The Ten Books on Architecture

Summary

The Ten Books on Architecture, known in Latin as De Architectura, is the only complete treatise on architecture to survive from classical antiquity. It was written by the Roman architect and engineer Vitruvius in the reign of Augustus, to whom it is dedicated, probably between about 30 and 15 BC. This text is the translation by Morris Hicky Morgan of Harvard University, completed after his death and published in 1914, with illustrations described in the text. Vitruvius begins with the education of the architect, who should know drawing, geometry, history, philosophy, music, medicine, law and astronomy, since he must judge the work of all the other arts. He sets out the basic principles of design, including order, arrangement, proportion, symmetry and propriety, and states that buildings must be made with durability, convenience and beauty. Book One also discusses the siting of cities, healthy locations, walls and the directions of the winds. Book Two tells how human beings first built shelters and describes building materials, such as bricks, lime, sand, the volcanic ash called pozzolana, stone and timber. Books Three and Four deal with temples and the classical orders, Doric, Ionic and Corinthian, relating their proportions to those of the human body, which with outstretched limbs fits within a circle and a square. Book Five covers public buildings such as forums, basilicas, theatres with their acoustics and harmonics, baths and harbours. Book Six treats private houses and their adaptation to climate, Book Seven floors, stucco and colours, and Book Eight water, how to find it, test it and carry it by aqueducts. Book Nine turns to astronomy and sundials and tells the famous story of Archimedes discovering, in his bath, how to test the purity of a gold crown. Book Ten describes machines, hoisting engines, water wheels, pumps, water organs and military engines such as catapults and siege machines. The book deeply influenced Renaissance architects.

Top Lessons

• Firmness, commodity, delight

  Vitruvius's triad of durability, convenience and beauty still guides architecture.

• The educated architect

  He argues that an architect must know many fields.

• Proportion and the body

  Vitruvius connects architectural proportion with human proportion.

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