He states that all buildings should have three attributes:firmitas,utilitas, andvenustas ("strength", "utility", and "beauty"),[3] principles reflected in muchAncient Roman architecture. His discussion of perfect proportion in architecture and the human body led to the famousRenaissance drawing of theVitruvian Man byLeonardo da Vinci.
Little is known about Vitruvius' life, but by his own description[4] he served as an artilleryman, the third class of arms in the Roman military offices. He probably served as a senior officer of artillery in charge ofdoctores ballistarum (artillery experts) andlibratores who actually operated the machines.[5] As anarmy engineer he specialized in the construction ofballista andscorpioartillerywar machines forsieges. It is possible that Vitruvius served withJulius Caesar's chief engineerLucius Cornelius Balbus.
Little is known about Vitruvius' life. Most inferences about him are extracted from his only surviving workDe Architectura. His full name is sometimes given as "Marcus Vitruvius Pollio", but both the first and last names are uncertain.[7]Marcus Cetius Faventinus writes of "Vitruvius Polio aliique auctores"; this can be read as "Vitruvius Polio, and others" or, less likely, as "Vitruvius, Polio, and others". An inscription in Verona, which names aLucius Vitruvius Cordo, and an inscription fromThilbilis in North Africa, which names aMarcus Vitruvius Mamurra have been suggested as evidence that Vitruvius andMamurra (who was a militarypraefectus fabrum underJulius Caesar) were from the same family;[8] or were even the same individual. Neither association, however, is borne out byDe Architectura (which Vitruvius dedicated toAugustus), nor by the little that is known of Mamurra.
Likely born a free Roman citizen, by his own account Vitruvius served in theRoman army under Caesar with the otherwise poorly identified Marcus Aurelius, Publius Minidius, and Gnaeus Cornelius. These names vary depending on the edition ofDe architectura. Publius Minidius is also written as Publius Numidicus and Publius Numidius, speculated as the same Publius Numisius inscribed on theRoman Theatre at Heraclea.[10]
The locations where he served can be reconstructed from, for example, descriptions of the building methods of various "foreign tribes". Although he describes places throughoutDe Architectura, he does not say he was present. His service likely includednorth Africa,Hispania,Gaul (includingAquitaine), andPontus.
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 byFlavius Vegetius Renatus inThe Military Institutions of the Romans:
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,[13] battles andsieges occurred. He is the only source for the siege of Larignum in 56 BC.[14] Of the battlegrounds of theGallic War there are references to:
The siege and massacre of the 40,000 residents atAvaricum 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 circumvallation andBattle 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.
In his work describing the construction of military installations, he also commented on themiasma 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]
Frontinus mentions Vitruvius in connection with the standard sizes ofpipes:[20] probably the role for which he was most widely respected in Roman times. He is often credited as father ofarchitectural acoustics for describing the technique ofecheas placement in theaters.[21] The only building, however, that we know Vitruvius to have worked on is one he tells us about,[22] abasilica completed in 19 BC.[23] It was built at Fanum Fortunae, now the modern town ofFano. TheBasilica di Fano (to give the building its Italian name) has disappeared so completely that its very site is a matter of conjecture, although various attempts have been made to visualise it.[24] The early Christian practice of converting Romanbasilicae (public buildings) into cathedrals implies thebasilica may be incorporated into the RomanesqueFano Cathedral.
In later years the emperor Augustus, through his sisterOctavia Minor, sponsored Vitruvius, entitling him with what may have been a pension to guarantee financial independence.[4].
WhetherDe 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 bookDe 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]
Vitruvius is the author ofDe architectura, libri decem, known today asThe Ten Books on Architecture,[27] a treatise written inLatin on architecture, dedicated to the emperor Augustus. In the preface of Book I, Vitruvius dedicates his writings to giving personal knowledge of the quality of buildings to the emperor. Likely Vitruvius is referring toMarcus Agrippa's campaign of public repairs and improvements. This work is the only surviving major book on architecture fromclassical antiquity. According to Petri Liukkonen, this text "influenced deeply from theEarly Renaissance onwards artists, thinkers, and architects, among themLeon Battista Alberti (1404–1472),Leonardo da Vinci (1452–1519), andMichelangelo (1475–1564)."[17] The next major book on architecture,Alberti's reformulation ofTen Books, was not written until 1452.
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 theParthenon alone. ToA. W. Lawrence, Vitruvius "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 bookDe architectura that a structure must exhibit the three qualities offirmitatis, utilitatis, venustatis – that is, stability, utility, and beauty. These are sometimes termed the Vitruvian virtues or theVitruvian 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 andCorinthian. 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 hisVitruvian Man, as drawn later byLeonardo 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 aboutclimate in relation to housing architecture and how to choose locations for cities.[29][30]
Vitruvius designed and supervised the construction of thisbasilica inFano (reconstruction). However, many of the other things he did would not now be considered the realm of architecture[clarification needed]
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.Roman architects practised a wide variety of disciplines; in modern terms they would also be described as landscape architects, civil engineers, military engineers, structural engineers, surveyors, artists, andcraftsmen combined. Etymologically the word architect derives from Greek words meaning 'master' and 'builder'. The first of theTen Books deals with many subjects which are now within the scope oflandscape architecture.
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 ofsundials andwater clocks;[32] and the design and use of machines in construction and warfare.[33][34] He further divides building into public and private. Public building includes city planning, public security structures such as walls, gates and towers; the convenient placing of public facilities such as theatres, forums and markets, baths, roads and pavings; and the construction and position of shrines and temples for religious use.[31] Later books are devoted to the understanding, design and construction of each of these.
"Vitruvian Man", illustration in the edition ofDe architectura by Vitruvius; illustrated edition byCesare Cesariano (1521)Vitruvian Man byLeonardo da Vinci, an illustration of the human body inscribed in the circle and the square derived from a passage about geometry and human proportions in Vitruvius' writings
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]
In the introduction to book seven, Vitruvius goes to great lengths to present why he is qualified to writeDe 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 workslost, while other, less deserving political characters of history will be forever remembered with pageantry.
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
Battle of Thapsus as depicted in an engraving afterAndrea PalladioThe interior of thePantheon (from an 18th-century painting byPanini). Although built after Vitruvius' death, its excellent state of preservation makes it of great importance to those interested in Vitruvian architecture
The surviving ruins of Roman antiquity, theRoman Forum, temples, theatres, triumphal arches and their reliefs and statues offered visual examples of the descriptions in the Vitruvian text. Printed and illustrated editions ofDe Architectura inspiredRenaissance,Baroque andNeoclassical architecture.Filippo Brunelleschi, for example, invented a new type ofhoist to lift the large stones for the dome of the cathedral inFlorence and was inspired byDe Architectura as well as surviving Roman monuments such as thePantheon and theBaths of Diocletian.
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 thewater mills atBarbegal in France. The other major source of information is theNaturalis Historia compiled byPliny the Elder much later inc. 75 AD.
The work is important for its descriptions of the many different machines used for engineering structures such ashoists,cranes andpulleys, as well as war machines such ascatapults,ballistae, andsiege engines. As a practising engineer, Vitruvius must be speaking from personal experience rather than simply describing the works of others. He also describes the construction ofsundials andwater clocks, and the use of anaeolipile (the firststeam engine) as an experiment to demonstrate the nature of atmospheric air movements (wind).
His description ofaqueduct construction includes the way they are surveyed, and the careful choice of materials needed, althoughFrontinus (a general who was appointed in the late 1st century AD to administer the many aqueducts of Rome), writing a century later, gives much more detail of the practical problems involved in their construction and maintenance. Surely Vitruvius' book would have been of great assistance in this. Vitruvius was writing in the 1st century BC when many of the finestRoman aqueducts were built, and survive to this day, such as those atSegovia and thePont du Gard. The use of theinverted siphon is described in detail, together with the problems of high pressures developed in the pipe at the base of the siphon, a practical problem with which he seems to be acquainted.
He describes many differentconstruction materials used for a wide variety of different structures, as well as such details asstucco painting. Concrete andlime receive in-depth descriptions.
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 creditsArchimedes with the discovery of themass-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 ofEureka!
He describes the construction ofArchimedes' screw in Chapter X (without mentioning Archimedes by name). It was a device widely used for raising water to irrigate fields and drain mines. Other lifting machines he mentions include the endless chain of buckets and thereverse overshot water-wheel. Remains of the water wheels used for lifting water were discovered when old mines were re-opened atRio Tinto in Spain,Rosia Montana in Romania andDolaucothi in westWales.[citation needed] The Rio Tinto wheel is now shown in theBritish Museum, and the Dolaucothi specimen in theNational Museum of Wales.
That he must have been well practised in surveying is shown by his descriptions of surveying instruments, especially the water level orchorobates, which he compares favourably with thegroma, a device usingplumb lines. They were essential in all building operations, but especially in aqueduct construction, where a uniform gradient was important to the provision of a regular supply of water without damage to the walls of the channel. He also developed one of the firstodometers, consisting of a wheel of known circumference that dropped a pebble into a container on every rotation.
Ruins of thehypocaust under the floor of a Roman villa. The part under theexedra is covered.
He describes the many innovations made in building design to improve the living conditions of the inhabitants. Foremost among them is the development of thehypocaust, a type ofcentral heating where hot air developed by a fire was channelled under the floor and inside the walls ofpublic baths andvillas. He gives explicit instructions how to design such buildings so thatfuel efficiency is maximised, so that for example, thecaldarium is next to thetepidarium followed by thefrigidarium. He also advises on using a type of regulator to control the heat in the hot rooms, abronze disc set into the roof under a circular aperture which could be raised or lowered by apulley to adjust the ventilation. Although he does not suggest it himself, it is likely that his dewatering devices such as thereverse overshot water-wheel were used in the larger baths to lift water to header tanks at the top of the largerthermae, such as theBaths of Diocletian. The one which was used in Bath of Caracalla for grinding flour.
^Kruft, Hanno-Walter.A History of Architectural Theory from Vitruvius to the Present (New York, Princeton Architectural Press: 1994).
^The Oxford handbook of Greek and Roman art and architecture. Marconi, Clemente, 1966–. New York. 2015.ISBN978-0-19-978330-4.OCLC881386276.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link) CS1 maint: others (link)
^Krinsky, Carol Herselle (1967). "Seventy-Eight Vitruvius Manuscripts".Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes.30:36–70.doi:10.2307/750736.JSTOR750736.S2CID195019013.
^John Oksanish,Vitruvian Man: Rome under Construction, Oxford UP (2019), p. 33
^Moore, Richard E. M. (January 1968). "A Newly Observed Stratum in Roman Floor Mosaics".American Journal of Archaeology.72 (1). Archaeological Institute of America:57–68.doi:10.2307/501823.JSTOR501823.S2CID191364921.
^Niccolò Marcello VenutiDescription 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]
^Vitruvius (1914).The Ten Books on Architecture. Translated by Morgan, Morris Hicky. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press.ISBN978-0-486-20645-5. Retrieved26 February 2021 – via Project Gutenberg.{{cite book}}:ISBN / Date incompatibility (help)
^De Aquis, I.25(in Latin) ebook of work also known asDe aquaeductu, accessed August 2008
^Reed Business Information (21 November 1974)."New Scientist".New Scientist Careers Guide: The Employer Contacts Book for Scientists. Reed Business Information: 552–.ISSN0262-4079. Retrieved6 May 2013.{{cite journal}}:|author= has generic name (help)[permanent dead link]
^De Arch., Book V.i.6)(in Latin) but with link to English translation, accessed August 2008
^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
^Vitruvius, Pollio (1914).The Ten Books on Architecture. Translated by Morgan, Morris Hicky. Illustrations prepared by Herbert Langford Warren. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.
^Granger, Frank (1931).Vitruvius: On Architecture. Harvard University Press. p. 368.ISBN0674992776.{{cite book}}:ISBN / Date incompatibility (help)
^Rowland, Ingrid (2001).Vitruvius: 'Ten Books on Architecture'. Cambridge University Press. p. 352.ISBN0521002923.
^Smith, Thoma Granger (2004).Vitruvius on Architecture. The Monacelli Press. p. 224.ISBN1885254989.
^Hodge, Trevor, A. (October 1981). "Vitruvius, Lead Pipes and Lead Poisoning".American Journal of Archaeology.85 (4). Archaeological Institute of America:486–491.doi:10.2307/504874.JSTOR504874.S2CID193094209.{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
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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". InThe 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". InAuthorial 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". InGender, Domesticity and the Age of Augustus: Inventing Private Life. ByKristina Milnor, 94–139. Oxford: Oxford Univ. Press.
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Rowland, Ingrid D. 2014. "Vitruvius and His Influence". InA Companion to Roman Architecture. Edited by Roger B. Ulrich and Caroline K. Quenemoen, 412–425. Malden, MA, and Oxford: Blackwell.
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