing that can be produced or conceived of, which is not made up of elementary particles; and nature does not admit of a truthful exploration in accordance with the doctrines of the physicists without an accurate demonstration of the primary causes of things, showing how and why they are as they are.
  • Book II, Chapter I, Sec. 9

• For things are produced in accordance with the will of nature; not to suit man's pleasure, but as it were by a chance distribution.
  • Book II, Chapter VI, Sec. 5

• Let the stone be taken from the quarry two years before building is to begin, and not in winter, but in summer. Then let it lie exposed in an open place. Such stone as been damaged by the two years of exposure should be used in the foundations. The rest, which remains unhurt, has passed the test of nature and will endure in those parts of the building which are above ground.
  • Book II, Chapter VII, Sec. 5

• One who in accordance with these notes will take pains in selecting his method of construction, may count upon having something that will last.
  • Book II, Chapter VIII, Sec. 8

• 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.
  • Book III, Introduction, Sec. 1

• 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 a pretence.
  • Book III, Introduction, Sec. 3

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 centered at his navel, the fingers and toes of his two hands and feet will touch the circumference of a circle described therefrom.

• The design of a temple depends on symmetry, the principles of which must be most carefully observed by the architect.
  • Book III, Chapter I, Sec. 1

• 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 centered at his navel, the fingers and toes of his two hands and feet will touch the circumference of a circle described therefrom.
  • Book III, Chapter I, Sec. 3

• These rules for symmetry were established by Hermogenes, who was also the first to devise the principal of the pseudodipteral octastyle.
  • Book III, Chapter III, Sec. 8

• Then, too, the columns at the corners should be made thicker than the others by a fiftieth of their own diameter, because they are sharply outlined by the unobstructed air around them, and seem to the beholder more slender than they are.
  • Book III, Chapter III, Sec. 11

• For the eye is always in search of beauty, and if we do not gratify its desire for pleasure by a proportionate enlargement in these measures, and thus make compensation for ocular deception, a clumsy and awkward appearance will be presented to the beholder.
  • Book III, Chapter III, Sec. 13

• The steps in front must be arranged so that there shall always be an odd number of them; for thus the right foot, with which one mounts the first step, will also be the first to reach the level of the temple itself.
  • Book III, Chapter IV, Sec. 4

• Hence, as the line of sight to the upper part is the longer, it makes that part look as if it were leaning back. But when the members are inclined to the front, as described above, they will seem the beholder to be plumb and perpendicular.
  • Book III, Chapter V, Sec. 13

• I have therefore thought that it would be a worthy and very useful thing to reduce the whole of this great art to a complete and orderly form of presentation, and then in different books to lay down and explain the required characteristics of different departments.
  • Book IV, Introduction, Sec. 1

• The third order, called Corinthian, is an imitation of the slenderness of a maiden; for the outlines and limbs of maidens, being more slender on account of their tender years, admit of prettier effects in the way of adornment.
  • Book IV, Chapter I, Sec. 8

• 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.
  • Book IV, Chapter VIII, Sec. 6

• 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.
  • Book IV, Chapter IX, Sec. 1

• 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.
  • Book V, Introduction, Sec. 3

• 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.
  • Book V, Chapter I, Sec. 4

Voice is a flowing breath of air, perceptible to the hearing by contact.

• 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.
  • Book V, Chapter I, Sec. 6

• Voice is a flowing breath of air, perceptible to the hearing by contact.
  • Book V, Chapter IV, Sec. 6

• In accordance with the foregoing investigations on mathematical principles, let bronze vessels be made, proportionate to the size of the theatre, and let them be so fashioned that, when touched, they may produce with one another the notes of the fourth, the fifth, and so on up the double octave.
  • Book V, Chapter V, Sec. 1

• On this principle of arrangement, the voice, uttered from the stage as from a centre, and spreading and striking against the cavities of the different vessels, as it comes in contact with them, will be increased in clearness of sound, and will wake an haroniuos note in umison with itself.
  • Book V, Chapter V, Sec. 3

• It was left by Aristoxenus, who with great ability and labour classified and arranged in it the different modes. In accordance with it, and by giving heed to these theories, one can easily bring a theatre to perfection, from the point of view of the nature of the voice, so as to give pleasure to the audience.
  • Book V, Chapter V, Sec. 6

• These are, of course, some things which, for utility's sake, must be made of the same size in a small theatre, and a large one: such as the steps, curved cross-aisles, their parapets, the passages, stairways, stages, tribunals, and any other things which occur that make it necessary to give up symmetry so as not to interfere with utility.
  • Book V, Chapter VI, Sec. 7

• When his companions wished to return to their country, and asked him what message he wished them to carry home, he bade them say this: that children ought to be provided with property and resources of a kind that could swim with them even out of a shipwreck.
  • Book VI, Introduction, Sec. 1

• All the gifts which fortune bestows she can easily take away; but education, when combined with intelligence, never fails, but abides steadily on to the very end of life.
  • Book VI, Introduction, Sec. 3

• If our designs for private houses are to be correct, we must at the outset take note of the countries and climates in which they are built.
  • Book VI, Chapter I, Sec. 1

• Hence, men that are born in the north are rendered over-timid and weak by fever, but their wealth of blood enables them to stand up against the sword without timidity.
  • Book VI, Chapter I, Sec. 4

• There is nothing to which an architect should devote more thought than to the exact proportions of his building with reference to a certain part selected as the standard.
  • Book VI, Chapter II, Sec. 1

• Bedrooms and libraries ought to have an eastern exposure, because their purposes require the morning light, and also because books in such libraries will not decay.
  • Book VI, Chapter IV, Sec. 1

• Even peasants wholly without knowledge of the quarters of the sky believe that oxen ought to face only in the direction of the sunrise.
  • Book VI, Chapter VI, Sec. 1

" In fact, all kinds of men, and not merely architects, can recognize a good piece of work,"

• When it appears that a work has been carried out sumptuously, the owner will be the person to be praised for the great outlay which ha has authorized; when delicately, the master workmen will be approved for his execution; but when proportions and symmetry lend it an imposing effect, then the glory of it will belong to the architect.
  • Book VI, Chapter VIII, Sec. 9

• " In fact, all kinds of men, and not merely architects, can recognize a good piece of work,"
  • Book VI, Chapter VIII, Sec. 10

• It was a wise and useful provision of the ancients to transmit their thoughts to posterity by recording them in treatises, so that they should not be lost, but, being developed in succeeding generations through publications in books, should gradually attain in later times, to the highest refinement of learning.
  • Book VII, Introduction, Sec. 1

• " nothing suffers annihilation, but at dissolution there is a change, and things fall back to the essential element in which they were before. "
  • Book VII, Introduction, Sec. 1

• In order that the mortar in the joints may not suffer from frosts, drench it with oil-dregs every year before winter begins. Thus treated, it will not let the hoarfrost enter it.
  • Book VII, Chapter I, Sec. 6

• The fact is that pictures which are unlike reality ought not be approved, and even if they are technically fine, this is no reason why they should offhand be judged to be correct, if their subject is lacking in the principles of reality carried out with no violations.
  • Book VII, Chapter V, Sec. 4

• " the gravity of a substance depends not on the amount of its weight, but on its nature. "
  • Book VII, Chapter VIII, Sec. 3

• Burn shavings and splinters of pitch pine, and when they turn to charcoal, put them out, and pound them into mortar with size. This will make a pretty black for fresco painting.
  • Book VII, Chapter X, Sec. 3

• They make a fine purple colour by treating bilberry in the same way and mixing it with milk.
  • Book VII, Chapter XIV, Sec. 2

• Every hot spring has healing properties because it has been boiled with foreign substances, and thus acquires a new useful quality.
  • Book VII, Chapter III, Sec. 4

• Copious springs are found where there are mines of gold, silver, iron, copper, lead, and the like, but they are very harmful.
  • Book VII, Chapter III, Sec. 5

• At Jaffa in Syria and among the Nomads in Arabia, are lakes of enormous size that yield very large masses of asphalt, which are carried off by the inhabitants thereabouts.
  • Book VII, Chapter III, Sec. 8

• Some springs are acid, as at Lyncestus and in Italy in the Velian country, at Teano in Campania, and in many other places. These when used in drinks have the power of breaking up stones in the bladder, which form in the human body.
  • Book VII, Chapter III, Sec. 17

• There are also in some places springs which have the peculiarity of giving fine singing voices to the natives, as at Tarsus in Magnesia and in other countries of that kind.
  • Book VII, Chapter III, Sec. 24

• " water from clay pipes is much more wholesome than that which is conducted through lead pipes, because lead is found to be harmful for the reason that white lead is derived from it, and this is said to be hurtful to the human system. "
  • Book VIII, Chapter VI, Sec. 10

• Hence, water ought by no means to be conducted in lead pipes, if we want to have it wholesome. That the taste is better when it comes from clay pipes may be proved by everyday life, for though our tables are loaded with silver vessels, yet everybody uses earthenware for the sake of purity of taste.
  • Book VIII, Chapter VI, Sec. 11

• To guard against this, we must proceed as follows. Let down a lighted lamp, and if it keeps burning, a man may make the descent without danger.
  • Book VIII, Chapter VI, Sec. 13

• Noting all these things with the great delight which learning gives, we cannot but be stirred by these discoveries when we reflect upon the influence of them one by one.
  • Book IX, Introduction, Sec. 14

The word "universe" means the general assemblage of all nature, and it also means the heaven that is made up of the constellations and the courses of the stars.

• In a word, the opinions of learned authors, though their bodily forms are absent, gain strength as time time goes on, and, when taking part in councils and discussions, have greater weight than those of any living men.
  • Book IX, Introduction, Sec. 17

• The word "universe" means the general assemblage of all nature, and it also means the heaven that is made up of the constellations and the courses of the stars.
  • Book IX, Chapter I, Sec. 2

• The moon makes her circuit of the heaven in twenty-eight days plus about an hour, and with her return to the sign from which she set forth, completes a lunar month.
  • Book IX, Chapter I, Sec. 5

• If then, at this great distance, our human vision can discern that sight, why, pray, are we to think that the divine splendor of the stars can be cast into darkness?
  • Book IX, Chapter I, Sec. 12

• It is no secret that the moon has no light of her own, but is, as it were, a mirror, receiving brightness from the influence of the sun.
  • Book IX, Chapter II, Sec. 3

• The difference between "machines" and "engines" is obviously this, that machines need more workmen and greater power to make them take effect, as for instance ballistae and the beams of presses. Engines, on the other hand, accomplish their purpose at the intelligent touch of a single workman,...
  • Book X, Chapter I, Sec. 3

• All machinery is derived from nature, and is founded on the teaching and instruction of the revolution of the firmament.
  • Book X, Chapter I, Sec. 4

• Next I must tell about the machine of Ctesibius, which raises water to a height.
  • Book X, Chapter VII, Sec. 1

• For siege works against bold and venturesome men should be constructed on one plan, on another against cautious men, and on still another against the cowardly.
  • Book X, Chapter XVI, Sec. 1

• "For not all things are practicable on identical principles,"
  • Book X, Chapter XVI, Sec. 5

• Thus by such victory, not by machines but in oppositions to the principle to the principles of machines, has the freedom of states been preserved by the cunning of architects.
  • Book X, Chapter XVI, Sec. 12

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• A harmonious design requires that nothing be added or taken away.

• Architects should be educated, skillful with the pencil, instructed in geometry, know much history, have followed the philosophers with attention, understand music, have some knowledge of medicine, know the opinions of the jurists, and be acquainted with astronomy and the theory of the heavens.

• Building well has three conditions: firmness, commodity, and delight.

• Pictures should not be given approbation which are not likenesses of reality; even if they are refined creations executed with artistic skill.