 Book 4, chapters 6-9 of Ten Books on Architecture, this LibriVox recording is in the public domain, recording by Friedrich Karlsson, Ten Books on Architecture by Vitruvius, translated by Morris Hickey Morgan. Chapter 6 The Doorways of Temples 1. For the doorways of temples and their casings, the rules are as follows. First determining of what styles they are to be. The styles of portals are Doric, Ionic, and Attic. In the Doric, the symmetrical proportions are distinguished by the following rules. 2. Let the top of the corona, which is laid above the casing, be on a level with the tops of the capitals of the columns in the pronouns. 3. The aperture of the doorway should be determined by dividing the height of the temple from floor to cupboard ceiling into three and a half parts and letting two and a half thereof constitute the height of the aperture of the folding doors. 4. Let this in turn be divided into 12 parts and let five and a half of these form the width of the bottom of the aperture. 5. At the top, this width should be diminished if the aperture is 16 feet in height by one third the width of the door jam. 6. If the aperture is from 16 to 25 feet, let the upper part of it be diminished by one quarter of the jam. 7. If from 25 to 30 feet, let the top be diminished by one eighth of the jam. Other and higher apertures should as it seems have their sides perpendicular. 2. Further, the jams themselves should be diminished at the top by one fourteenth of their width. The height of the lintel should be equivalent to the width of the jams at the top. Its simatium ought to be one sixth of the jam with a projection equivalent to its height. The style of carving of the simatium with its ester gel should be the lesbian. Above the simatium of the lintel, place the frieze of the doorway of the same height as the lintel and having a Doric simatium and lesbian ester gel carved upon it. Let the corona and its simatium at the top of all be carved without ornamentation and have a projection equal to its height. To the right and left of the lintel, which rests upon the jams, there are to be projections fashioned like projecting bases and joined into a nicety with the simatium itself. 3. If the doorways are to be of the ionic style, the height of the aperture should be reached in the same manner as in the Doric. Let its width be determined by dividing the height into two and a half parts and letting one of them form the width at the bottom. The diminution should be the same as for Doric. The width of the faces of the jams should be one fourteenth of the height of the aperture and the simatium one sixth of the width. Let the rest excluding the simatium be divided into twelve parts. Let three of these compose the first fascia with its ester gel, fourth the second and five the third, the fascia with their estergoles running side by side all around. 4. The cornices of ionic doorways should be constructed in the same manner as those of Doric in due proportions. The consoles, otherwise called brackets, carved at the right and left should hang down to the level of the bottom of the lintel exclusive of the leaf. Their width on the face should be two thirds of the width of the jam, but at the bottom one fourth slenderer than above. Doors should be constructed with a hinge style so one twelfth of the width of the whole aperture. The panels between two styles should each occupy three of the twelve parts. 5. The rails will be a portion thus. Divide the height into five parts of which assign two to the upper portions and three to the lower. Above the center place the middle rails, insert the others at the top and at the bottom. Let the height of a rail be one third of the breadth of a panel in its simatium one sixth of the rail. The width of the meeting styles should be one half the rail and the covered joint two thirds of the rail. The styles toward the sides of the jams should be one half the rail. If the doors have folds in them, the height will remain as before, but width should be double that of a single door. If the door is to have four folds, its height should be increased. 6. Attic doorways are built with the same proportions as Doric. Besides, there are fasciae running all around under the summatia on the jams and a portion so as to be equal to three sevenths of a jam. Excluding the simatium. The doors are without latticework, are not double but have folds in them and open outward. The laws which should govern the design of temples built in the Doric, Ionic and Corinthian styles have now, so far as I could arrive at them, been set forth according to what may be called the accepted methods. I shall next speak of the arrangements in the Tuscan style showing how they should be treated. 7. Tuscan temples 1. The place where the temple is to be built, having been divided on its length into six parts, deduct one and let the rest be given to its width. Then let the length be divided into two equal parts, of which let the inner be reserved as space for the cellar and the part next the front left for the arrangement of the columns. 2. Next let the width be divided into ten parts. Of these let three on the right and three on the left be given to the smaller cellar or to the ally if they are to be ally and the other four devoted to the middle of the temple. Let the space in front of the cellar, in the pronounce, be marked out for columns thus. The corner columns should be placed opposite the anti on the line of the outside walls. The two middle columns set out on the line of the walls which are between the anti and the middle of the temple and through the middle between the anti and the front columns, a second row arranged on the same lines. Let the thickness of the columns at the bottom be one seventh of their height, their height one third of the width of the temple and the diminution of a column at the top, one fourth of its thickness at the bottom. 3. The height of their bases should be one half of that thickness. The plinth of their bases should be circular and in height one half the height of the bases. The torus above it and congee being of the same height as the plinth. The height of the capitol is one half of the thickness of a column. The abacus has a width equivalent to the thickness of the bottom of a column. Let the height of the capitol be divided into three parts and give one to the plinth, that is the abacus, the second to the econus and the third to the necking with its congee. 4. Upon the columns lay the main beams fastened together to a height commensurate with the requirements of the size of the building. These beams fastened together should be laid so as to be equivalent in thickness to the necking at the top of a column and should be fastened together by means of dowels and dovetailed tenons in such a way that there shall be a space two fingers broad between them at the fastening. For if they touch one another and so do not leave air holes and admit drops of air to blow between them, they get heated and soon begin to rot. 5. Above the beams and walls let the mutuals project to a distance equal to one quarter of the height of a column along the front of them nail casings. Above build a tympanum of the pediment either in masonry or in wood. The pediment with its ridge pole, principle rafters and purlins are to be built in such a way that the eaves shall be equivalent to one third of the completed roof. 8. Circular temples and other varieties 1. There are also circular temples, some of which are constructed in monopteral forms surrounded by columns but without a cella, while others are termed pedipteral. Those that are without a cella have a raised platform and a flight of steps leading to it, one third of the diameter of the temple. The columns upon the stylobates are constructed of a height equivalent to the diameter taken between the outer edges of the stylobate walls and of a thickness equivalent to one tenth of their height, including the capitals and bases. The architrave has the height of one half of the thickness of a column, the frieze and the other parts placed above it are such as I have described in the third book on the subject of symmetrical proportions. 2. But if such a temple is to be constructed in peripteral form, let two steps and then the stylobate be constructed below. Next, let the cella wall be set up, recessed with the stylobate about one fifth of the breadth thereof and let a place for folding doors be left in the middle to afford entrance. This cella, excluding its walls and the passage round the outside, should have a diameter equivalent to the height of a column above the stylobate. Let the columns round the cella be arranged in the symmetrical proportions just given. 3. The proportions of the roof in the center should be such that the height of the rotunda, excluding the finial, is equivalent to one half the diameter of the whole work. The finial, excluding its pyramidal base, should have the dimensions of the capital of a column. All the rest must be built in the symmetrical proportions described above. 4. There are also other kinds of temples constructed in the same symmetrical proportions and yet with a different kind of plan. For example, the Temple of Castor in the district of Circus Fleminius, that of Vejovis between the two groves and still more ingeniously the Temple of Diana in her sacred grove, with columns added on the right and left at the flanks of the Pranaus. Temples of this kind, like that of Castor in the Circus, were first built in Athens on the Acropolis and in Attica at Sunium to Palas Minerva. The proportions of them are not different but the same as usual. For the length of the cella is twice the width as in other temples, but all that we regularly find in the fronts of the others is in these transferred to the sides. 5. Some take the arrangement of columns belonging to the Tuscan order and apply it to buildings in the Corinthian and Ionic style where they are projecting anti in the Pranaus, set up two columns in a line with each of their cella walls, thus making a combination of the principles of Tuscan and Greek buildings. 6. Others actually remove the temple walls, transferring them to the inter-columniations and thus by dispensing with the space needed for a Pteroma, greatly increase the extent of the cella. So, while leaving all the rest in the same symmetrical proportions, they appear to have produced a new kind of plan with the new name Zevdopedipteril. These kinds, however, vary according to the requirements of the sacrifices, 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. 7. I have now set forth, as they have come down to me, all the principles governing the building of temples have marked out under separate heads the arrangements and proportions and have set forth so far as I could express them in writing the differences in their plans and the distinctions which make them unlike one another. Next, with regard to the altars of the immortal gods, I shall state how they may be constructed so as to conform to the rules governing sacrifices. 9. Altars Altars should face the east and should always be placed on a lower level than are the statues in the temple so that those who are praying and sacrificing may look upwards towards the divinity. They are of different heights, being each regulated so as to be appropriate to its own god. The heights are to be adjusted thus. For Jupiter and all the Celestials, let them be constructed as high as possible. For Vesta and Mother Earth, let them be built low. In accordance with these rules, will altars be adjusted when one is preparing his plans? Having described the arrangements of temples in this book, in the following we shall give an exposition of the construction of public buildings. End of Book 4. Book 5, Introduction and Chapters 1-3 of 10 Books on Architecture. This LibriVox recording is in the public domain. Recording by Fredrik Karlsson. 10 Books on Architecture by Vitruvius, translated by Morris Hickey Morgan. Book 5, Introduction. 1. Those who have filled books of unusually large size emperor and setting forth their intellectual ideas and doctrines have thus made a very great and remarkable addition to the authority of their writings. I could wish that circumstances made this as permissible in the case of our subject so that the authority of the present treatise might be increased by amplifications. But this is not so easy as it may be thought. Writing on architecture is not like history or poetry. History is captivating to the reader from its very nature, for it holds out the hope of various novelties. Poetry, with its measures and metrical feet, its refinement in the arrangements of words and the delivery and verse of the sentiments expressed by the several characters to one another delights the feelings of the reader and leads them smoothly on to the very end of the work. 2. But this cannot be the case with architectural treatises, because those terms which originate in the peculiar needs of the art give rise to obscurity of ideas from the unusual nature of the language. Hence, while the things themselves are not well known and their names not in common use, if besides this the principles are described in a very diffuse fashion without any attempt at conciseness and explanation in a few pollucid sentences, such fullness and amplitude of treatment will be only hindrance and will give the reader nothing but indefinite notions. Therefore, when I mention obscure terms and the symmetrical proportions of members of buildings, I shall give brief explanations so that they may be committed to memory. For thus expressed, the mind will be enabled to understand them more easily. 3. 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 or small may be able to comprehend in a short time. Then again, Pythagoras and those who came after him in his school thought it proper to employ the principles of the cube in composing books on their doctrines and having determined that the cube consisted of 216 lines held that there should be no more than 3 cubes in any one treatise. 4. A cube is a body with sides all of equal breadth and their surfaces perfectly square. When thrown down, it stands firm and steady so long as it is untouched, no matter on which of its side it has fallen, like the dice which play a throw in the board. The Pythagoreans appear to have drawn their analogy from the cube because the number of lines mentioned will be fixed firmly and steadily in the memory when they have one settled down, like a cube, upon a man's understanding. The Greek comic poets also divided their place into parts by introducing a choral song and by this petition on the principle of the cubes they relieve the actor's speeches by such intermissions. 5. Since these rules founded on the analogy of nature were followed by our predecessors and since I observe that I have to write on unusual subjects which many persons will find obscure, I have thought it best to write in short books so that they may the more readily strike the understanding of the reader for they will thus be easy to comprehend. I have also arranged them so that those in search of knowledge on a subject may not have to gather it from different places but may find it in one complete treatment with the various classes at forth each in a book by itself. Hence Caesar in the third and fourth book I gave the rules for temples. In this book I shall treat of the laying out of public places. I shall speak first of the proper arrangement of the forum for in it the course of both public and private affairs is directed by the magistrates. 1. The Forum and Basilica. 1. The Greeks lay out their forums in the form of a square surrounded by very spacious double colonnades adorn them with columns set rather closely together and with entablatures of stone or marble and construct walks above in the upper story. But in the cities of Italy the same method cannot be followed for the reason that it is a custom handed down from our ancestors that gladiatorial shows should be given in the forum. 2. Therefore let the inter-columniations around the show place be pretty wide. Roundabout in the colonnades put the bankers offices and have balconies on the upper floor properly arranged so as to be convenient and to bring in some public revenue. The size of a forum should be proportionate to the number of inhabitants so that it may not be too small a space to be useful nor look like a desert waste for lack of population. To determine its breadth divide its length into three parts and assign two of them to the breadth. Its shape will then be oblong and its ground plan conveniently suited to the conditions of shows. 3. The columns of the upper tier should be one fourth smaller than those of the lower because for the purpose of bearing the load what is below ought to be stronger than what is above and also because we ought to imitate nature as seen in the case of things growing. For example, in round smooth-stained trees like the firs, stipers and pine every one of which is rather thick just above the roots and then as it goes on increasing in height tapers off naturally and symmetrically in growing up to the top. Hence, if nature requires this and things growing it is the right arrangement that what is above should be less in height and thickness than what is below. 4. Basilicas should be constructed on a site joining the forum and in the warmest possible quarter so that in winter businessmen may gather in them without being troubled by the weather. In breads they should be not less than one third nor more than one half of their length unless the site is naturally such as to prevent this and to oblige an alteration in these proportions. If the length of the site is greater than necessary Chalcedian porches may be constructed at the ends as in the Julia Aquilana. 5. It is thought that the columns of basilicas ought to be as high as the side aisles abroad an aisle should be limited to one third of the breads which the open space in the middle is to have. Let the columns of the upper tier be smaller than those of the lower as written above. The screen to be placed between the upper and the lower tiers of the columns ought to be it is thought one fourth lower than the columns of the upper tier so that people walking in the upper story of the basilica may not be seen by the businessmen. The architraves, freezes and cornices should be adjusted to the proportions of the columns as we have stated in the third book. 6. 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 super intended at Fano. Its proportions and symmetrical relations were established as follows. In the middle, the main roof between the columns is 120 feet long and 60 feet wide. Its aisle around the space beneath the main roof and between the walls and the columns is 20 feet broad. The columns of unbroken height measuring with the capitals 50 feet and being each 5 feet thick have behind them pilasters 20 feet high, 2.5 feet broad and 1.5 feet thick which support the beams on which is carried the upper flooring of the aisles. Above them are other pilasters 18 feet high, 2 feet broad and a foot thick which carry the beams supporting the principal raftering in the roof of the aisles which is brought down lower than the main roof. 7. The spaces remaining between the beams supported by the pilasters and the columns are left for windows between the inter-columniations. The columns are on the breads of the main roof at each end 4, including the corner columns at right and left. On the long side which is next to the forum 8, including the same corner columns on the other side 6, including the corner columns. This is because the two middle columns on that side are emitted in order not to obstruct the view of the pronouns of the Temple of Augustus which is built at the middle of the side wall of the Basilica facing the middle of the forum and the Temple of Jupiter and also the tribunal which is in the former Temple shaped as a hemicycle whose curvature is less than a semicircle. 8. The open side of this hemicycle is 4 to 6 feet along the front and its curvature inwards is 15 feet so that those who are standing before the magistrates may not be in the way of the businessman in the Basilica. Roundabout above the columns consist of three two foot timbers fastened together. These return from the columns which stand third on the inner side to the anti which project from the pronouns and which touch the edges of the hemicycle at right and left. 9. Above the architraves and regularly dispersed on supports directly over the capitals, piers are placed 3 feet high and 4 feet broad each way. Above them is placed the projecting cornice roundabout made of two two foot timbers. The tie beams and struts being placed above them and directly over the shafts of the columns and the anti and the walls of the pronouns hold up one gable roof along the entire Basilica and another one from the middle of it over the pronouns of the temple. 10. Thus the gable tops run in two directions like the letter T and give a beautiful effect to the outside and inside of the main roof. Further by the omission of an ornamental entablature and of a line of screens and a second tier of columns troublesome labour is saved and the total cost greatly diminished. On the other hand the carrying of the columns themselves in unbroken height directly up to the beams that support the main roof seems to add an air of sumptuousness and dignity to the work. 2. The Treasury, Prison and Senate House 1. The Treasury, Prison and Senate House ought to adjoin the forum but in such a way that their dimensions may be proportionate to those of the forum. Particularly the Senate House should be constructed with special regard to the importance of the town or city. If the building is square let its height be fixed at one and one-half times its breadth but if it is to be oblong add together its length and breadth and having got the total let half of it be devoted to the height up to the coffered ceiling. 2. Further the inside walls should be girdled at a point halfway up their height with Coronai made of woodwork or of stucco. Without these the voice of men engaged in discussion there will be carried up to the height above and so be unintelligible to their listeners. But when the walls are girdled with Coronai the voice from below being detained before rising becoming lost in the air will be intelligible to the air. 3. The theater its site, foundations and acoustics. 1. After the forum has been arranged next for the purpose of seeing place or festivals of the immortal gods a site as healthy as possible should be selected for the theater in accordance with what has been written in the first book on the principles of healthfulness in the sites of cities. For when place are given the spectators where their wives and children sit through them spellbound and their bodies motionless from enjoyment have the pores open into which blowing winds find their way. If these winds come from Marcia districts or from other unwholesome quarters they will introduce noxious exhalations into the system. Hence, such faults will be avoided if the site of the theater is somewhat carefully selected. 2. You must also beware that it has not a southern exposure. When the sun shines full upon the rounded part of it the air being shut up in the curved enclosure unable to circulate stays there and becomes heated and getting glowing heart it burns up dries out and impairs the fluids of the human body. For these reasons sites which are unwholesome in such a space are to be avoided and healthy sites selected. 3. This year matter if they are on a hillside but if they have to be laid out on a plain or in a Marcia place solidity must be assured and substructures built in accordance with what has been written in the 3rd book on the foundations of temples. Above the foundation walls the ascending rows of seats from the substructures up should be built of stone and marble materials. 4. The curved cross aisles should be constructed in proportionate relation it is thought to the height of the theatre but not higher than the footway of the passages broad. If they are loftier they will throw back the voice and drive it away from the upper portions thus preventing the case endings of words from reaching with distinct meaning the ears of those who are in the upper most seats above the cross aisles. In short it should be so contrived that the line drawn from the lowest to the highest seat will touch the top edges and angles of all the seats. Thus the voice will meet with no obstruction. 5. The different entrances ought to be numerous and spacious the upper not connected with the lower but built in a continuous straight line from all parts of the house without turning so that the people may not be crowded together when let out from the shows but may have separate exists from all parts without obstructions. Particular paints must also be taking that the site be not a deaf one but one through which the voice can range with the greatest clearness. This can be brought about if a site is selected where there is no obstruction due to echo. 6. Voice is a flowing breath of air perceptible to the hearing by contact. It moves in an endless number of circular rounds like the innumerably increasing circular waves which appear when a stone is thrown into smooth water and which keep on spreading indefinitely from the center unless interrupted by narrow limits or by some obstruction which prevents such waves from reaching their end in due formation. When they are interrupted by obstructions the first waves, flowing back break up the formation of those which follow. 7. In the same manner the voice executes its movements in concentric circles while in the case of water the circles move horizontally on a plane surface the voice not only proceeds horizontally but also ascends vertically by regular stages. Therefore as in the case of the waves formed in the water so it is in the case of the voice. The first wave, when there is no obstruction to interrupt it does not break up the second or the following waves but they all reach the ears of the lowest and highest spectators without an echo. 8. Since the ancient architects following in the footsteps of nature perfected the ascending rows of seats in theaters from their investigations of the ascending voice and by means of the canonical theory of the mathematicians and that of the musicians and devoured to make every voice uttered on the stage come with greater clearness and sweetness to the ears of the audience. For just as musical instruments are brought to perfection of clearness and sound of their strings by means of bronze plates or horn so the ancient devised methods of increasing the power of the voice in theaters through the application of harmonics. End of book 5 Chapter 3 Book 5 chapters 4 and 5 of 10 books on architecture this LibriVox recording is in the public domain recording by Fredrik Carlson 10 books on architecture by Vitruvius by Morse Hickey Morgan Chapter 4 Harmonics 1 Harmonics is an obscure and difficult branch of musical science especially for those who do not know Greek. If we decide to treat of it we must use Greek words because some of them have no Latin equivalence. Hence I will explain it as clearly as I can from the writings of Aristosinus, append his scheme and define the boundaries of the notes so that with careful attention anybody may be able to understand it pretty easily. Chapter 2 The voice in its changes of position when shifting pitch becomes sometimes high sometimes low and its moments are of two kinds in one of which its progress is continuous in the other five intervals. The continuous voice does not become stationary at the boundaries or at any definite place and so the extremities of its progress are not apparent but the fact that there are differences of pitches apparent as in our ordinary speech in sol, lux, floss, vox for in these cases we cannot tell at what pitch the voice begins nor at what pitch it leaves off but the fact that it becomes low from high and high from low is apparent to the ear. In its progress by intervals the opposite is the case for here when the pitch shifts the voice by change of position stations itself on one pitch then on another and as it frequently repeats this alternating process it appears to the senses to become stationary as happens in singing when we produce a variation of the mode by changing the pitch of the voice and so since it moves by intervals the points at which it begins and where it leaves off are obviously apparent in the boundaries of the notes but the intermediate points escaped notice are obscure owing to the intervals. Three. There are three classes of modes first that which the Greeks term the enharmonic second the chromatic third the diatonic the enharmonic mode is an artistic conception and therefore execution in it has especially severe dignity and distinction the chromatic with its delicate subtlety and with the crowding of its notes gives a sweeter kind of pleasure. In the diatonic the distance between the intervals is easier to understand because it is natural. These three classes differ in their arrangement of the tetrachord. In the enharmonic the tetrachord consists of two tones and two diases a diases is a quarter tone hence in a semitone there are included two diases in the chromatic there are two semitones arranged in succession and the third interval is a tone and a half. In the diatonic there are two consecutive tones and the third interval of a semitone completes the tetrachord. Hence in the three classes the tetrachords are equally composed of two tones and a semitone but when they are regarded separately according to the terms of each class they differ in the arrangement of their intervals. Four. Now then these intervals of tones and semitones of the tetrachord are a division introduced by nature in the case of the voice and she has defined limits by measures according to the magnitude of the intervals and determine their characteristics in certain different ways. These natural laws are followed by skilled workmen who fashion musical instruments in bringing them to the perfection of their proper concords. Five. In each class there are 18 notes termed in Greek phtongoi of which eight in all the three classes are constant and fixed while the other ten not being tuned to the same pitch the fixed notes are those which being placed between the movable make up the unity of the tetrachord and remain unaltered in their boundaries according to the different classes. Their names are The movable notes are those which being arranged in the tetrachord between the movable change from place to place according to the different classes. Six. These notes from being movable take on different qualities for they may stand at different intervals in increasing distances. Thus, per hypate which in the enharmonic is at the interval at half of a semitone from hypate has a semitone interval when transferred to the chromatic. What is called Lichenos in the enharmonic is at the interval at the semitone from hypate but when shifted to the chromatic it goes two semitones away and in the diatonic it is at an interval of three semitones from hypate. Hence the ten notes produce three different kinds of modes on account of their changes of position in the classes. Seven. There are five tetrachords. The first, the lowest, termed in Greek hypotone. Second, the middle, called the meson. Third, the conjunct, termed synemmonon. Fourth, the disjunct, named disugmonon. The fifth, which is the highest is termed in Greek hyperbolion. The concords, termed in Greek symphonii of which human modulation will naturally admit are six in the number. The fourth, the fifth, the octave the octave and fourth the octave and fifth and the double octave. Eight. Their names are therefore due to numerical value for when the voice becomes stationary on some one note and then shifting its pitch changes its position and passes to the limit of the fourth note from that one term fourth. When it passes to the fifth, the term fifth. Nine. For there can be no consonances either in the case of the notes of stringed instruments or of the singing voice between two intervals of between three or six or seven but as written above it is only the harmonies of the fourth, the fifth and so on up to the double octave that have boundaries naturally corresponding to those of the voice and these concords are produced by the union of the notes. Chapter five. Sounding vessels in the theater One. In accordance with the foregoing investigations on mathematical principles let bronze vessels be made proportionate to the size of the theater and let them be so fashion that when touched they may be produced with one another the notes of the fourth the fifth and so on up to the double octave. Then having constructed niches in between the seats of the theater let the vessels be arranged in them in accordance with musical laws in such a way that they nowhere touch the wall but have a clear space all around them and room over their tops. They should be set upside down and be supported on the side facing the stage by wedges not less than half a foot high. Opposite each niche, aperture should be left in the surface of the seat next below, two feet long and half a foot deep. Two. The arrangement of these vessels with reference to the situations of which they should be placed may be described as follows. If the theater be of no great size mark out a horizontal range half way up and in it construct 13 arched niches with 12 equal spaces between them so that of the above mentioned Achaea those which give the note Nete hadpabolion may be placed first on each side in the niches which are at the extreme ends. Next to the ends and the fourth below in pitch the note Dizoukmenon third, paramese a fourth below, fourth Nete synhemenon fifth mes a fourth below sixth, hypate meson a fourth below and in the middle and another fourth below one vessel giving the note hypate hypoton. Three. On this principle of arrangement the voice uttered from the stage as from a center and spreading striking against the cavities of the different vessels as it comes in contact with them will be increased in clearness of sound and will waken harmonious note in unison with itself. But if the theater be rather large let it's height be divided into four parts so that three horizontal ranges of niches may be marked out and constructed. One for the enharmonic another for the chromatic and the third for the diatonic system. Beginning with the bottom range let the arrangement be as described above in the case of a smaller theater but on the enharmonic system. Four. In the middle range place first at the extreme ends the vessels which give the note of the chromatic hyperbillion next to them those which give the chromatic dysugmenon a fourth below third the chromatic synhemenon fourth the chromatic meson a fourth below fifth the chromatic hyperton a fourth below sixth the parames for this is both the concord of the fifth to the chromatic hyperbillion and the concord of the chromatic synhemenon. Five. No vessel is to be placed in the middle for the reason that there is no other note in the chromatic system that forms a natural concord of sound. In the highest division and range of niches place at the extreme and vessels fashioned so as to give the note of the diatonic hyperbillion next the diatonic dysugmenon a fourth below third the diatonic synhemenon fourth the diatonic meson a fourth below fifth the diatonic hyperton a fourth below sixth the proslambenomenos a fourth below in the middle the note mes for this is both the octave to proslambenomenos and the concord of the fifth to diatonic hyperton. Six. Whoever wishes to carry out these principles with ease has only to consult the scheme at the end of this book drawn up in accordance with the laws of music it was left by Aristotle who with great ability and labour classified and arranged in it their 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. Seven. Somebody will perhaps say that many theatres are built every year in Rome and that in them no attention at all is paid to these principles but he will be in error and all our public theatres made of wood contain a great deal of boarding which must be resonant. This may be observed from the behaviour of those who sing to the lyre who when they wish to sing in a higher key turn towards the folding doors on the stage and thus by their aid are reinforced with the sound in harmony with the voice but when the theatres are built of solid materials like masonry, stone or marble which cannot be resonant then the principles of the Ikea must be applied. Eight. If, however, it is asked in what theatre these vessels have been employed we cannot point to any in Rome itself but only to those in the districts of Italy and in a good many Greek states. We have also the evidence of Lucius Mumius who after destroying the theatre in Corinth brought its bronze vessels to Rome and made a dedicatory offering at the temple of Luna with the money obtained from the sale of them. Besides many skillful architects in constructing theatres in small towns have, for lack of means, taken large jars made of clay but similarly resonant and have produced very advantageous results by arranging them on the principles described. End of Book 5, Chapter 5 Book 5, Chapters 6-9 of Ten Books on Architecture This LibriVox recording is in the public domain recording by Fredrik Carlson Ten Books on Architecture by Vitruvius translated by Morris Hickey Morgan Chapter 6 Plan of the Theatre 1. The plan of the theatre itself is to be constructed as follows having fixed upon the principal centre draw a line or circumference equivalent to what is to be the perimeter at the bottom and in it inscribe four equilateral triangles at equal distances apart drawing the boundary line of the circle as the astrologers do in the figure of the twelve signs of the zodiac when they are making computations from the musical harmony of the stars. Taking that one of these triangles whose side is nearest to the cena let the front of the cena be determined by the line where the side cuts off a segment of the circle and draw through the centre a parallel line set off from that position to separate the platform of the stage from the space of the orchestra. 2. The platform has to be made deeper than that of the Greeks because all our artists perform on the stage while the orchestra contains the places reserved for the seats of senators. The height of this platform must not be more than five feet in order that those who sit in the orchestra may be able to see the performances of all the actors. The sections, cune for spectators in the theatre should be so divided that the angles of the triangles that run about the circumference of the circle may give the direction for the flight steps between the sections as far as up to the first curved cross aisle. Above this the upper sections ought to be laid out midway between the lower sections with alternating passageways. 3. The angles at the bottom which give the directions for the flights of steps will be seven in number the other five angles will determine the arrangement of the scene thus the angle in the middle of the royal door opposite to it the angles to the right and left will designate the position of the doors for guest chambers and the two outermost angles will point to the passages in the wings. The steps for the spectators places where the seats are arranged should be not less than a foot and a palm in height nor more than a foot and six fingers their depth should be fixed at not more than two and a half feet nor less than two feet. The roof of the colonnade to be built at the top of the rows of the seats should lie level with the top of the scene for the reasons that the voice will then rise with equal power until it reaches the highest rows of seats and the roof. If the roof is not so high in proportion as it is lower it will check the voice at the point which the sound first reaches. 5. Take one sixth of the diameter of the orchestra between the lower steps and let the lower seats at the ends on both sides be cut away to a height of that dimension so as to leave entrances. At the point where this cutting way occurs, fix the soffits of the passages. Thus their vaulting will be sufficiently high. 6. The lengths of the scene are to be double the diameter of the orchestra. The height of the podium starting from the level of the stage is including the corona and simatium one-twelfth of the diameter of the orchestra. Above the podium the columns including their capitals and bases should have a height of one-quarter of the same diameter and the architraves and ornaments of the columns should be one-fifth of their height. The parapet above including its sima and corona is one-half the height of the parapet below. Let the columns above this parapet be one-fourth less in height than the columns below and the architraves and ornaments of these columns be one-fifth of the height. If the scene is to have three stories let the uppermost parapet be half the height of the intermediate one, the columns at the top one forth less high than the intermediate and the architraves and corona of these columns one-fifth of their height as before. 7. It is not possible, however, that in all theaters these rules of symmetry should answer all conditions and purposes but the architect ought to consider the principles of symmetry and to what extent it may be modified to suit the nature of the sight or the size of the work. There are, of course, some things which for utility's sake must be made of the same size in a small theater and a large one, such as the steps, curved cross rails, 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. Again, if in the course of the work any of the material falls short, such as marble, timber or anything else that is provided, it will not be a miss to make it a slight reduction or addition provided that it is done without going too far but with intelligence. This will be possible if the architect is a man of practical experience and besides not destitute of cleverness and skill. 8. The sea knight's self displays the following scheme. In the center are double doors decorated like those of a royal palace. At the right and left are the doors of the guest chambers. Beyond are spaces provided for decoration, places that the Greeks called periactoi because in these places are triangular pieces of machinery which revolve, each having three decorated faces. When the play is to be changed or when gods enter to the accompaniment of sudden claps of thunder, these may be revolved and present a face differently decorated. Beyond these places are the projecting wings which afford entrances to the stage, one from the forum, the other from abroad. 9. There are three kinds of scenes, one called the tragic, second, the comic, third the saturic. Their decorations are different and unlike each other in scheme. Tragic scenes are delineated with columns, pediments, statues and other objects suited to kings. Comic scenes exhibit private dwellings with balconies and views representing rows of windows after the manner of ordinary dwellings. Saturic scenes are decorated with trees, caverns, mountains and other rustic objects delineated in landscape style. 7. Greek Theatres 1. In the theatres of the Greeks these same rules of construction are not to be followed in all respects. First, in the circle at the bottom where the Roman has four triangles the Greek has three squares with their angles touching the line of circumference. The square whose side is nearest to the Sina and cuts off a segment of the circle determines by this line the limits of the prosaeneum. Parallel to this line and tangent to the outer circumference of the segment a line is drawn which fixes the front of the Sina. Through the centre of the orchestra and parallel to the direction of the prosaeneum a line is laid off and centres are marked where it cuts the circumference to the right and left at the ends of the half circle. Then with the compass fixed at the right an arc is described from the horizontal distance at the left to the left hand side of the prosaeneum. Again with the centre at the left end an arc is described from the horizontal distance at the right to the right hand of the prosaeneum. 2. As a result of this plan with three centres the Greeks have a roomier orchestra and a Sina set further back as well as a stage of less depth. They call this the logaeon for the reason that the tragic and comic actors perform on the stage while other artists give their performance in the entire orchestra hence from this fact they are given in Greek the distinct name scenic and gemelic. The height of this logium ought not to be less than 10 feet nor more than 12 that extending flights of steps between the wedges of sea as far up as the first curved cross aisle be laid out on lines directly opposite to the angles of the squares. Above the cross aisle let other flights be laid out in the middle between the first and at the top as often there is a new cross aisle the number of flights of steps is always increased to the same extent. 8. Acoustics of the site of a theatre 1. All this having been settled with greatest pains and skills we must see to it with still greater care that a site had been selected where the voice has a gentle fall and is not driven back with a recall so as to convey an indistinct meaning to the ear. There are some places which from their very nature interfere with the course of the voice as for instance the dissonant which are termed in Greek catechontes, the circumsonant which with them are named periachontes, again the dissonant which are termed antachontes and the consonant which they call synachontes. The dissonant of those places in which the first sound uttered that is carried up high strikes against solid bodies above and being driven back checks as it sinks to the bottom the rise of the succeeding sound. 2. The circumsonant of those in which the voice spreads all round and then is forced into the middle where it is heard and it dies away there in sounds of indistinct meaning. The resonant are those in which it comes into contact with some solid substance and recoils thus producing an echo and making the terminations of cases sound double. The consonant are those in which it is supported from below increases as it goes up and reaches the ears in words which are distinct and clear in tone hence if there has been careful attention in the selection of the site the effect of the voice will through this precaution be perfectly suited to the purposes of a theatre. The drawings of the plants may be distinguished from each other by this difference. The theatres designed by squares are meant to be used for Greeks while Roman theatres are designed from equilateral triangles. Whoever is willing to follow these directions will be able to construct perfectly correct theatres. 9. Colonnades and Walks Colonnades must be constructed behind the scene so that when sudden showers interrupt place the people may have somewhere to retire from the theatre and so that there may be room for the preparation of all the outfit of the stage. Such places for instance are the colonnades on Pompeii and also in Athens, the colonnades of Eumenius and the feign of Father Bacchus also as you leave the theatre the musical which Temistocles surrounded with stone columns and roofed with the yards and masts or ships captured from the Persians. It was burned during the war with the Mithridates and afterwards restored by King Arjo Barsanus. At Smyrna there is the Stratonisium at Trolls, a colonnade on each side of the Sina above the racecourse and in other cities which have had careful architects there are colonnades and walks about the theatres. 2. The approved way of building them requires that they should be double and have doric columns on the outside with the architects and their ornaments finished according to the law of modular proportion. The approved depth of them requires that the depth from the lower part of the outermost columns to the columns in the middle and from the middle columns to the wall and closing the walk under the colonnade should be equal to the height of the outer column. Let the middle columns be one fifth higher than the columns and designed in the Ionic or Corinthian style. 3. The columns will not be subject to the same rules of symmetry and proportion which I prescribed in the case of sanctiaries for the dignity which ought to be their quality in temples of the gods is one thing but their elegance in colonnades and other public works is quite another. Hence if the columns are to be of the doric order let their height including the capital be measured off in 15 parts of these parts let one be fixed upon the form the module and in accordance with this module the whole work is to be developed. Let the thickness of the columns at the bottom be two modules and inter-columination five and a half modules the height of a column excluding the capital 14 modules the capital one module in height and two and one sixth module in breadth. Let the modular proportions of the rest of the work be carried out as written in the fourth book in the case of temples. 4. But if the columns are to be Ionic let the shaft excluding base and capital be divided into eight and a half parts and let one of these be assigned to the thickness of a column let the base including the plinth be fixed at half the thickness and let the proportions of the capital be as shown in the third book. If the column is to be Corinthian let its shaft and base be in the Ionic but its capital as has been written in the fourth book. In the stylobates let the increase made there by means of the scamille in Paris be taken from the description written above in the third book. Let the architraves, Coroni and all the rest be developed in proportion to the columns from what has been written in the foregoing books. 5. The space in the middle between the colonnades and open to the sky ought to be embellished with green things for walking particularly for the eyes since the refined and rarefied air that comes from green things finding its way in because of the physical exercise gives a clean cut image and by clearing away the gross humours from the eyes leaves the sight keen and the image distinct. Besides, as the body gets warm with exercise and walking this air by sucking out the humours from the frame diminishes their superabundance and disperses and thus reduces the superfluity which is more than the body can bear. 6. That this is so may be seen from the fact that misty vapours never arise from springs of water which are undercover nor even from watery marshes which are underground but in uncovered places which are open to the sky when the rising sun begins to act upon the world with its heat it brings out the vapour from damp and watery spots and rolls it in masses upwards. Therefore, if it appears that in places open to the sky the more noxious humours are sucked out of the body by the air as they obviously are from the earth in the form of mists I think there is no doubt that cities should be provided with the roomiest and most ornamented walks laid out under the free and open sky. 7. That they may be always dry and not muddy the following is to be done and cleared out to the lowest possible depth. 8. At the right and left construct covered drains and in their walls which are directed towards the walks lay earthen pipes with their lower ends inclined into the drains. Having finished these fill up the place with a car coal and then stir sand over the walks and level them off. Hence, on account of the porous nature of the car coal and the insertion of the pipes into the drains quantities of water will be conducted away and the walks will thus be rendered perfectly dry and without moisture. 8. Furthermore our ancestors in establishing these works provided cities will store houses for an indispensable material. The fact is that in sieges everything else is easier to procure than is wood. Salt can easily be brought in beforehand corn can be gut together quickly by the state or by individual and if it gives out the defence may be maintained on cabbage, or beans. Water can be had by digging wells and when there are sudden falls of rain by collecting it from the tiles. For a stock of wood which is absolutely necessary for cooking food is a difficult and troublesome thing to provide for it is slow to gather and a good deal is consumed. 9. On such occasions therefore these walks are thrown open and are definite allowance granted to each inhabitant according to tribes. Thus these uncovered walks ensure two excellent things. 1. Health in time of peace 2. Safety in time of war Hence walks that are developed on these principles and built not only behind the sena or theatres but also at the temples of all the gods will be capable of being of great use to cities. As it appears that we have given an adequate account of them next will follow descriptions of their arrangements of baths. 5. Chapter 9 Book 5, chapters 10-12 of 10 books on architecture this LibriVox recording is in the public domain recording by Fredrik Karlsson. 10 books on architecture by Vitruvius translated by Morris Hickey Morgan Chapter 10 Baths 1. In the first place the warmest possible situation must be selected that is one which faces away from the north east. The rooms for the hot and tepid bath should be lighted from the south west or if the nature of the situation prevents this at all events from the south because the set time for bathing is principally from midday to evening. We must also see to it that the hot bathrooms in the women's and men's departments are join each other and are situated in the same quarter for thus it will be possible that the same furnace should serve both of them and their fittings. Three bronze cauldrons one for hot and another for tepid and the third for cold water placed in such positions that the amount of water which flows out of the hot water cauldron may be replaced from that for tepid water and in the same way the cauldron for tepid water may be supplied from that for cold. The arrangement must allow the semi cylinders for the bath bathsings to be heated from the same furnace. 2. The hanging floors of the hot bathrooms are to be constructed as follows. First the surface of the ground should be with tiles a foot and a half square sloping towards the furnace in such a way that if a ball is thrown in it cannot stop inside but must return of itself to the furnace room. Thus the heat of the fire will more readily spread under the hanging flooring. Upon them pillars made of eight inch bricks are built and set at such a distance apart that two foot tiles may be used to cover them. These pillars should be two feet in height, laid with clay mixed with hair and covered on top with the tiles which support the floor. 3. The vaulted ceilings will be more serviceable if built of masonry but if they are of framework they should have tile work on the underside to be constructed as follows. Let iron bars or arcs be made and hang them to the framework by means of iron hooks set as close together as possible and let these bars or arcs be placed at such distances apart that each pair of them may support and carry an unflagged tile. Thus the entire vaulting will be completely supported on iron. These vaults should have the points on their upper side dodd with clay mixed with hair and their underside facing the floor should first be plastered with pounded tile mixed with lime and then covered with polished stucco in relief or smooth. Vaults in hot bathrooms will be more serviceable if they are doubled. For them the moisture from the heat will not be able to spoil the timber in the framework but will merely circulate two vaults. Four The size of the baths must depend upon the number of the population. The rooms should thus be proportioned. Let their breads be one third of the length excluding the niches for the wash bowl and the bath basin. The wash bowl ought without fail to be placed under windows so that the shadows of those who stand round it may not obstruct the light. Niches for wash bowls must be made so roomy that when the first comers have taken their places the others who are round may have proper standing room. The bath basin should be not less than six feet broad from the wall to the edge, the lower step and the cushion taking up two feet of the space. Five The laconium and the other sweating baths must adjoin the tepid room and their height to the bottom of the curved dome should be equal to their widths. Let an aperture be left in the middle of the dome with a bronze dischanging from it by chains. By racing and lowering it the temperature of the room can be regulated. The chamber itself ought as it seems to be circular so that the force of the fire and heat may spread evenly from the center all round the circumference. Chapter 11 The Palaestra Next, although the building of Palaestra is not usually in Italy I think it best to set forth the traditional way and to show how they are constructed among the Greeks. The square or oblong peristyle in the Palaestra should be so formed that it makes a walk of two stadia, a distance which the Greek called Daudus. Let three of its colonnades be single, but let the fourth which is on the south side be doubled so that when there is bad weather accompanied by wind the drops of rain may not be able to reach the interior. Two In the three colonnades construct roomy recesses with seats in them where philosophers, returicians and other who delight in learning may sit and converse. In the double colonnade let the rooms be arranged thus. The young man's hall in the middle. This is a very spacious recess, e.g. with seats in them and it should be one third longer than it is broad. At the right the bag room, then next the dust room. Beyond the dust room at the corner of the colonnade the cold washing room which the Greeks called Lotrum. At the left of the young man's hall is the anointing room, then next to the anointing room the cold bathroom and beyond that a passage into the room at the corner of the colonnade. Next but inside and on a line with a cold bathroom put the vaulted sweating bath. Its length twice its breadth and having it ends on one side a laconium proportioned in the same manner as above described and opposite the laconium the warm washing room. Inside the paleostra the peristyle ought to be laid out as described above three. But on the outside let three colonnades be arranged one as you leave the peristyle two at the right and left with running tracks in them. That one of them which faces the north should be a double colonnade of very ample breadth while the other should be single and so constructed that on the sides next to the walls and the side along the columns it may have edges serving as paths of not less than 10 feet with the spaces between them sunk in so that steps are necessary in going down from the edges a foot and a half to the plane which plane should be not less than 12 feet wide. Thus people walking around the edges will not be interfered with by the anointed who are exercising. 4. This kind of colonnade is called among the greeks systos because athletes during the winter season exercising covered running tracks next to this systos and to the double colonnade should be laid out uncovered walks which the greeks term paradromides and our people systa into which in fair weather during the winter the athletes come out from the systos and exercise. The systa ought to be so constructed that there may be plantations between the two colonnades or groves or plain trees with walks laid out in them among the trees and resting places there made of opus signinum. Behind the systos a stadium so designed that great numbers of people may have plenty of room to look on at the contest between the athletes. I have now described all that seemed necessary for the proper arrangement of things within the city walls. Chapter 12 Harbors, breakwaters and shipyards. 1. The subject of the usefulness of harbors is one which I must not omit but must explain by what means ships are sheltered in them from storms. If their situation has natural advantages with protecting capes or promontories which curve or return inwards by their natural conformation such harbors are obviously of service. Round them of course colonnades or shipyards must be built or passages from the colonnades to the business quarters and towers must be set up on both sides from which chain can be drawn across by machinery. 2. But if we have situation without natural advantages and unfit to shelter ships from storms it is obvious that we must proceed as follows. If there is no river in the neighborhood but if there can be a roadstead on one side then let the advances be made from the other side by means of walls or embankments and let the enclosing harbour be thus formed. Walls which are to be under water should be constructed as follows. Take the powder which comes from the country extending from Kumai to the Promontory of Minerva and mix it in the mortar-trow in the proportion of 2 to 1. 3. Then the lower surface inside under the water must be leveled off and dredged working from beams laid across and finally concrete from the mortar-trow, the stuff having been mixed as described above must be heaped up until the empty space which was within the cofferdome is filled up by the wall. This however is possessed as a gift of nature by such places as have been described above. But if by recent occurrence or those souls of the open sea the props cannot hold the cofferdome together then let the platform of the greatest possible strength be constructed beginning on the ground itself or in a sub-structure and let the platform be constructed with a level surface for less than half its extent while the rest which is close to the beach slopes down and out. 4. Then on the water's edge and at the sides of the platform let marginal walls be constructed about one and a half feet thick and brought up to a level with the surface above mentioned. Next, let the sloping part be filled in with sand and leveled off with the marginal wall and the surface of the platform. Then upon this level surface construct a block as large as is required and when it is finished leave it not for not less than two months to dry. Then cut away the marginal wall which supports the sand. Thus the sand will be determined by the waves and this will cause the block to fall into the sea. By this method repeated as often as necessary and advance into the water can be made. 5. But in places where this powder is not the following method must be employed. A cofferdam with double sides composed of charged stakes fastened together with ties should be constructed in their pointed place and clay and wicker baskets made of swamp rushes should be packed in among the props. After this has been well packed down and filled in as closely as possible set up your water screws wheels and drums and let the space now bounded by the enclosure be emptied and dried. Then dig out the bottom within the enclosure if it proves to be of earth it must be cleared out and dried till you come to solid bottom and for a space wider than the wall which is to be built upon it and then filled in with masonry consisting of rubble, lime and sand. 6. But if the place proves to be soft the bottom must be staked with piles made of charred alder or olive wood and then filled in with carcals as have been prescribed in the case of the foundations of theaters and the city wall. Finally build the wall of dimension stone with the bond stones as long as possible so that particularly the stones in the middle may be held together by the joints. Then fill the inside of the walls with broken stone or masonry. It will thus be possible for even a tower to be built upon it. 7. When all this is finished the general rule for shipyards will be to build them facing the north. Southern exposures from their heat produced rot, the woodworm, shipworms and all sorts of other destructive creatures and strengthen and keep them alive. And these buildings must by no means be constructed of wood for fear of fire as for their size no definite limit need to be set but they must be built to suit the largest type of ship so that if even larger ships are holed up they may find plenty of room there. I have described in this book the construction and completion of all that I could remember as necessary for general use in the public places of cities. In the following book I shall consider private houses, their conveniences and symmetrical proportions. End of Book 5 Book 6 Introduction in Chapter 1 of 10 Books on Architecture This LibriVox recording is in the public domain. Recording by Fredrik Carlson 10 Books on Architecture by Vitruvius translated by Morris Hickey Morgan Book 6 Introduction 1. It is related of the Socratic philosopher Aristipus that being shipwrecked and cast ashore on the coast of the Rodians he observed geometrical figures drawn thereon and cried out to his companions, let us be of good cheer for I see the traces of man. With that he made for the city of Rhodes and went straight to the gymnasium. There he felt to discussing philosophical subjects and presents were bestowed upon him that he could not only fit himself out but could also provide those who accompanied him with clothing and all other necessaries of life. When his companions wished to return to their country and asked him what message he wished them to carry home he bade them to 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. 2. These are indeed the true supports of life and neither fail nor political revolution nor ravages of war can do them any harm. Developing the same idea the officers urging men to acquire learning rather than put their trust in money states the case thus. The man of learning is the only person in the world who is neither a stranger when in a foreign land nor friendless when he has lost his intimates and relatives. On the contrary he is a citizen of every country and can fearlessly look down upon the troublesome citizens of fortune. But he who thinks himself entrenched in defenses not of learning but of luck moves in slippery paths struggling through life unsteadily and insecurely. 3. And a picker in much the same way says that the wise owe little to fortune all that is greatest and essential is under the direction of the thinking power of their mind and their understanding. Many other philosophers have said the same poets who wrote the ancient comedies in Greece have expressed the same sentiments in their verses on the stage for example Eucatris Cionidus, Aristophanus and with them Alexis in particular who says that the Athenians ought to be praised for the reason that while the laws of all Greeks require the maintenance of parents by their children the laws of the Athenians require this only in the case of those who have educated their children in their arts 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. 4. Hence I am very much obliged and infinitely grateful to my parents for the approval of this Athenian law and for having taken care that I should be taught an art and that of a sort which cannot be brought to perfection without learning and a liberal education in all branches of instruction. Thanks therefore to my parents and the instruction given by my teachers I obtained a wide range of knowledge and by the pleasure which I take in literary and artistic subjects and in the writings of treatises I have acquired intellectual possessions whose chief fruits are these thoughts that superfluity is useless and that not to feel the want of anything is true riches. There may be some people however who deem all this of no consequence and think that the wise are those hence it is that very many in pursuit of that end take upon themselves impudent assurance attain notoriety and wealth at the same time. 5. But for my part Caesar I have never been eager to make money by my art but have gone on the principle that slender means and a good reputation are preferable to wealth and disrepute. For this reason only a little celebrity has followed. But still my hope is that with publication of these books I shall become known even to posterity and it is not to be wondered at that I am so generally unknown other architects go about and ask for opportunities to practice their profession but I have been taught by my instructors that it is the proper thing to undertake a charge only after being asked and not to ask for it since a gentleman will blush with shame at petitioning for a thing that arose as suspicion. It is in fact those who can grant favors that should not those who receive them. What are we to think must be the suspicions of a man who is asked to allow his private means to be expended in order to please a petitioner. Must he not believe that the thing is to be done for the profited advantage of that individual? 6. Hence it was that the ancient used to entrust their work in the first place to architects of good family and next inquired whether they had been properly educated believing that one ought to trust in the honor of a gentleman in the assurance of impudence. And the architects themselves would teach none but their own sons or kinsmen and train them to be good men who could be trusted without hesitation in matters of such importance. But when I see that this grand art is boldly professed by the uneducated and unskillful and by men who, far from being acquainted with architecture, have no knowledge even of the carpenters trade, I can find nothing but praise for those householders who, in the confidence of learning, are emboldened to build themselves. Their judgment is that if they must trust to inexperienced persons it is more becoming to them to use up a good round sum at their own pleasure than that that of a stranger. 7. Nobody therefore attempts to practice any other art in his own home as for instance the shoemakers or the fullers or any other of the easy accounts but only architecture and this is because the professionals do not possess the genuine art but turn themselves architects falsely. For these reasons I have thought proper to compose most carefully a complete treatise on architecture and its principles believing that it will be no unacceptable gift to all the world. In the fifth book I have said what I had to say about the convenient arrangement of public works and this I shall set forth the theoretical principles and the symmetrical proportions of private houses. 1. On climate as determining the style of the house. 1. 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. 1. Style of house seems appropriate to build in Egypt, another in Spain, a different kind in Pontus, one still different in Rome and so on with lands and countries of other characteristics. This is because one part of the earth is directly under the sun's course another is far away from it while another lies midway between these two. Hence as the position of the heaven with regard to a given tract on the earth leads naturally to different characteristics owing to the inclination of the circle of the zodiac and the course of the sun it is obvious that designs for houses ought similarly to conform to the nature of the country and to diversities of climate. 2. In the north houses should be entirely roofed over and sheltered as much as possible not in the open though having a warm exposure. But on the other hand where the force of the sun is great in the southern countries that suffer from heat, houses must be built more in the open and where the northern or northeast in the exposure thus we may amend by art what nature if left to herself would mar. In other situations also we must make modifications to correspond to the position of the heaven and its effect on climate. 3. These effects are noticeable and discernible not only in things in nature but they also are observable in the limbs and bodies of entire races. In places on which the sun throws out its heat and moderation it keeps human bodies in their proper condition and where its path is very close at hand it parches them up and burns out and takes away the proportional moisture which they ought to possess. But on the other hand in the cold regions that are far away from the south the moisture is not drawn out by hot weather but the atmosphere is full of dampness which diffuses moisture into the system and makes the frame larger and the edge of the voice deeper. This is also the reason why the races that are bred in the north are of vast height and have fair complexions straight red hair, grey eyes and a great deal of blood owing to the abundance of moisture and the coolness of the atmosphere. 4. On the contrary those that are nearest to the southern half of the axis and that lie directly under the sun's course are of a lower stature with a swathe complexion, hair curling, black and strong legs and but a little blood on account of the force of the sun. Hence 2. This poverty of blood makes them over timid to stand up against the sword but great heat and fevers they can endure without timidity because their frames are bred up in the raging heat. 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. 5. The pitch of the voice is likewise different and varying in quality with different nations for the following reasons. The terminating points east and west on the level of the earth where the upper and lower parts of the heaven are divided seem to lie in a naturally balanced circle which mathematicians call the horizon. Keeping this idea definitely in mind if we imagine a line drawn from the northern side of the sun conference to the side which lies above the southern half of the axis and from here another line typically up to the pivot of the summit beyond the stars composing the great bear we shall doubtless see that we have in the heaven a triangle figure like that of the musical instrument which the Greeks call the sambuca. 6. And so under the space which is nearest to the pivot at the bottom of the southern portions of the line of the axis are found nations that on account of the slight altitude of the heaven above them have shrill and very high pitched voices like the string nearest to the earth in the musical instrument. Next in order come other nations as far as the middle of Greece which lower elevations of the voice and from this middle point they go in regular order up to the extreme north where under high altitude the vocal utterance of the inhabitants is under natural laws produced in heavier tones. Thus it is obvious that the system of the universe as a whole is on account of the inclination of the heaven composed in a most perfect harmony through the temporary power of the sun. 7. The nations therefore that lie midway between the pivots at the southern and the northern extremities of axis converse in a voice of middle pitch like the notes in the middle of a musical scale but as we proceed towards the north the distances to the heaven become greater and so the nations there whose vocal utterance is reduced by the moisture to the high petties and to proslam phenomenon are naturally more likely to speak in heavier tones. In the same way as we proceed from the middle point to the south the voices of the nations there correspond in extreme height of pitch and entrainments to the Parnatis and Natis. 8. That it is a fact that things are made heavier from being in places naturally moist and higher pitched from places that are hot may be proved from the following experiment. Take two cups which have been baked in the same oven for an equal time or of equal weight and which give the same note when struck. Dip one of them in water and after taking it out of water strike them both. This done there will be a great difference in their notes and the cups can no longer be equal in weight. Thus it is with men. Though born in the same general form and under the same all embracing heaven yet in some of them on account of the heat in their country the voice strikes the air on a high note while in others on account of the importance of moisture the quality of the tones produced is very heavy. 9. Further it is owing to the rarity of the atmosphere the southern nations with their keen intelligence due to the heat are very free and swift in the devising of schemes while northern nations being enveloped in a dense atmosphere and chilled by moisture from the obstructing air have but a sluggish intelligence. That this is so we may see from the case of snakes. Their movements are most active in hot weather when they have got rid of the chill due to moisture whereas the winter solstice and in winter weather they are chilled by the change of temperature and rendered torpid and motionless. It is therefore no wonder that man's intelligence is made keener by warm air and duller by cold. 10. But although southern nations have keenest wits and are infinitely clever informing schemes yet the moment it comes to displaying valor they succumb because all manliness of spirit is sucked out of them by the sun. On the other hand men born in cold countries are indeed a red year to meet the shock of arms with great courage and without timidity but their wits are so slow that they will rush to the charge inconsiderately and inexperably thus defeating their own devices. 11. Such being nature's arrangement of the universe and all these nations being allotted temperaments which are lacking in due moderation the truly perfect territory situated under the middle of the heaven and having on each side the entire extent of the world and its countries is that which is occupied by the Roman people. 11. In fact the races of Italy are the most perfectly constituted in both respects in bodily form and in mental activity to correspond to their valor. Exactly as the planet Jupiter is itself temperate it's cause lying midway between Mars which is very hot and Saturn which is very cold so Italy lying between the north and the south is a combination of what is found on each side and her preeminence is well regulated and indisputable. And so by her wisdom she breaks the courageous onsets of the barbarians and by her strength of hand sorts the devices of the southerners. Hence it was the divine intelligence that set the city of the Roman people in a peerless and temperate country that it might require the right to command the whole world. 12. Now if it is the fact the countries differ from one another and are of various classes according to climate so that the very nations born there naturally differ in mental and physical confirmation and qualities we cannot hesitate to make our houses suitable in plan to the peculiarities of nations and races since we have the expert guidance of nature herself ready to our hand. 13. And also at forth the peculiar characteristics of localities so far as I could note them in the most summary way and I have stated how we ought to make our houses conform to the physical qualities of nations with due regard to the course of the sun and the climate. Next I shall treat the symmetrical proportions of the different styles of houses both as holes and in their separate parts. 14. And of book 6 chapter 1 of 10 books on architecture this LibriVox recording is in the public domain recording by Fredrik Carlson 10 books on architecture by Vitruvius translated by Morris Hickey Morgan. 2. Symmetry and modification in it to suit the site. 1. There is nothing to which an architect should devote more thought than to the exact proportions of his buildings with reference to a certain part selected as the standard. The standard of symmetry has been determined and the proportionate dimensions adjusted by calculations it is next the part of wisdom to consider the nature of the site or questions of use or beauty and modify the plan by diminishes or additions in such a manner that these diminishes or additions in the symmetrical relations may be seen to be made on correct principles and without detracting at all from the effect. 2. The look of a building when seen closer hand is one thing on a height it is another not the same in an enclosed place still different in the open and in all these cases it takes much judgment to decide what is to be done. The fact is that the eye does not always give a true impression but very often leads the mind to form a false judgment. In painted scenery for example columns may appear to jut out, mutuals to project and statues to be standing in the foreground although the pictures of course perfectly flat. Similarly with ships the oars when under the water are straight though to the eye they appear to be broken to the point where they touch the surface of the sea they look straight as indeed they are but when dipped under the water they emit from their bodies underlating images which come swimming up through the naturally transparent medium to the surface of the water and being hair thrown into commotion make the oars look broken. 3. Now whether this appearance is due to the impact of the images or the diffusion of the rays from the eye as the physicist told in either case it is obvious that the vision may lead us to false impressions. 4. Since therefore the reality may have a false appearance and since things are sometimes represented by the eyes as other than they are I think it's certain that diminutions or additions should be made to suit the nature or needs of the sight but in such fashion that the buildings lose nothing thereby. These results however are also attainable by the flashes of genius and not only by mere science. 5. Hence the first thing to settle is the standard of symmetry from which we need not hesitate to vary. Then lay out the ground lines of the length and breadth of the work proposed and when once we have determined its size let the construction follow this with due regard to beauty or proportion so that the beholder may feel no doubt of the urythmia of its effect. I must now tell how this may be brought about and first I will speak of the proper construction of a cavaidium. 3. Proportions of the principal rooms. 1. There are five different styles of cavaidium termed according to their construction as follows. Tuscan, Corinthian, Tetra-style, Displuviate and Testudinate. In the Tuscan the girders that crossed the breadth of the atrium have cross-beams on them and valleys sloping in and running from the angles of the walls to the angles formed by the beams and the wall to falls down along the rafters to the roof opening, compluvium in the middle. In the Corinthian the girders and roof opening are constructed on these same principles but the girders run in from the side walls and are supported all round on columns. In the Tetra-style the girders are supported at the angles by columns an arrangement which relieves and strengthens the girders for thus they have themselves no great span to support and they are not loaded down by the cross-beams. 2. In the Displuviate there are beams which slope outwards supporting the roof and throwing the rainwater off. This style is suitable chiefly in winter residences for its roof opening being high up is not an obstruction to the light of the dining rooms. It is however very troublesome to keep in repair because the pipes which are intended to hold the water that comes dripping down the walls all around cannot take it quickly enough as it runs down from the channels but get too full run over thus spoiling the woodwork and the walls of houses of this style. The Testodonate is employed where the span is not great and where large rooms are provided in upper stories. 3. In Width and Length, atriums are designed according to three classes. The first is laid out by dividing the length into five parts and giving three parts to the width. The second by dividing it into three parts and assigning two parts to the width. The third by using the width to describe a square figure with equal sides drawing a diagonal line in this square and giving the atrium the length of this diagonal line. 4. Their height up to the girders should be one fourth less than their width, the rest being the proportion assigned to the ceiling and the roof above the girders. The ally to the right and left should have a width equal to one third of the length of the atrium when that is from 30 to 40 feet long from 40 to 50 feet divide three and one half and give the ally the result. When it is from 50 to 60 feet in length devote one fourth of the length to the ally from 60 to 80 feet divide the length by four and one half and let the result be the width of the ally. From 80 feet to 100 feet the length divided into five parts will produce the right width for the ally. Their lintel beams should be placed high enough to make the height of the ally equal to their width. 5. The tablinum should be given two thirds of the width of the atrium when the latter is 20 feet wide. If it is from 30 to 40 feet let half the width of the atrium be devoted to the tablinum. When it is from 40 to 60 feet divide the width into five parts and let two of these be set apart for the tablinum. In the case of smaller atriums the symmetrical proportions cannot be the same as in larger. For if, in the case of the smaller we employ the proportion that belong to the larger both tablina and ally must be unserviceable. While if in the case of the larger we employ the proportions of the smaller the rooms mentioned will be huge mostrosities. Hence I have thought it best to describe exactly their respective proportionate sizes with a view both to convenience and to beauty. 6. The height of the tablinum at the lintel should be one eighth more than its width. Its ceiling should exceed this height by one third of the width. The forces in the case of smaller atriums should be two thirds and in the case of larger one half the width of the tablinum. Let the busts of the ancestors with their ornaments be set up at a height corresponding to the width of the ally. The proportionate width and height of doors may be settled if they are Doric in the Doric manner and if Ionic in the Ionic manner according to the rules of symmetry which have been given about portrules in the fourth book. In the roof opening let an aperture be left with a breadth of not less than one fourth nor more than one third the width of the atrium and with a length proportionate to that of the atrium. 7. Peristyle lying a thwart should be one third longer than they are deep and their columns as high as the colonnades are wide. Intercolumniations of peristyle should be not less than three nor more than four times the thickness of the columns if the columns of the peristyle are to be made in the Doric style take the modules which I have given in the fourth book on the Doric order and arrange the columns with reference to these modules and to the scheme of the tribliffs. 8. Dining rooms ought to be twice as long as they are wide. The height of all oblong rooms should be calculated by adding together their measured length and width taking one half of this total and using the result for the height. But in the case of exodry or square erky let the height be brought up to one and one half times the width. Picture galleries like exodry should be constructed of generous dimensions. Corinthian and tetrastyle erky as well as those termed egyptian should have the same symmetrical proportions in width and length as dining rooms described above but since they have columns in them their dimensions should be ampler. 9. The following will be the distinction between Corinthian and egyptian orky. The Corinthian have single tiers of columns that either on a podium or on the ground with architraves over them and coronae either of a woodwork or of stucco and carved vaulted ceilings above the coronae. In the egyptian there are architraves over the columns and joists laid thereon from the architraves to the surrounding walls with a floor in the upper story to a low of walking round under the open sky. Then upon the architrave and perpendicularly over the lower tier of columns columns one-fourth smaller should be imposed. Above their architraves and ornaments are decorated ceilings and the upper columns have windows set in between them. Thus the egyptian are not like Corinthian dining rooms but obviously resemble basilicas. 10. There are also though not customary in Italy the orky which the Greeks call sysizine. These are built with a northern exposure and generally command a view of gardens and have folding doors in the middle. There are also so long and so wide that two sets of dining couches facing each other with room to pass round them can be placed therein. On the right and left they have windows which open like folding doors that views of the garden may be had from the dining couches through the open windows. The height of such rooms is one and one-half times their width. 11. All the above mentioned symmetrical relations should be observed in these kinds of buildings that can be without embarrassment caused by the situation. The windows will be in easy matter to arrange if they are not darkened by high walls but in cases of confined space when there are other unavoidable obstructions it will be permissible to make diminutions or additions in the symmetrical relations with ingenuity and acuteness however so that the result may be not unlike the beauty which is due to true symmetry. 4. The proper exposures of the different rooms. 1. We shall next explain how the special purposes of different rooms require different exposures suited to convenience and to the quarters of the sky. Winter dining rooms and bathrooms should have a south-western exposure for the reason that they need the evening light and also because the setting sun facing them in all its splendor but with a baited heat lends a gentler warmth through that quarter in the evening. Bedrooms and libraries ought to have an eastern exposure because their rooms require the morning light and also because books in such libraries will not decay. In libraries with southern exposures the books are ruined by worms and dampness because damp winds come up which breed and noise the worms and destroy the books with mould by spreading their damped breath over them. 2. Dining rooms for spring and autumn to the east for when the windows face that quarter the sun as it goes on his career from over against them leaves such rooms at the proper temperature at the time when it is customary to use them. Summer dining rooms to the north because that quarter is not like the others burning with heat during the solstice for the reason that it is unexposed to the sun's course and hence it always keeps cool and makes the use of the rooms both healthy and agreeable. Similarly with picture galleries embroiderers, work rooms and painters studios in order that the fixed light may permit the colours used in their work to last with qualities unchanged. 5. How the rooms should be suited to the station of the owner 1. After settling the positions of the rooms with regard to the quarters of the sky we must next consider the principles on which should be constructed those apartments in private houses which are meant for the householders themselves and those which are shared in common with outsiders. The private rooms are those into which nobody has the right to enter without an invitation such as bedrooms, dining rooms, bathrooms and all others used for the like purposes. The common are those which any of the people have a perfect right to enter even without an invitation that is entrance courts, cavadia peristals and all intended for the like purpose. Hence men of everyday fortune do not need entrance courts, tablina or atriums built in grand style because such men are more apt to discharge their social obligations by going around to others than to have others come to them. 2. Those who do business in counterproduce must have stalls and shops in their entrance courts with crypts granaries, storerooms and so forth in their houses constructed more for the purpose of keeping the produce in good condition than for an ornamental beauty. For capitalists and farmers of the revenue somewhat comfortable and showy apartments must be constructed secure against robbery for advocates and public speakers handsomer and more roomy to accommodate meetings for men of rank who from holding offices and magistrises have social obligations to their fellow citizens lofty entrance courts in regal style and most spacious atriums and peristals with plantations and walks of some extent in them appropriate to their dignity. They need also libraries, picture galleries and basilicas finished in a style similar to that of the great public buildings since public councils as well as private lawsuits and hearings before arbitrators are very often held in the houses of such men. 3. If therefore houses are planned on these principles to suit different classes of persons as described in my first book under the subject of propriety there will be no room for criticism for they will be arranged with convenience and perfection to suit every purpose. The rules on these rules for houses in town but also for those in the country except that in town atriums are usually next to the front door while in country seats peristals come first and then atriums surrounded by paved colonnades opening up on palace tray and walks. I have now set forth the rules for houses in town so far as I could describe them in a summary way. Next I shall state how farm houses may be arranged with a view to convenience and use and shall give end of book 6 chapter 5. Book 6 chapter 6 to 8 of 10 books on architecture this LibriVox recording is in the public domain recording by Fredrik Carlson. 10 books on architecture by Vitruvius translated by Morris Hickey Morgan. Chapter 6 The Farmhouse 1. In the first place inspect the country from the point of view of health in accordance with what is written in my first book on the building of cities and let your farmhouses be situated accordingly. Their dimensions should depend upon the size of the farm and the amount of produce. Their courtyards and the dimensions thereof should be determined by the number of cattle and the number of yolks of oxen that will need to be kept therein. Let the kitchen be placed on the warmest side of the courtyard where the stalls for the oxen are joining and their cribs facing the kitchen fire and the eastern quarter of the sky where the light and the fire do not get rough-coated. Even peasants wholly without knowledge of the quarters of the sky believe that oxen ought to face only in the direction of the sunrise. 2. Their stalls ought to be not less than 10 nor more than 15 feet wide and long enough to allow not less than 7 feet for each joke. Bathrooms also should adjoin the kitchen for in this situation it will not take long to get ready a bath in the country. Let the pressing room also be next to the kitchen for in this situation it will be easier to deal with the fruit of the olive. Adjoining it should be the wine room with its windows lighted from the north. In a room with windows on any other quarter so that the sun can heat it, the heat will get into the wine and make it weak. 3. The oil room must be situated so as to get its light from the south and from warm quarters, for oil ought not to be chilled but should be kept thin by gentle heat. In pensions, oil room should be built to accommodate the crop and the proper number of jars, each of which holding about 120 gallons must take up a space 4 feet in diameter. The pressing room itself, if the pressure is exerted by means of levers and a beam and not worked by turning screws, should be not less than 40 feet long, which will give the lever man a convenient amount of space. It should be not less than 16 feet wide, which will give the men who are at work free space to do the turning conveniently. If two presses are required in the place, allow 24 feet for the width. 4. Folds for sheep and goats must be made large enough to allow each animal a space of not less than four and a half, nor more than six feet. Rooms for grain should be set in an elevated position and with a northern or northeastern exposure. Thus the grain will not be able to heat quickly, but being cooled by the wind keeps a long time. Other exposures produce the corn weevil and the other little creatures that are warned to spoil the grain. To the stable should be assigned the very warmest place in the farmhouse provided that it is not exposed to the kitchen fire, for when draught animals are stable very near a fire their coats get rough. 5. Furthermore there are advantages in building cribs apart from the kitchen and in the open facing the east, for when the oxen are taking over to them on early winter warnings in clear weather their coats get sleek as they take their fodder in the sunlight. 6. Barns for grain, hay and spelt, as well as bakers should be built apart from the farmhouse so that farmhouses may be better protected against danger from fire. If something more refined is required in farmhouses they may be constructed on the principles of symmetry which have been given about in the case of townhouses, provided that there is nothing in such buildings to interfere with their usefulness on a farm. 6. We must take care that all buildings are well lighted, but this is obviously an easier matter with those which are on country estates, because there can be no neighbors wall to interfere whereas in town high party walls or limited space obstruct the light and make them dark. Hence we must apply the following tests in this matter. On the side from which the light should be obtained let a line be stretched from the top of the wall that seems to obstruct the light to the point at which it ought to be introduced and if a considerable space of open sky can be seen when one looks up above that line there will be no obstruction to the light in that situation. 7. But if there are timbers in the way or lintels or upper stores then make the opening higher up and introduce the light in this way and as a general rule we must arrange so as to leave places for windows on all sides on a clear view of the sky can be had for this will make our buildings light. Not only in dining rooms and other rooms for general use are windows very necessary but also in passages level or inclined and on stairs for people carrying burdens to often meet and run against each other in such places. I have now set forth the plants used for buildings in our native country so that they may be clear to builders. Next I shall describe some early how houses are planned in the Greek fashion so that those also may be understood. 7. The Greek House The Greeks having no use for atriums do not build them but make passageways for people entering from the front door not very wide with stables on one side and door keepers rooms on the other and shut off by doors at the inner end. This place between the two doors is termed in Greek Theorion from it one enters the Peristyle This Peristyle has colonnades on three sides and on the side facing the south it has two Antae a considerable distance apart carrying an architrave with a recess for the distance one third less than the space between the Antae This space is called by some writers Prostas by others Pastas. 2. Hereabouts towards the inner side are the large rooms in which mistresses of the house sit with their wool spinners. On the left of the Prostas there are chambers one of which is called the Thalamus the other the Amphithalamus All around the colonnades are dining rooms for everyday Jews chambers and rooms for the slaves This part of the house is called Gineconitis 3. In connection with these there are ample sets of apartments with more sumptuous Peristyle surrounded by four colonnades of equal height or else the one which faces the south with more columns than the others A Peristyle that has one such higher colonnade is called Erodean Peristyle Such apartments have fine entrance courts with imposing front doors of their own The colonnades of the Peristyle are decorated with polished dacquot in relief and plain and with covered ceilings of woodwork Off the colonnades that face the north they have society in dining rooms and picture galleries to the east libraries etc There are large square rooms of such generous dimensions that four sets of dining coaches can easily be arranged in them with plenty of room for serving and for the amusements 4. Men's dinner parties are held in these large rooms for it was not the practice according to Greek custom for the mistress of the house to be present On the contrary such Peristyle are called the men's apartments since in them the men can stay All sets of apartments are built to the right and left with front doors of their own and suitable dining rooms and chambers so that guests from abroad need not to be shown into the Peristyle but rather into such guests' apartments For when the Greeks became more luxurious in their circumstances more opulent they began to provide dining rooms, chambers and storerooms or provisions for their guests from abroad and on the first day they would invite them to dinner sending them on the next chickens, eggs, vegetables, fruits and other country produce This is why artists called pictures representing the things which were sent to guests senior Thus too, the heads of families while being entertained abroad had the feeling that they were not away from home since they enjoyed privacy and freedom in such guests' apartments 5. Between the two Peristyle and the guests' apartments are the passageways called Mesole because they are situated midway between two courts called the Andrones This, however, is a very strange fact for the term does not fit either the Greek or the Latin use of it The Greek call the large rooms in which men's dinner parties are usually held Andrones, because women do not go there There are other similar instances as in the case of Cystus Prothyrum, Telamonus and some others of the sort As a Greek term Cystus means a colonnade of large dimensions in which athletes exercise in the wintertime but our people apply the term Cysta to uncovered walks which the Greeks call the paradromides Again, Prothyrum means in Greek the entrance course before the front doors We, however, use the term Prothyrum in the sense of the Greek diathyra 6. Again, figures in the form of men supporting mutuals or coroni were a term Telamonus the reason why or wherefore they are so called are not found in any story but the Greeks name them Atlantis For Atlas is described in stories as holding up the firmament because through his vigorous intelligence and ingenuity he was the first cause meant to be taught about the causes of the sun and moon and the laws governing the revolutions of all the constellations Consequently, in recognition of this benefaction painters and sculptors represent him as holding up the firmament and the Atlantis, his daughters whom we call Vergilia consecrated in the firmament among the constellations 7. All this, however, I have not set forth for the purpose of changing the usual terminology or language but I have thought it should be explained so that it may be known to scholars I have now explained the usual ways of planning houses both in Italian fashion and according to the practices of the Greeks and have described with regard to their symmetry the proportions of the different classes having, therefore, already written of their beauty and propriety I shall next explain with reference to durability how they may be built to last to a great age without defects 8. On foundations and substructures 1. Houses which are set level with the ground will no doubt last to a great age if their foundations are laid in the matter which we have explained in the earlier books with regard to city walls and theatres but if underground rooms and vaults are intended their foundations ought to be thicker than the walls which are to be constructed in the upper parts of the house and the walls, piers and columns of the latter should be set perpendicularly over the middle of the foundation walls below so that they may have solid bearing for if the load of the walls or columns rests on the middle of spans they can have no permanent durability 2. It will also do no harm to insert posts between lintels and sills where there are piers or anti for where the lintels and beams have received the load of the walls they may sag in the middle and gradually undermine and destroy the walls but when there are posts set up underneath and wedged in there they prevent the beams from settling and injuring such walls 3. We must also manage to discharge the load of the walls by means of arcings composed of vocewars with joints radiating to the center for when arches with vocewars are used from the ends of beams or from the bearings of lintels in the first place they will discharge the load and the wood will not sag secondly, if in course of time the wood becomes at all defective it can easily be replaced without the construction of shoring 4. Likewise in houses where piers are used in the construction when there are arches composed of vocewars with joints radiating to the center the outermost piers at these points must be made broader so that they may have the strength to resist when the wedges under the pressure of the load of the walls begin to press along their joints towards the center and thus to thrust out the abutments hence, if the piers at the ends are of larger dimensions they will hold the vocewars together and make such works durable 5. Haven't taken heed in these matters to see the proper attention is paid to them we must also be equally careful that all walls are perfectly vertical and that they do not lean forward anywhere particular pains too must be taken with substructures for here an endless amount of harm is usually done by the earth used as filling this cannot always remain of the same weight that it usually has in summer but in winter time it increases in weight on bulk by taking up a great deal of rainwater and then it burst its closing walls and thrust them out 6. The following means must be taken to provide against such a defect 1. Let the walls be given a thickness proportionate to the amount of filling 2. Build counterforge or buttresses at the same time as the wall on the outer side at distances from each other equivalent to what is to be the height of the substructure and with the thickness of the substructure at the bottom let them run out to a distance corresponding to the thickness that has been determined for the substructure and then gradually diminish in extent so that at the surface the projection is equal to the thickness of the wall of the building 7. Furthermore inside to meet the mass of earth there should be saw shaped constructions attached to the wall the single teeth extending from the wall for a distance equivalent to what is to be the height of the substructure and the teeth being constructed with the same thickness as the wall then at the outermost angles take a distance inwards from the inside of the angle equal to the height of the roof on each side from these marks build up a diagonal structure from the middle of it a second joined on to the angle of the wall with this arrangement the teeth and diagonal structures will not allow the filling to thrust with all its force against the wall but will check and distributed pressure 8. I have now shown how buildings can be constructed without defects and the way to take precautions against the occurrence of them as for replacing tiles and rafters we need not to be so particular about them as about the parts just mentioned because they can easily be replaced however defective they may become hence I have shown by what methods the parts which are not considered solid can be rendered durable and how they are constructed 9. As for the kind of material to be used this does not depend upon the architect for the reason that all kinds of materials are not found in all places alike as I have been shown in the first book besides it depends on the owner whether he desires to build a brick or rubble work or dimension stone consequently the question of approving any work may be considered under three heads that is delicacy of workmanship sumptuousness and design 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 he has authorized the workman 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 10. Such results however may very well be brought about when he allows himself to take the advice both of workmen and of laymen in fact all kinds of men and not merely architects can recognize a good piece of work but between laymen and the latter there is this difference where laymen cannot tell what it is to be like without seeing it finished whereas the architect as soon as he has formed the conception and before he begins the work has a definite idea of the beauty the convenience and the propriety that will distinguish it I have now described as clearly as I could what I thought necessary for private houses and how to build them in the following book I shall treat of the kinds of polished finish employed to make them elegant in effect to a great age End of book 6