On architecture / Vitruvius ; with an English translation by Frank Granger.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Vitruvius Pollio, author.

Contributor:

Granger, Frank, 1864-1936, translator.

Series:

Loeb classical library ; 251, 280.

Loeb Classical Library ; 251, 280

Standardized Title:

De architectura. English & Latin

Language:

English

Latin

Subjects (All):

Architecture--Early works to 1800.

Architecture.

Physical Description:

1 online resource : line illustrations, halftone, musical exampl.

Other Title:

Digital Loeb.

Place of Publication:

Cambridge, MA : Harvard University Press, 2014.

Language Note:

Text in Latin with English translation on facing pages.

System Details:

Mode of access: World Wide Web.

text file

Summary:

On Architecture, completed by Vitruvius sometime before 27 CE and the only work of its kind to survive antiquity, serves not professionals but readers who want to understand architecture. Topics include town planning, building materials, temples, the architectural orders, houses, pavements, mosaics, water supply, measurements, and machines. Vitruvius (Marcus V. Pollio), Roman architect and engineer, studied Greek philosophy and science and gained experience in the course of professional work. He was one of those appointed to be overseers of imperial artillery or military engines, and was architect of at least one unit of buildings for Augustus in the reconstruction of Rome. Late in life and in ill health he completed, sometime before 27 BCE, De Architectura which, after its rediscovery in the fifteenth century, was influential enough to be studied by architects from the early Renaissance to recent times. In On Architecture Vitruvius adds to the tradition of Greek theory and practice the results of his own experience. The contents of this treatise in ten books are as follows. Book 1: Requirements for an architect; town planning; design, cities, aspects; temples. 2: Materials and their treatment. Greek systems. 3: Styles. Forms of Greek temples. Ionic. 4: Styles. Corinthian, Ionic, Doric; Tuscan; altars. 5: Other public buildings (fora, basilicae, theatres, colonnades, baths, harbours). 6: Sites and planning, especially of houses. 7: Construction of pavements, roads, mosaic floors, vaults. Decoration (stucco, wall painting, colours). 8: Hydraulic engineering; water supply; aqueducts. 9: Astronomy. Greek and Roman discoveries; signs of the zodiac, planets, moon phases, constellations, astrology, gnomon, sundials. 10: Machines for war and other purposes.

Contents:

v. I. Books 1-5

v. II. Books 6-10.

Notes:

Includes bibliographies and indexes.

Description based on print version record.

Other Format:

Print version: Vitruvius Pollio. On architecture.

Access Restriction:

Restricted for use by site license.