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MARCEL E. CERF '97
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THE
ELEMENTS
OF
CIVIL ARCHITECTURE,
ACCORDING TO
saitruhiusf aria otfter anrimts;,
AND THE
MOST APPROVED PRACTICE OF MODERN AUTHORS, \
ESPECIALLY PALLADIO.
BY HENRY ALDRICH, D.D.
FORMERLY DEAN OF CHRIST CHURCH
TRANSLATED BY
THE REV. PHILIP SMYTH, LL. B.
FELLOW OF NEW COLLEGE.
THIRD EDITION.
OXFORD,
PRINTED BY W. BAXTER,
FOR J. PARKER: ANDGEO.B.WHITTAKEll, AVE MARIA LA\E,
LONDON.
1824.
NrpiS/s
PREFACE
TO
THE SECOND EDITION,
A COMPENDIUM of Roman and Italian
Architecture will not, it is presumed, be without
its use to the public at large, while to the travel-
ler it may be considered as supplying a deficiency
in the portable library, which has been long and
seriously lamented. Our best books of travels
give but little else than loose and vague hints
on this subject: the Guides and local books
of description are too confined in their nature,
and the general elementary treatises too diffuse,
for the purpose required.
There appears in the present work a short
critical history of the Art in Italy, such as is
necessary to be studied before any real interest
can be felt in visiting the beautiful specimens
which that country affords. Next follow, a de-
scription of the five Orders, and a copious list of
iy:55'?SG8
vi PREFACE.
terms, accompanied with plates: some illustrations
of ancient Architecture, and plans of Grecian
and Roman houses, which will be found useful
in examining the remains of Herculaneum and
Pompeii : then a selection of engravings from
the best works of Bramante, Raffaelli, J. Romano,
Peruzzi, Palladio, Vignola, &c.
That it is not of the light trumpery of the day^
the name ofALDRiCH, by whom the history was
composed, will be held a sufficient guarantee.
It would be an insult upon the reader's un-
derstanding to urge any arguments upon the
utility of the study of Architecture, and to at-
tempt either to point out the numerous sources
of instruction and profit to be derived from i(s
pursuit at home, or the numerous opportunities
of improvement that are lost to an ignorant man
who traverses the country of Palladio.
ADVERTISEMENT.
J.T is presumed that the following notices,
concerning Architecture and Architects,
can scarce prove unacceptable to the
readers, for whose ease the Translation
they precede is intended. The entire no-
vice in that Science — the artist, whose at-
tention the engagements of an early prac-
tice have withdrawn from the history of his
profession — the traveller, who sets out un-
prepared for countries in which the wonders
of ancient art, and the rival works of
masters, who from them have learned al-
most to equal them, are every where ob-
vious—persons of these descriptions must,
it is presumed, receive with no unwilling
viii ADVERTISEMENT.
hand the tender of such information, as
officious industry has here collected for
them from the best sources, and endea-
voured to bring within the shortest com-
pass. A pure view to utility suggested the
attempt : and a candid acceptance is all
that is hoped, in return for d labour which
no vanity could beguile, since no praise can
await its best success.
It is due to the respectable Author of
the Translation to declare, that he is totally
unaccountable for any mistakes or defects
in the sketch he has honoured with a place
at the head of his version.
INTRODUCTION.
The wants of man, in solitude or in society,
are the sources of his invention and industry.
The first of his needs, after tlie means of subsist-
ence, is that of protection for his person and
stores, against the severity of chmate and the
mutabihty of seasons.
His earUest attempts, to provide a permanent
shelter for both above ground**, must have been
determined by the easiest apphcation of the most
obvious materials, such as trees and their branches,
reeds, shrubs, rushes, clay, mud, &c.
* If ever there was a time when man inhabited caves in
rocks, or burrowed under ground*, that mode of dwelling is
antecedent to the first idea of structure,* and therefore foreign
to the present purpose ; not to mention that the gloom and
humidity of such retreats must soon have compelled him to
the contrivance of a less uncomfortable abode. We read, in-
deed, in P. Mela and in Pliny, of an African nation of Tro-
glodytes, i. e. (etymologically) dwellers in caverns, on the south-
western coast of the Sinus Arabicus, or Red Sea ; but Mela's
further description of this people, as creaking rather than
speaking, and living upon serpents, gives their whole article
a very fabulous cast.
• Vitniv, b. ii. c. 1.
B
2 INTRODUCTION.
In whatever artless manner these may at first
have been employed, as infant society became
less rude, and practice introduced dexterity, his
structures w^ould naturally assume some regularity
of form.
The usage of all the less cultivated tribes of
men, in the various distant regions of our earth,
seems to shew that the conical hut was the pri-
mary essay in this kind''. We find it with the
Kamkatschan and the Hottentot ; we meet with
it in the American Wigwam ; among the ancient
inhabitants of Asia Minors and those of the
new discovered islands in the southern ocean.
It is of ready erection, as easy removal, has de-
clivity for rain to run off, and sufficient resistance
to the ordinary force of winds.
Further experience of this form, incapable of
suitable enlargement when increasing families
were to be assembled under it, suggested the
more convenient one of the cubical hovel, con-
structed of upright trunks, or beams, planted in
the ground, with other beams laid horizontally
along their tops, and connected, at the angles
where they join to terminate the four sides, by
ligature or other fastening ; after which, the open
interstices might be filled up with the small
branches of the. trunks employed for support,
reeds, shrubs, &c.
'' Sir W. Chambers's Civ. Arch. pag. 1. pi. 1.
«= Vitniv. b. ii. c. 1. *
INTRODUCTION. S
Requisite enlargement, and partition of such
an inclosure vertically, may have furnished the
first idea of apartments for separate use. The
conical hut must have taught the builder the ad-
vantage of giving declivity to the roof of his next
invented habitation ; and further consideration
would in time shew him, that as this roof might
be laid on at any moderate height, some addi-
tional solidity and elevation of his walls would
render his inclosed space divisible horizontally
by a flooring, and so gain him a story above his
ground plot. Such seems to have been the first
simple model of convenient structure for private
habitation ; the species of fabric with which the
following treatise is chiefly concerned.
How the component parts of this once esta-
blished form were, in the course of ages, progres-
sively improved ; plain props into columns ; their
superincumbent beams into entablatures ; the
members of these rendered distinct and pleasing
to the eye, by variety of mouldings of different
heights, projections, &c. aptly combined and
properly ornamented, is briefly explained in the
ensuing pages. Suffice it to have hinted here,
that, from such rude beginnings, the practice of
building grew to the dignity of an Art, whose
productions have been the pride of sovereigns and
the boast of nations.
To trace its progress towards perfection
through the several regions of the world, where
B 2
4 INTRODUCTION.
it has in its birth, growth, and dedine, followed
the fortune of empires ; if it could be done wdth
any degree of success, would be an attempt
much beyond the limits and design of this intro-
duction, intended only to give the readef, new
to the subject, some very general notion of the
origin of Architecture, and of the means of its
revival in Europe ; and to make him somewhat
more particularly acquainted with those artists
and writers who contributed most largely to
that revival by their researches and communica-
tions.
In Greece, some few years before ^the Pelo-
ponnesian war, the liberal arts had advanced
the nearest to attainable perfection, that the re-
cords of them, come down to the present time,
have shewn them any where to have arrived.
Three of the universally received Orders of Archi-
tecture bear the name of Grecian, in acknowledg-
ment of the country where they originated, at
least whence the Romans received them.
The present Canons of Architecture seem to
have been formed upon the remains of Roman
magnificence, carried to its summit, in this kind,
during the reign of Augustus. What examples
of that magnificence the devastation of the seat
of Empire, involving the ruin of its proudest
monuments, had left standing at the revival of
^ About 440 years before tbe Christian aera.
INTRODUCTION. 5
the Arts, it was the first business of imitative
ability to consult. The measurement and com-
parison of these imperial fragments, in their
whole and in their parts, gave rise to the earliest
labours ; the variable proportion, combination,
and ornament of their parts engaged the first
studies ; and the resulting judgment of the best
forms, producible from these varied combina-
tions and proportions, deterniined the subsequent
practice of those masters, whose structures and
writings are now resorted to, as of decisive au-
thority for their successors.
Their vicinity to the best remaining models
gave the natives of Italy the priority to those of
other countries, in the recovery of the arts of
Painting, Sculpture, and Architecture: but it
would be injustice to suppose, that to this ad-
vantage alone they owe their allowed superiority
in them. Like the Greeks, their forerunners in
every walk of genius, the Italians are endowed
with quick perception, nice discernment, rich
invention. Of exquisite sensibiHty to every kind
and form of beauty, it is equally theirs to recog-
nize and to exhibit excellence, by taste and by
performance.
The business of the following pages is con-
fined to their architects, and, among those,
chiefly to the few who have written judiciously
on the Art, as well as practised it with allowed
success. Their varieties in the doctrine of the
B 3
6 INTRODUCTION.
Orders have been shewn, in parallel, by different
professors, as Messrs. ^Chambray, BIondeH Per-
rault, in French ; Count Alexander Pompei, in
Italian, &c. ; and different schemes have been
proposed for fixing, from comparison of authori-
ties, the proportion of the entire Orders and their
parts ; none of which have been generally re-
ceived. The distributions of Vignola and Pal-
ladio have been most followed in practice ; and
those of the latter with preference in this country.
But, before we proceed to these restorers of
classical Architecture, we must not fail to pay
our first respects to an ancient^ who has left
us the only treatise on that art, of so early date,
now extant. No artist, or scholar, can be igno-
rant that Vitruvius is here meant ; as there is no
subsequent writer, who has not acknowledged
the large assistance all have derived from him,
in what relates to the history and practice of
Greek and Roman Architecture. Most of the
literature of the Art is contained in his ten
books ; and whoever is unread in them will
hardly be deemed worthy to rank with its qua-
lified professors.
Though Vitruvius is named by Roman au-
thors », little more is known of him than what
^ Translated by Mr. Evelyn.
*^ Vitruvius Pollio flourished between 44 and 31 before
Christ.
^ The elder Pliny, Frontinus, &c.
INTRODUCTION. 7
has been collected from scattered passages in his
own work. The most probable opinion, sug-
gested by much disquisition concerning the place
^ of his birth, is, that he was born at or near For-
miae'' in new Latium. From sepulchral inscrip-
tions, found there and in the vicinity, it is evi-
dent that a family of the name was settled in that
district ; and there is no degree of presumption,
from an}?^ hint he has left us, that he was born
elsewhere. The gratitude he, in the preface to
his sixth book, expresses for the indulgence of
his parents to him in a liberal education, toge-
ther with the information he displays through
the VA hole of his treatise, shews that he was well
instructed in all that could accomplish him for
his profession ; and, at the same time, speaks him
descended from persons of some ability. It fur-
ther appears, from his own account of himself,
that he made some campaigns under Julius
Caesar', and was known to him as an architect.
Upon the death of Julius, he passed to the service
of his great nephew and successor Augustus, at
the recommendation of that emperor's sister Oc-
tavia Major ; was by him entrusted with a share '^
in the management of his military machines, and
rewarded with a pension for life. In acknow-
•» Now Mola di Gaeta.
' Vitruv. b. viii. c. 4. Pref. to b. i.
^ Conjointly with M. Aurelius, P. Numidius, and Cn. Cor-
nelius. See Pref. to b. i.
B 4-
8 INTRODUCTION.
ledgment of these benefits, Vitruvius dedicated
his ten books of Architecture to his patron and
sovereign. In them he mentions but one build-
ing of which he was himself the architect, the
Basilica at Fano'. The Theatre of Marcellus,
at Rome, has been ascribed to him, but falsely,
if his practice of the Doric Order were consistent
with his doctrine concerning it ; dentils, to which
he has given express exclusion, being there em-
ployed in the cornice. His complaints™ of the
prevalence of intrigue and ignorance, over probity
and skill, in the profession of Architecture seem
to imply, that he had not his expected share in
the design and conduct of the works executed,
or going forward, in his time. The particular
attention he gives to moral qualities, in his de-
scription of a good architect '^, leaves no doubt
of his having been himself distinguished for pri-
vate and professional integrity. Provided with
the necessaries of life, the precepts of philosophy
with which his education had furnished him,
concurring with his natural moderation, enabled
him to confine his desires to the level of his hum-
ble fortune ; and to console himself for any de-
ficiency of present reputation", with the prospect
of those honours he hoped to deserve and receive
from an impartial posterity. He represents him-
' See his description of it, b. v. c. 1 .
•" See Pref. to b; iii. and vi.
"B. i. c. 1.
' Pref. to b. vi.
INTRODUCTION. 9
selfp as low of stature, of infirm constitution, and
(at the time he dedicated his book) of an ill-fa-
voured countenance, from the alteration in fea-
ture occasioned by age. He appears to have
been aware that his style ^ required some apology,
as deficient in purity and elegance, if confronted
with that of other Roman writers of his time :
but, surely, the novelty and nature of his subject,
abounding with terms and notions hard to La-
tinize, should have mitigated the censure of Al-
berti, Mercurialis, and others ; too nicely atten-
tive to the manner, to be duly sensible to the
value of his communications. When our need
is urgent, and no choice of help at hand, should
we thanklessly refuse the sole assistant that of-
fers, because he is not perfectly well dressed ?
Every art has its vocabulary, and its phraseology
too ; harsh, it may be, and strange to the un-
initiated, but replete with convenience to those,
who are obliged to equal dispatch in operation
and discourse, amidst the hurry of increasing
employment and the momentary demand for a
perplexing variety of directions. The mention,
made by"^ himself, of his having been, for a length
of time, host to a C. Juhus, son of Masinissa
who served under J. Ca3sar, has been adducecj
in proof of the personal consideration in which
P Pref. to b. ii.
'• Pref. to b. vii. sub finem ; and Pref. to b. v.
' B. viii. c. 4.
10 INTRODUCTION.
Yitruvius was held: but who this C. Julius, un-
noticed by any cotemporary writer, was, cannot
now be ascertained. The very ingenious Mar-
quis Galiani, after refuting some conjectures on
the point, offers a correction of the text, reading
Masinthae for Masinissae, which he supports by
historical evidence of some force^ From the few
chronological data found in his work, he appears
to have been at the height of his reputation be-
tween the death of J. Caesar and the battle of
Actium ; that is, from the year 44 to 31 before
Christ. His knowledge of the Grecian Archi-
tecture must have been derived from books ; seeing
he has no where intimated his having travelled in
Greece. The treatise he left on that art was first
found by Poggio, a Florentine, in the monastery of
St. Gall, as is affirmed by himself, p. 346 of his *
Epistles ".
* Vide note 11. p. 22. of his Life of Vitruvius, prefixed to
his Italian translation.
^ Vide Fabricius's account of Vitruvius, in his Biblioth. Lat.
by Ernesti, Lipsise 1773. vol. i. p. 483.
" What is become of this copy is unknown ; nor is it even
mentioned by the Marquis Poleni in his Exercitationes Vitru-
vianae primae, Padua 1739, 4to. wherein he has given an ela-
borate series of the editions, translations, commentaries, abridg-
ments of Vitruvius; together with a list of Manuscripts he
had collated, in preparation for a critical edition of this au-
thor he had long purposed to give. The first intelligent
editor of Vitruvius was Fra. Giocondo of Verona; whose
publication appeared at Venice 1511, fol. again with Fron-
tinus at Florence 1513, 8vo. The edition generally most
INTRODUCTION. 11
The same obligation to brevity (in an intro-
duction to the translation of a piece of but 54
pages in the original) which forbad any attempt
to trace the progress of improving Architecture,
equally excludes all endeavour to give the less
pleasing account of its dechne. It seems to
require the comparative experience of ages to
determine what is most durably satisfactory, to
the eye and to the understanding, in the works
of art ; to discover the reasons of that effect ; and
to form upon them such rules as should generally
guide successful practice. These, once settled
and exemplified by superior artists, become the
standard of execution and of judgment ; and,
for a season, confine the operations of art to that
chastit}^, propriety, and dignity of manner, which
ennoble its productions. But, alas, this state is
esteemed is that of John de Laet. Amst. apud L. Elzev. 1649,
folio. Of the various translations, those of CI. Perrault in
French, 2d edition, Paris 1684, fol. maj. and of the Marquis
Berardo Galiani in Italian, Naples 1758, are incomparably the
best. Upon the authority of Cselio Calcagnini in a letter to
J. Ziegler, the celebrated Raphael of Urbino has been num-
bered among the commentators on Vitruvius. His labours to
this purpose have never appeared; nor is it very probable that
a first-rate gei\ius, who executed so many great works, loved
society, was gay and amorous, and died at thirty-seven, should
have bestowed a length of close application on so difficult an
author ; even supposing him provided with the learning re-
quisite for the undertaking. See Poleni Exercitat. Vitruv.
primjE, p. 27.
12 INTRODUCTION.
never lasting ! Tired of the monotony of per-
fection, restless imagination, excited by the love
of novelty, soon breaks through the restraint of
rules; indulges itself in all the extravagances of
lawless caprice, introduces every species of incon-
gruity, and finally triumphs in absurdity and con-
fusion. Having presented this general idea of the
improvement and perversion of the arts, it remains
to offer a slight sketch of the restoration of that of
Architecture, from its growing corruptions after
the decline of the Roman empire.
Its more observable advance in recovery began
with FiLiPPO Brunelleschi'', a Florentine,
born in 1377? who distinguished himself in the
beginning of the fifteenth century. His first em-
ployment was that of a Goldsmith, from which he
afterwards turned his application to Sculpture,
and finally attached himself to Architecture. He
had some acquaintance with the literature of his
time ; and was enough versed in Geometry and
Perspective to teach the latter to his country-
man Masaccio, the first painter who naturahzed
the stiff manner of Giotto, and set his figures
fairly on their feet. He is said to have learned
the rudiments of his art from the churches of St.
John Baptist and Sant' Apostolo in Florence ;
the first of which is supposed to have been, in
the ages of idolatry, a temple of Mars ; the se-
'^ Brunelleschi, born 1377, died 1444, cet. 67.
INTRODUCTIOxN. 13
cond of very ancient date and unknown inven-
tion: both admirable for the excellence of their
construction. The main proficiency, however,
of Brunelleschi was owing to his diligent study
of Roman Architecture, in his repeated visits to
its stupendous remains, then numerous in the
capital of that empire. Here he conceived that
boldness of design and ardour of enterprize,
which stimulated him -to undertake the cupola
of the dome at Florence, called Santa Maria
del Fiore. His proposal, rejected from the first,
was, at a convention, solicited by himself, of Itahan
and Oltramontane artists, with the curators of
the fabric, on that business in 1420, generally
thought so extravagant, that he was hissed and
driven by force out of the assemblj'. After this
ill treatment he retired to Rome, where having
well considered his project, and re-examined
whatever was to be found instructive for eflPecting
it, he, upon his recall to Florence, persisted in
asserting his competency to the undertaking;
which, after an experiment or two of his method
on a smaller scale, was committed to him in
1421, with permission to conduct it, by way of
trial, to the height of 12 braccia. A very insuf-
ficient colleague was, at the same time, joined
with him in the person of Lorenzo Ghiberti ; of
whom, by a little management, he soon got
rid, and remained alone in the direction to his
death in his 67th year, when he had carried
14 INTRODUCTION.
it up and closed it in to the foot of the lantern ; for
which, and the ball and cross above it, he left
designs and instructions. The height, from the
pavement of the church to the foot of the lantern
is 154 architectural Florentine braccia^; the height
of the lantern 36; the diameter of the copper ball
4; the cross 8: the aggregate of these sums
202.
Cupolas^ had been built at Constantinople,
Venice, Pisa, &.c. before. The truly marvellous
circumstances in this great work are its volume;
the height at which it begins, and that to which
it was carried up, from the walls, without any
frame of timbers for its intermediate support;
its being double, with passage room between the
vaults; and its having no apparent reinforcements
of masonry. Its form is octagonal. Among
the various aukward expedients, suggested at
the meeting of national and foreign architects
above mentioned, one was to carry up an enor-
mous pier of earth, with pieces of money inter-
y The tables of measures in the French Encyclopedie Me-
thodique (the only authority at hand) state the braccio, used
at Florence by architects, as equal to 243 lines, or twenty
inches and one fourth of the pied du Roi, which is to the
English foot as 144 to 135.
^ It is not uncommon, even with persons of education, to
call a cupola a dome ; which properly signifies the cathedral,
or principal church in a city or great town. This being in
Italy (whence we have both terms) generally crowned with a
cupola, has occasioned the mistake of the whoJe for the part.
INTRODUCTION. 15
spersed as it rose; on its summit, properly
moulded, to turn the vault of the cupola; and,
when it was set, to let the populace remove the
earth for the money scattered in it. Though
Brunelleschi was so saving of time, as to provide
booths and victuallers on the top of the church,
that the workmen might have to come up and
go down but once in the day, he spent twenty-three
years in assiduous prosecution of the task he had
the mortification to leave unfinished. His regrets,
however, were tempered with the consolation of
having lived to accomplish the most difficult
part of the undertaking, and settle the plan of
the remainder. His countrymen are fond of
ascribing to him the honour of having first dis-
tinguished the characters of the three Grecian
Orders, and employed them with judgment. The
Neapolitans claim this merit for Stefano, called
after his master Masuccio H. who died in 1388;
and allege in proof the Campanile of Santa Chiara,
where he meant to exhibit the five Orders in
proper situation; but the building was carried
no higher than the third story, or place of the
Ionic.
The first great reformer of Architecture was
buried in the church he had so long laboured to
adorn; where his obsequies were attended by a
concourse of his fellow-citizens of all orders,
with every demonstration of the most affectionate
regret. Nor were their endeavours to perpe-
16 INTRODUCTION.
tuate his memory wanting, as his bust, done by
his disciple Buggiano, and placed on the right
hand of the door of the same church, by the side
of that of Giotto, serves to shew.
His other buildings and designs in Florence are
the Sagresty (vestry) and great part of the church
of St. Lorenzo, with the lodgings of the canons.
The unskilfulness, or malice, of those who con-
tinued the church has much hurt the effect. S.
Spirito, and the habitations of the religious there.
The Capitolo de' Pazzi in Santa Croce; where,
by the side of the altar, were deposited the remains
of the illustrious Galileo Galilei. The uncovered
and almost ruined church degli Angeli, an oc-
tagon, for the noble family degli Scolari, was
carried up to the cornice after his design, pre-
served in the library de^ P. P. Camaldolesi of
Florence. The tribune of Santa Maria Ughi was
his idea.
He made the model of a superb palace of his
own invention for Cosimo de' Medici, to be built
facing St. Lorenzo: but the execution being
dropped, through fear of offence to the public,
the author in a pet broke the model. The palace
Pitti was conducted after his design as far as
the second tier of windows; the rest of the fa-
bric, with the court, was carried on by Barto-
lomeo Animanati, the drawings of Brunelleschi
being lost. Leonora of Toledo, consort of Duke
Cosimo, bought this palace (for the residence of
INTRODUCTION. 17
the grand Dukes) of the representative of Mr.
Luca Pitti, for whom it was built. He gave the
model of the Casa de Busini, for two famihes ;
that of the house and loggie degh Innocenti; he
designed a house for the Barbadori, unexecuted ;
another of the Giuntini in the * Place d'Ogni
Santi. The portico of the hospital de^ Convales-
centi is believed to be his ; as was the continua-
tion of the Palazzo de' Capitani, with much im-
provement of the first plan given by Francesco
della Luna. Out of the Gate of St. Nicholas a
Villa for the aforesaid Mr. Luca Pitti. By order
and at the cost of Cosimo de Medici he designed
the Abbey of the Canons regular of Fiesole, in
site and manner equally convenient and pleas-
ing.
At Milan he planned a fortress and other
works for the reigning Duke Filippo Maria; arid
contributed his assistance in the Dome there.
•Place, conformably to the French rendering, is the only
word that occurs as correspondent to the Italian Piazza. And
here it may be for the service of the mere English reader, to
apprize him of a strange mistake, often made, as to the mean-
ing of the word Piazza ; by employing it to signify the sur-
rounding porticos, e. g. of Covent Garden, instead of the large
area they inclose, w'here the market is held, which is the real
Piazza, or Place. Mr. Pope, in one of his letters, has (in respect
to his talents I had almost said) authorized this mistake ; a
small one indeed, and that in a foreign language, when com-
pensated by the most perfect possession of his own, that the
longest use of it could give to the nicest ear and intellect.
C
18 INTRODUCTION.
The fortress of Vico Pisano was after his model ;
as was the old citadel at Pisa. At the new ci-
tadel he suggested the idea of shutting up the
bridge by the two towers. The fortress of the
port of Pesaro was after his plan. In 1445 (says
Vasari) he was sent by the Republic to the assist-
ance of the Marquis of Mantua, for whom he di-
rected the embankment of a tract of the Po and
other works.
An admirable crucifix in wood of his execu-
tion, in the cappella de Gondi in Santa Maria
novella at Florence, attests his excellence in
sculpture.
Scamozzi, who was in possession of their
MSS. affirms that Antonio Filarete, a Florentine,
and Francesco Sanese, (of the family of Martini
of Sienna,) were of the earliest writers on Archi-
tecture. Both were good practitioners for their
time ; but the book, which the former in 1464
dedicated to Pietro de^ Medici, does him little
credit as an author. Therefore we may truly
say, that the first considerable writer on the
subject was
Leon Battista Alberti ^ canon of the
metropolitan church of Florence. His father was
Lorenzo Alberti, of a family noble and powerful
at Florence. His paternal uncle, for his virtues
and talents displayed in the council of Florence,
•* Leon Battista Alberti born 1398, his death uncertain.
INTRODUCTION. 19
was created a cardinal by Pope Eugene IV.
His brothers, who had the same excellent edu-
cation with himself, were all men of ability. Our
Alberti, joining the most assiduous application
to the largest opportunities of instruction his
father could procure for him, became one of the
most generally learned men of that age ; and a
very eminent contributor to the restoration of
literature and the arts. Equally profound and
elegant, philosophy, law, mathematics, philology,
poetry, were all familiar to him. He was prac-
tically conversant with Painting and Sculpture ;
in Architecture superior (taking theory and exe-
cution together as necessary to complete the
artist) to all of his time. His work De re JEdi-
Jicatoria was the first systematical treatise on the
subject, since the earliest revival of the fine arts,
that received and has retained the approbation
of posterity. He distributed it into ten books,
in imitation, probably, of Vitruvius, of whom he
appears to have been a little invidiously emulous,
by his diligence in bringing forward that author's
errors in doctrine and faults of style. As a
practical architect he was employed in Rome by
Pope Nicolas V. in the repair of the conduit of
the Acqua Vergine ; and for the construction of
the Fontana di Trevi ; since rebuilt by Salvi,
with much magnificence, at the expence of Cle-
ment XII. At the same time, Alberti furnished
a design for covering the bridge of St. Angelo,
c 2
20 INTRODUCTION.
one of the most frequented passages in that capi-
tal, where multitudes are still exposed to the full
effect of a scorching sun in the hottest months,
for want of such a protection. For Sigismond
Pandolf Malatesta he conducted, what is gene-
rally considered as his master-piece, the new
works and embelHshments of the church of St.
Francis at Rimini, left, however, unfinished by
him. For Lewis Gonzaga the reigning Marquis,
among other buildings in Mantua, he constructed
the church of St. Andrew, now much deformed
in the inside by pretended modern improve-
ments. Though the principal front of the church
of Santa Maria novella at Florence be deemed
unworthy of him, the portal is certainly a design
of Alberti. The loggie of the Corinthian order,
and the Doric front of the Palazzo Rucellai in
the same town, are allowed to be of his inven-
tion. Vasari thinks the architecture of a cha-
pel, he planned for the Rucellai family in Rome,
the best specimen of his skill in that art.
His writings are very numerous^ Many of his
*^ The titles of some of them are Momus, a moral and poli-
tical work in four books. Trattato di Materaatica, translated
by Bartoli from the inedited original. De Jure ined. trans-
lated by the same, with title Dello amministrare la Ragione.
De Causis Senatoriis, printed at Basil. Chorographia urbis
Romse antiquse. Libellus Apologorum, translated by the same.
Philodoxos, comcedia Latina. Dell' Economia tre libri, Italian.
Dialoghi della Republica ; della Vita civile e rusticana ; della
Fortuna ; published by Bartoli. De Amore et de Remedio
INTRODUCTION. 21
Latin compositions, (inedited as well as edited,)
including his ten books De re Mdijicatpria^ were
translated into Italian by Cosimo Bartoli, a Flo-
rentine gentleman. His erudition and his Latin
style are equally applauded by the learned of his
time. Politian, no spendthrift of praise upon his
cotemporaries, is very large and explicit, to his
own patron Lorenzo de' Medici^, in that of
Alberti. It is known that this great man lived
to an advanced age ; but the time of his death is
unascertained.
The reformation of Architecture, begun by
Brunelleschi and greatly furthered by Alberti,
was by none of the intermediate artists so con-
siderably forwarded, as by the labours of Bra-
ma nte% a native of the dutchy of Urbino. The
strong inclination he had from nature to this
profession could not be repressed by the disad-
vantages of a mean extraction. His activity in
quest of information, and his diligence in apply-
ing it, compensated his want of the usual re-
sources. He first studied the celebrated edifices
in Lombardy ; but soon repaired to Rome, as the
Amoris ; Latin titles to Italian treatises. Much Latin and
Tuscan poetry. Statua, Latine ined. translated by the same.
De Picturalibri tres, Latine at Basil 1540; again with John
de Laet's edit, of Vitruvius, Amstel. 1649 ; translated by Bartoli
and Domenichi.
«! Vide Epist. VII. b.x.
' Bramante da Castel Durante o Fermignano, born 1444,
died 1514, aet. 70.
c 3
m INTRODUCTION.
amplest field of instruction in the fine arts. His
earliest patron there was the Cardinal Oliver
Caraffa, who employed him in building a cloister
for the religious Delia Pace. He next served
Pope Alexander VI. as subarchitect, in the foun-
tain of Transtevere, and on other occasions. He
was principally concerned in the Palazzo della
Cancellaria^; in the church of St. Lorenzo in
Damaso ; and gave the design of the palace built
1504 by Cardinal Adriano da Cornetos, in the
place of St. Giacomo Scossacavalli ; which was
afterwards by the said Cardinal (who had been
Nunzio in Scotland) presented to the king of
England ; has since the Reformation been in pos-
session of Cardinal Hieronymo Colonna ; and is
now in that of the S. S. Counts Giraud. That
of the Dukes of Sora, nella regione di Parione,
raised by the Cardinal Nicolo de' Fieschi, was
likewise his invention^. The palace of the Mar-
chese Corsini was begun on his design.
He superintended the construction of a house
planned by the great Raphael d'Urbino*, for
his own habitation in Borgo Nuovo ; a conde-
scension which nothing but the officiousness of
friendship could suggest; if what tradition re-
' Built about 1512. See an elevation of this in Pietro Fer-
rerio*s Palazzi di Roma, torn. i. plate 24.
? Vide Elements, plate 53. fig. 1.
^ Vide Elements, plate 53. fig. 2.
» About 1513. Ibid, plate 54. fig. 1.
INTRODUCTION. 23
ports be true, that Raphael was indebted to
Bramante for his knowledge of Architecture.
The gratitude of that prince of painters was,
however, not inadequate to this and his other
obligations to his compatriot artist ; seeing he
has transmitted him to posterity in two portraits,
inserted in his grand work in the Vatican. In
the piece called the School of Athens, he is in
the character of the Geometrician ; in that of the
dispute on the Holy Sacrament, his features are
given to the bald and beardless figure, that leans
himself and rests a book on the marble parapet,
and, with the left hand, points to the contents,
turning himself at the same time towards one
who seems to be his opponent.
Giulius II. created Pope in 1503, found in
Bramante an architect, by quickness of concep-
tion, invention, and execution, equal to the pro-
jects of his own ardent and enterprizing genius.
At the command of this Pontif, he formed the
plan of that immense court (400 paces long) be-
tween the old Vatican and Belvedere ; to serve
as a rectangular theatre for tournaments and
other solemn spectacles. In the execution, he
had to contend with a great inequality of the
area ; which he so judiciously divided into two
planes, as to obviate the bad effect of much dis-
proportion between length and breadth, and to
bring out, by his well-distributed decorations, a
fine perspective view of the whole from the en-
c4
^4 INTRODUCTION.
trance. A detail of this noble design may he
seen in Vasari ; an indifferent engraving of it,
by Van Schoel, in the grand collection of prints
belonging to the Corsini library in Rome. The
whole of this masterpiece was deformed by the
erection of the present pontifical library, the
site of which was, by order of Pope Sextus
V. so fixed as to cut the magnificent theatre of
Bramante through the middle, and make of it
two courts and a private garden for the Libra-
rian.
The repository in Belvedere, formed in niches
for the reception of those invaluable specimens
of ancient statuary the Laocoon, Apollo, Anti-
nous, &c. was designed by this great architect;
as were also a variety of staircases, there and in
other apartments of the Vatican, all much ad-
mired for the singular ingenuity and elegance
of their contrivance. The grand semicircular
one, which occupied the nether end of the great
court of which we have just lamented the de-
formation, was long since, with some others, de-
stroyed by neglect, or removal of the materials.
The little round temple, in the middle of the
cloister of St. Pietro in Montorio, is a much ap-
plauded design of Bramante ; though open to
some objections when examined in detail. In
Rome, and throughout the ecclesiastical state,
he furnished an infinity of plans for houses,
churches, &c. but the grand effort of his inven-
INTRODUCTION. 25
tion was reserved for a work worthy of it. Julius
the Second having conceived the idea of puUing
down the church of St. Peter, and replacing it
by one that should surpass in magnificence every
thing of the kind then extant; Bramante la-
boured to fulfill the desire of the ambitious Pon-
tif by a variety of designs; more particularly by
one, which placed the great front between two
steeples, as represented in the commemorative
medals, struck under Juhus II. and Leo the Tenth,
and wrought by the hand of the famous Cara-
dosso.
Without the walls of Todi^ our artist built
an insulated temple, in form of the Greek cross
with a beautiful cupola in the middle; which ap-
pears to have been the model of St. Peter^s. The
execution of this great design, actually begun in
1513, and carried on with all possible industry,
was stopped short by the death of the Pope, and
his own, within a year of its commencement.
The succeeding architects reduced, and made such
changes in his plan, as left little distinguishable
for his.
Julius rewarded this favourite architect with
the office del Piombo, by which he was enabled
to live with credit, and to indulge his liberality
in acts of beneficence to distressed artists and
other meritorious objects. He died at 70, and
'' In Umbria, dutchy of Spoleto.
26 INTRODUCTION.
was buried in St. Peter^s, where his funeral was
attended by the Papal court, and the whole body
of professors of the fine arts.
Raphael Sanzio D^Urbino^ is so generally
known, as the most distinguished name in the
modern annals of painting, that any particulars
concerning him, but as an architect, would be
superfluous to the present design. He was called
to Florence by Leo X. to design and conduct a
front for the church of St. Lorenzo, which was
not executed. During his residence there, he
was architect of the Palazzo Ugoccioni, since
Pandolfini, in the grand Ducal Place. Attracted
to Rome by the notice of the same Pontif and
the solicitation of his countryman (and as some
say relation) Bramante, he there built the stables
of Agostino Chigi alia Lungara, near the little
Farnese; as hkewise the "^Palazzo CafFarelli,
since become that of the Cardinal Stoppani,
near St. Andrea della Valle. The house he
planned and raised at the cost of Leo X. in"
Borgo Nuovo for himself, has been mentioned
in the article of Bramante. It stood in the vi-
cinity of St. Peter^s, and was taken down, with
some others, to clear the ground for the Place
and Portico adjoining to that celebrated fabric.
' Rafaello Sanzio d'Urbino, born 1483, died 1520, set. 37.
"'A. D. 1515. Vide Elements, pi. 53. fig. 3.
» A. D. 1513. Ibid. pi. 54. fig. 1. Compare P. Ferrerio,
torn. i. no. 15. to see the ineptiae rejected.
INTRODUCTION. 27
Upon the death of Bramante, Raphael was ap-
pointed to succeed him as one of the architects
of that Dome ; for which he made a design in form
of a Latin cross, not much approved at the time,
or since. The gardens of the Vatican were laid
out by him ; a business, in that age and too long
after, thought more within the province of the
architect than that of the painter. Happy for
the works of the present day that the analogy
has shifted !
Baldassare Peruzzi^ son of Antonio, of
a noble family in Sienna, was in his infancy car-
ried by his father into retirement at Volterra,
from the civil broils of his native district. This
city of refuge being afterwards sacked, the family
returned in indigence to its original settlement
at Sienna. Our young artist, initiated in Geo-
metry and Perspective, applied to Design and
Painting for subsistence, with uncommon credit:
but, to indulge his genius, and enlarge his means
of living, soon joined the study of Architecture
to his former pursuits, and with equal success.
Rome is the general resort of all who cultivate
the fine arts with desire of excellence. Baldas-
sare found a warm patron there in Agostino
Chigi, for whom he built a palace alia LungaraP,
which, having since passed to the serene house
" Baldassare Peruzzi, born 1481, died 1536, aet. 55.
»' A. D. 1518. See Elements, pi. 54. fig. 2.
28 INTRODUCTION.
of Farnese, now goes by the name of the Farne-
sina. There he moreover displayed the magic
of his pencil, in a manner that deceived and
astonished even Titian. Monsignor Bottari, in
a note to the Neapohtan edition of Vasari, af-
firms, that all these paintings of Peruzzi, except-
ing some clair-obscures on outwalls, were in good
preservation in 17^9, and the painted cornices
still of a relief that deceived every unapprised
spectator.
Transferring himself, for a while, to Bologna, he
there made two models, in different manners, for
the front of S. Petronio, and other designs for
the service of that fabric. In the same city he
repaired, with additions, the palace of Count Gio-
Battista BentivogHo; very dexterously adapting
new constructions to the preserved parts of the
old. The portal of the Church of St. Michele in
Bosco, at a litde distance out of Bologna, was of
his invention.
At Carpi, in the states of Modena, he gave the
design and model of the dome, which was ex-
ecuted under his direction ; and began the church
of St. Nicholas.
Returning to Sienna, he planned the fortifica-
tions of that city, and made designs for some
houses in it. After these engagements were com-
pleted, repairing again to Rome, he was em-
ployed by Leo X. in the fabric of St. Peter's;
for which that Pontif began to think the plan of
I INTRODUCTION. 29
Bramante too extensive ; and therefore wished
for another, which might appear sufficiently
magnificent under less volume. This the inge-
nuity of Peruzzi soon furnished, as may be seen
in Serlio^s book, much to the credit of the in-
ventor.
The deposit of Adrian VI. in the Church dell'
Anima, is of Peruzzi^s architecture ; the sculp-
ture of it by Michel Angelo of Sienna, with his
assistance.
When the Calandra of Cardinal Bibiena (the
first Italian comedy in prose) was performed be-
fore the Pope, the theatrical decorations were
contrived by this artist ; who exhibited two
scenes of such striking effect, as to excite the
emulation and inform the practice of those who
followed him in that line of painting.
Under his conduct were likewise made the
preparations for the coronation of Clement VII.
in 1524.
In less than three years after (1527) he was
taken prisoner, stripped of all he had, and ex-
tremely ill used by the Spanish soldiers, in the
sack of Rome by Charles de Bourbon, rebel con-
stable of France.
Our architect's good mien and person caused
him to be taken for somebody of importance,
and tortured for discovery of his supposed va-
luable effects. When found to be a painter, his
captors obliged him, notwithstanding his evil
30 INTRODUCTION. ^
plight from their cruel treatment, to make a por-
trait of the constable, who was killed as he was
mounting the ladder to the assault''. Escaped
from his persecutors, Baldassare embarked for
Porto Ercole in his way to Sienna. On his road
thither he was again assaulted, and so com-
pletely despoiled, as to be obliged to proceed on
his journey naked.
When the attention of his friends there had
recovered him, and supplied him with neces-
saries, he undertook the execution of his own
designs for the fortification of that city. Re-
solved not to act against his country, he refused
to serve the Pope (Clement VII.) in the siege of
Florence, its capital. The Pontif, by the good
offices of three Cardinals, friends to Peruzzi,
was, after some time, so far reconciled as to al-
low him to return to Rome, where he built two
palaces for the family of Massimi% (one of them
an oval of very difficult construction, which he
left unfinished,) and made designs for two villas
of the S. S.^ Orsini, near Viterbo, that were car-
ried into execution — as likewise others for edi-
fices in Pugha.
In this situation he began a treatise on the
Antiquities of Rome, and a commentary on Vi-
1 May 6, 1527.
'■ See that of Massimi Alia Valle in P. Ferrerio, torn. i.
no. 18.
* See P. Ferrerio, torn. ii. no. 34. date uncertain. ,
INTRODUCTION. 31
truvius; making drawings for the latter as he
went on with the work. Parts of these under-
takings were, when Yasari wrote, in the hands
of Francesco Sanese his disciple. Sebastian Ser-
lio, a Bolognese, and Giacomo Melighino of
Ferrara, architect to Paul III. became possessed
of the remaining part of what Peruzzi left behind
him; the former profited largely by his collec-
tions, observations, and designs, in composing his
own book on Architecture.
The court of the palace of the ducal family of
Altemps, in Rome, is supposed to have been re-
paired and refitted by Peruzzi. The palace of
the Marquis Silvestri, opposite St. Lorenzo in
Damaso% and the House of Sig. Giuseppe Costa
in Borgo* Nuovo, were built after his designs:
the latter was probably taken down for its vicinity
to St. Peter's.
This great architect and painter was born in
family distress ; harrassed, through life, with mis-
fortune ; and never in any comfortable degree
approached to easy, circumstances. His atten-
tion was more earnestly exerted in the attain-
ment of professional excellence, than of the gain
due to his services. Of this indifference to
pecuniary reward the most opulent of his em-
ployers are said to have taken such unworthy
» See P. Ferrerio, torn. ii. no. 34. date uncertain.
* Ibid. no. 46. date uncertain.
32 INTRODUCTION.
advantage, as left his mind a prey to anxiety for
the fortunes of his family, and his health to de-
cline under that pressure, without the alleviations
of domestic convenience. His all was a salary
of 950 Roman crowns a year, as architect of
St. Peter^s. When in extremity, the reigning
Pope, Paul III. sent him 100 crowns, with many
unseasonable offers of promotion. Thus is ac-
knowledged merit, when unassuming as it gene-
rally is, left to live on empty praise; while the
man of mean talents, backed by effrontery and
upheld by intrigue, states his own claims, and
none dares to delay or refuse them. — He was
buried in the Rotonda, by the side of Raphael
d'Urbino, with the usual attendance of Artists,
&c.
Frater Johannes Jocundus". Neither
the extraction of this very learned ecclesiastic, nor
the exact time of his birth, are yet ascertamed.
That he was a native of Verona is on all hands
allowed. It has been said that his family name
was Monsignori, but without proof. J. Caesar
Scalio^er has affirmed his descent to have been
noble. Perhaps the vanity which prompted that
great scholar's endeavours to establish his own
high birth, might incline him to indulge nobility
to one, whom (though the fact be somewhat
" Fra. Giocondo, born some years before the middle of the
fifteenth century ; death uncertain.
INTRODUCTION. 33
dubious) he declares to have been his preceptor ;
without considering that the respectabihty of
Jocundus, as well as his own, stood on better
ground than that of ancestry. He was, most
probably, born some years earlier than the
middle of the fifteenth century, the commonly
assigned date of his nativity. To what religious
society he belonged has been matter of further
controversy; some caUing him a Dominican,
others a Franciscan. The very accurate Mar-
quis J. Poleni", after stating the varying autho-
rities on this point, endeavours to adjust the dif-
ferences, by supposing him first a Dominican;
afterwards to have quitted that order, and lived
in the world as a secular priest; and to have
finally joined the society of the Franciscans.
No man of his time was superior to him as
a divine, philosopher, mathematician, or polite
scholar. All the arts of design he possessed in
an eminent degree: in Architecture he was con-
summate. At an early age he visited Rome and
its adjacencies; where he applied himself with
singular industry to all the remains of antiquity.
One fruit of this application was a volume of
collections he presented to Lorenzo de* Medici,
mentioned by Politiany, with high commenda-
tion of the author. This is said to have con-
* Exercit. Vitruv. primae, p. 21.
^ Miscellan. cent. 1. cap. 77. edit. Ascensii, fol. cliiii.
D
S4 INTRODUCTION.
tained more than 9000 inscriptions. The origi-
nal volume is missing: but the libraries of the
learned Marquis Scipio Maffei at Verona, and
that of Magliabecchi at Florence, have copies of
it. He resided some time in Germany, with the
emperor Maximilian, by whom he was much
esteemed. Invited by Lewis XII. into France,
among other buildings for that sovereign, he di-*
rected the construction of two bridges, of his
own invention, over the Seine at Paris; but cer-
tainly did not superintend the whole of the exe-
cution; as these were finished in 1507, and Jo-
cund us was at Venice in 1506 and lo08. During
his abode in Paris, he had the good fortune to
find, in an old library there, a more complete
MS. than any then known of the younger Phny's
Epistles =^, from which he procured an edition of
them at Bologna, 1498, 4to. Under favour of
the same opportunity, he assisted Budaeus in
reading Vitruvius, by his drawings as well as
oral explanations.
In 1506 a most important service was rendered
by him to the Republic of Venice. Consulted on
the growing danger of the Lagunes being filled
up, with the earth and sand discharged into them
by the mouth of the Brenta, he recommended
the making a cut to divert part of its water, with
^ Vide Annotationes prior, et posterior. G. Budaei in Pan-
dect. Lutet. 1556. p. 39. F. p. 120. D.
INTRODUCTION. 35
the matters brought down by it, towards Chiog-
gia. In consequence of that expedient, the wash
since carried that way has made a tract of good
ground of what before was sea, and the Lagunes
are kept free from what accumulates there. In
acknowledgment of this service, the celebrated
Lewis Cornaro called Jocundus the second
founder of Venice. It was afterwards thought still
more conducive to the end proposed to lead the
outlet farther southward, where it now enters the
sea at Porto Brondoli.
In 1511 he superintended his own edition of
Vitruvius, fol. at Venice, in which he very con-
siderably amended the text, and, by drawings and
other illustrations, facilitated the study of his
author. In [6X3, when most of the quarter of
Rialto, in that city, was destroyed by fire, he
furnished a magnificent design for rebuilding it.
It consisted of a forum surrounded by porticos,
with houses and warehouses for the merchants,
church, exchange, an ornamental bridge, &c. To
his infinite discontent this great plan was laid
aside, and a wretched one of Zamfragnino, a very
inferior architect, carried into execution some
years after. This and other designs of our artist
were in possession of the Bragadini family, op-
posite S. Marina.
Upon the death of Bramante, in 1514, he was
joined with Raphael of Urbino, and Antonio
Sangallo, in the direction of the fabric of St,
D 1^
36 INTRODUCTION.
Peter, of the Vatican, then thought in danger of
ruin through the insufficiency of the foundations.
These he assisted in making good by proper
underbuilding of piers and arches turned upon
them, "SO well applied as to ensure the stupendous
masses they help to support.
He restored, in 1521, the Ponte della Pietra,
at Verona, and, by a very simple process of
planking, fortified the middle pier, several times
destroyed by floods. After which repair it con-
tinued immoveable till 1757? when the whole
was borne down by a most formidable swell of the
Adige.
Jocundus was critically possessed of the Greek
and Latin languages. To him are owing the
first useful edition of Vitruvius — Illustrations of
Caesar's Commentaries, with the earliest plan of
his bridge over the Rhine, in an edition of the
Latin text, printed by Aldus. Ven. 1517. fol. —
Frontinus de Aquaeductibus, published with his
Vitruvius. Flor. 1513. 8vo. — Pliny's Epistles,
before mentioned. — Julius Obsequens was pre-
sented by Jocundus to Aldus, who printed the
first edition of this author, 1508. 8vo. — Cato de
re Rustica, and the Epitome of Victor, were like-
wise edited by our Franciscan.
That this indefatigable promoter of arts and
sciences lived to a very advanced age is certain ;
but the time and place of his decease are un-
known.
INTRODUCTION. 37
Michel Sanmicheli * was born at Verona,
in 1484. From his father John and his paternal
uncle Bartholomew, both excellent architects,
he learned the rudiments of their art. At six-
teen he went to study at Rome, where his appli-
cation and discernment, exercised on the best
models, perfected that ability, of which domestic
instruction had laid the ground-work. Thus
qualified for practice, he began his career with
the Dome of Monte Fiascone, of an octangular
form, crowned with an elegant cupola. His
talent was further displayed in the Church of
St. Domenico, in Orvieto, and several houses in
both those towns. His reputation as an archi-
tect increasing, he was employed, in conjunction
with Antonio Sangallo, by Pope Clement VII.
in visiting all the fortifications of the ecclesias-
tical state. That commission fulfilled, he re-
turned to his own country ; where, prompted by
curiosity and desire of improvement, he made a
tour for the inspection of the fortresses of the
Venetian territories. In this journey, his very
attentive observation of those objects caused him
to be taken up for a spy at Padua : but his in-
nocence of the charge being soon proved, and
his ability recognized, he was strongly pressed
to engage in the service of the Republic. This
invitation his obligations to the Pope would not
* Michel Sanmicheli, born 1484, died 1559, get. 75.
D 3
68 INTRODUCTION.
permit him, at that time, tp accept. The sohcit-
ations, however, of the RepubHc, added to his
own, procured him, not long after, leave to retire
from his employments under the holy see, to
adorn and defend his country.
His fellow-citizens, with much appearance of
reason, ascribe'd to Sanmicheli the invention of
the improved mode of fortification now in use ;
though the French have done themselves the ho-
nour of it, and few of the Italians suspect that it
originated with a national of their own. He
first introduced the pentagonal bastion, with flat
faces and flanks, whereas those before in use
were either round or square ; and it is pretended
that the dawn and progress of this improvement
may be traced in the bastions of his construction
at Verona, beginning with that delle Maddalene,
erected in 1697, wherein it is said that the ex-
piring old manner and the new-born amendment
are both observable. Count Pompei gives this
distinguished engineer the further credit of the
Orillon bastion (Baloardo con gli Orecchioni)
and other inventions, which have been only mo-
dified by succeeding military architects. These
new methods he applied in the fortifications of
Legnago, Orzi Nuovo, Castello, &c. Upon the
apprehension of a war with the Turks, he made
good all the Venetian strong holds in Dalmatia,
Corfu, the Morea, the Levant, Cyprus, &c. By
the works he raised for its defence, the city of
INTRODUCTION. 39
Candia, metropolis of the island of that name,
was enabled to stand out a ten years* siege by
the Turks; to whom, after that long course
of devastation and carnage, it was given up
by capitulation, Sept. 6, 1669, a mere field of
ruins.
But the merit of all these specimens of his
aWlity as an engineer disappears, when they are
compared with that astonishing fortress del Lido,
at the mouth of the Port of Venice. The soil,
on which this enormous mass is built, was marsh
surrounded by the sea. Notwithstanding which
difficulty, our artist contrived, by the choice of
his materials, the solidity of his foundations, the
massiveness of the stones, and the care in their
conjunction, so to complete his enterprize, that
no changes of weather, nor constant agitation of
the sea, nor incidental storm, have in any degree
affected this construction ; which, by its com-
pactness, seems rather cut out of a rock, than
built by hand. Envy soon suggested that the
great quantity of heavy artillery required to fur-
nish this fortress, would, when discharged, in-
fallibly occasion its ruin. Sanmicheli, in order
to do away at once this malevolent suggestion,
begged leave to have the largest cannon of the
arsenal brought thither; and, furnishing all the
embrasures, ordered a discharge of the whole
number of pieces at once. This formidable ex-
periment caused not the least breach or crack in
b 4
40 INTRODUCTION.
the works, and effectually silenced the presages
of the envious.
In Venice Sanmicheh gave the model of the
monastery of the Nuns of St. Biagio Catoldo.
He designed the palace de^ Cornari a S. Paolo;
and that of Grimani, near St. Luke's, upon the
great canal.
At Castel Franco, between Padua and Tre-
vigi, he built the Villa Soranzo, much applauded
for its beauty and commodiousness. At Padua,
a Deposit in the Church of St. Antonio, for
Alexander Contarini, of a curious design.
In Verona, his native town, la Porta Nuova —
la Porta del Palio — la Porta di San Zenone —
la Cappella Guareschi in S. Bernardino, in form
of a little round Corinthian temple : this, through
various avocations, he did not finish, and with
sorrow beheld his plan debased by those who
continued the work. He gave the design of the
front of Santa Maria in Organo, of the Olive-
tans, begun to be executed after his death, but
stopped short in the outset. In the Church of
St. George he contrived to strengthen the sides,
so as to allow him to erect a cupola upon them,
which no other artist had dared to attempt.
His circular temple of the Madonna di Cam-
pagna was lamed in the execution by another
hand — and still more so his admirable design
for the Lazzaretto, through a sordid economy.
He designed the Campanile of the Cathedral,
INTRODUCTION. 41
strangely deformed, and at last let down by the
incompetence of the builder. Bernardino Brug-
noli, his nephew by a sister, rebuilt it, as he did
likewise that of St. George after a plan of his
uncle. The palaces Canossa, Bevilacqua, Pel-
legrini, Pompei, Verzi, are elegant designs of
Sanmicheli. The portals of the Pretorian and
Prefectitial palaces at Verona are his. Many
of this great architect's work, to his undeserved
discredit, either remained imperfect, or were
finished by incompetent hands. Where his own
superintendence could be given, all was so well
conducted, that Vasari says, no building of his
ever shewed the least crack.
His two cousins german, Matthew and Paul,,
were famous architects ; the former planned the
works and citadel of Casale, the capital of Mont-
serrat, at that time reputed one of the strongest
places in Italy; and likewise designed a grand
deposit of marble, in the Church of S. Francesco,
in that city. The latter was father of his favourite
disciple and cousin, John Jerome. The death
of this able artist (not without suspicion of poison)
at Famagosta in the isle of Cyprus, in his 46th
year, so deeply afflicted our Sanmicheli, that he
survived it but a very short time. He expired
at Verona in 1569, set. 75. The excellent school
he left there was some reparation of this loss to
Architecture.
Bernardino Brugnoli, his nephew above men-
42 INTRODUCTION.
tioned, designed and executed the high Altar at
St. George's in Verona ; which Monsig. D. Bar-
baro, who translated and commented Vitruvius
in Italiaff, declares to be, both for the perfection
of the architecture and that of the carving, the
completest thing of the kind he ever saw, though
little noticed by the present artists there.
The orders of Sanmicheli were published by
Count Alexander Pompei of Verona, 1735,
printed for Jacopo Vallarsi, Verona, in folio.
Italian.
Michel Angelo Buonarroti''. This
powerful and comprehensive genius, who became
possessed of the three great arts of design al-
most as soon as he attempted them, was born
1474, at the castle of Caprese in the diocese of
Arezzo, where his father Ludovico, di Lionardo,
Buonarroti Simoni was magistrate of the dis-
trict. The life of this eminent artist having
been so largely written, by different hands, and
so generally read, it will be sufficient for the
present purpose to select, from the mass of par-
ticulars concerning him, only what relates to
his operative history as an architect. It is said
that he was 40 years of age when he took to the
study of Architecture, and then without a master.
But these circumstances cannot make his suc-
cess seem marvellous, when we consider that he
** Michel Angelo Buonarroti, born 1474, died 1564, set. 90.
INTRODUCTIOxN. 443
was beforehand consummate in painting and sta-
tuary, and perfectly acquainted with the ancient
remains of every kind..
At Florence he built the Medicean Library :
there too he was architect of the Sagrestia
Nuova of St. Lorenzo, deemed his best work
after St. Peter's. In 1527? when the Medici
family were driven out of Florence, he was ap-
pointed surveyor general of all the fortifications
of the Florentine state. His military works, in
the capital of Tuscany, and at S. Miniato, have
been much applauded by competent judges of
their merit.
Upon the death of Antonio Sangallo, in 1546,
M. Angelo was, in spite of his own remon-
strances against the choice, declared by Paul
in. architect of St. Peter's, with full power to
act at will in his charge. His final acceptance
of this commission was accompanied by a re-
nunciation of all emolument from it : a resolu-
tion he strictly adhered to, notwithstanding the
most pressing instances of the Sovereign Pontiff.
Disapproving the designs of his predecessor in
office as faulty, of infinite expence, and tedious
execution, he, in fifteen days, made a model of
his own, at the small cost of twenty-five crowns;
whereas that of Sangallo had employed several
years, and cost above four thousand crowns.
His procedures in the reform of this grand fa-
bric, many years continued, must be learned
44 INTRODUCTION.
from ampler accounts of his works of this kind,
than the present summary was intended to
give.
While those were going on, he was called to
the rebuilding of the Capitol, which he began
with the middle palace, or habitation of the sole
senator of modern Rome. The double-ramp
outward stairs were conducted by him, but no
other part of this edifice. The side one, or wing
occupied by the Conservators of Rome, was en-
tirely of his design ; in which there are thought
to be some things to blame, among many to
commend ; and in the former perhaps, Giacomo
della Porta and others, who, after him, under-
took the conduct of the work, may have had
their share. In the descent from the Capitol
towards the city, M. Angelo designed a Cor-
donata, with a balustered Parapet at its top,
adorned with statues and ancient monuments.
In the middle of the place, inclosed by the fore-
mentioned buildings on three sides, is the famous
equestrian statue of Marcus Aurelius, upon a
simple and well-proportioned pedestal designed
by Buonarroti. The great Farnese Palace hav-
ing been left by Sangallo, its architect, without
a cornice, our artist was employed to give it that
finishing. For this purpose he made a model in
wood, six braccia in height, and placed it upon
one of the angles of the edifice, in order to take
opinion of the effect; which proving much in its
INTRODUCTION. 45
favour, the design was executed. The Drum,
upon which the Cupola of St. Peter^s was to be
placed, being well conducted to its height; M.
Angelo (who had been obliged to retire from the
office of architect to that fabric, with a compen-
sation of one hundred crowns a month, rejected
on the first tender of payment) was importuned
by his friends, of all ranks, to make a model of
the cupola, as a precaution against any oversight
on his part, or foul play of those to whom the
execution was entrusted. This he first per-
formed in clay and in small ; and, from that,
formed, with much attention and care, a large
one of wood, of which Gio. Farnese was the
chief workman. This was much applauded and
actually executed under Sixtus V. Notwith-
standing all his circumspection, envy, of his
superior talents and disinterested use of them,
continued to excite cabals against him, to oc-
casion opposition to his plans and misconduct
in the performance of them, by his less compe-
tent successors : till, upon his complaint to Pius
IV. it was ordered that no changes should be
made in his designs; which order was renewed by
Pius V. and duly enforced.
By order of the former of these Pontiffs, he
made three designs for the Porta Nomentana ;
to be thenceforwards called Porta Pia. The
least costly of these was, preferred and erected,
though an irregular and capricious composition.
46 INTRODUCTION.
When very far advanced in years, he dictated
five designs to Tiberio Calcagni, an able Floren-
tine sculptor, for the Church of St. John of the
Florentines in Rome ; the richest of which was
chosen by the delegates. Of it a wooden model
was made, and preserved long after ; but, when
under Clement XII. the front was to have been
built, that model was not to be found.
It being proposed to convert the magnificent
remains of Diocletian's Baths into a Church of
the Chartreux, upon a competition of many ar-
chitects for that undertaking, the plan of Michel
Angelo had the preference, and was carried into
execution with general approbation ; though since
reformed by a modern artist Luigi Vanvitelli, too
much in countersense.
The Cappella Strozzi, at Florence, was de-
signed by M. Angelo ; as likewise the College of
the Sapienza in Rome, excepting the part where
the church is situated.
When, at the great age of 90, this so variously
excellent artist yielded to God a life spent in the
most unremitting exertion of the rich talents with
which his bounty had endowed him, the reign-
ing Pontiff, Pius IV. ordered his remains to be
transferred, from the church of the Apostles,
where they were first inhumed, to that of St.
Peter of the Vatican. But Cosimo I. then
grand duke of Tuscany, contrived, by the means
of the deceased's nephew Leonardo Buonarroti,
INTRODUCTION. 47
to get them removed by stealth to Florence,
where they were received with every imaginable
testimony of respect; and, after the most magni-
ficent funeral rites (in the church of St. Lorenzo,
reserved for those of the sovereigns of Tuscany
only) that the joint efforts of genius and opulence
could devise, finally deposited in that of Santa
Croce, where he had desired to rest among his
honourable ancestors.
GiuLio Pippi, commonly called Giulio Ro-
mano % well known as the second name in the
Roman school of painting, has an equal title
to rank high as an architect. In Rome he de-
signed the Villa Madama, with a Palazzine now
ruined. Above St. Pietro Montorio another Pa-
lazzine in possession of the Duca Lante. The
plan of the church of the Madonna delP Orto.
Palazzo Ciccia porci'* in the Strada di Banchi.
And that of Cenci^ in the place of St. Eustachio,
contiguous to the Palazzo Lante.
The Duke of Mantua, enamoured of Giulio^s
talent in Architecture, left nothing undone to
draw him thither ; and, when he had effected it,
treated him with great distinction. The Palace
T, (so called from the resemblance of its ground-
plan to the form of that letter,) built by him, a
c Giulio Romano, bfom 1492, died 1546, set. 54.
^ Qy. whether the saiine with no, 40. torn. 1, of Pietro
Ferrerio ?
* Vide Elements, pi. 54. fig. 3.
48 INTRODUCTION.
little out of Mantua, is one of the most renowned
edifices in Italy. In addition to the merit of its
construction, it has to boast some of the noblest
efforts of his pencil ; in particular the Hall of
the Giants, where their fall is represented in a
style correspondent to the magnitude of the sub-
ject. This invaluable work suffered greatly by
the barbarism of Pandours and Hussars, who
used it as a guard-room, in the war terminated
by the peace of Aix la Chapelle in 1748. He
modernized and enlarged the Ducal Palace, and
built another at Marmiruolo, five miles from his
capital, for the same sovereign. In Mantua he
erected a house for his own residence ; and
there refitted the church of St. Benedict, of the
religious of Monte Cassino, and rebuilt the
Dome. There, indeed, and in the vicinity his
works of Architecture are so numerous, that the
Cardinal Gonzaga was used to say, that Mantua
was a creation of Giulio Romano, and all there
his own.
His design for the front of St. Petronio was
deemed the most suitable, of several presented
by celebrated architects. Arrived to the fulness
of his fame, it was confirmed to him by his ap-
pointment to the envied charge of architect of
St. Peter^s of the Vatican. Resolved to remove
thither with his whole household, and in actual
preparation for a departure, not a little displeas-
ing to the Duke of Mantua and his own family.
INTRODUCTION. 49
he was seized with an illness that, in the issue,
finally closed his labours and concerns in this
life.
The buildings he left unfinished in Mantua
were carried on by Bertani, who erected the
Church and Campanile of Santa Barbara, called
the Quattrizonio, the best in Italy.
Sebastian Serlio^ of w^hom Vasari, our
general guide in this walk of biography, says
little or nothing, was born in the Bolognese ;
and distinguished himself as an architect in
Lombardy, about 1530. His master in Geome-
try, Perspective, Painting, and Architecture, was
Baldassare Peruzzi of Sienna, who formed many
other great artists. Serlio was one of the most
attentive observers of the remains of the ancient
Roman edifices, and the first that gave their
measurement, in detail, with reasonable accu-
racy^. He is by the Marquis MafTei^ highly
commended for his particular treatment of the
amphitheatres ; having in his book given designs
of those of Rome, Verona, Pola, with elevations,
sections, plans, and profiles. He resided some-
time in Venice, where he published his fourth
book, the first that appeared. This procured
him the favour, largesses, and invitation of
f Sebastian Serlio died 1552.
^ See in his third book a valuable collection of them.
^ Book ii. c. 1 . of his Treatise on amphitheatres.
E
50 INTRODUCTION.
Francis the First to his service. The honour
thereby done him he did not immediately ac-
cept ; since it appears from the dedication of his
fourth book to the Marquis del Vasto, upon his
repubhcation of it at Venice, with additions, in
1540S wherein he says here in Venice, that he
was there in the month of February that year.
It is probable that he very soon after transferred
himself to the actual service of his royal patron,
who survived this acquisition but seven years.
Many works he certainly conducted for that
monarch, at the Louvre, Fontainbleau, the
Tournelles, and elsewhere, (besides private ser-
vices,) of which we have no description, nor
even catalogue. His intervals of leisure he em-
ployed in the prosecution of his Treatise on
Architecture. The third book of this work ap-
peared a year after the fourth, and was dedi-
cated to Francis I. In the service of that mo-
narch he published his first and second books ;
the former containing the elements of Geometry,
the latter those of Perspective, necessary to an
architect. These were followed by the fifth, (de-
dicated to the Queen of Navarre^,) the sixth,
and seventh ^
The war with the Emperor, which recom-
* Presso Francesco Marcolini da Forli.
^ Niece of Francis I. and mother of Henry IV. of France.
^ The complete editions of Serlio's Architecture are those of
Francesco Sanese, in Venetian, 1566„ 4to. and 1588, folio.
INTRODUCTION. Si
menced in 1442, could not but give some check
to the works Francis I. had projected for the
employment of Serlio; and though that termi-
nated by the peace of Crespi in 1544, the short
remainder of this monarches life, still involved in
a war with England ended but in 1546, and per-
plexed with the intrigues of his court and the
contests with his protestant subjects, must have
rendered his good will to the arts less effective
than zealous. Conformably to this conjecture,
it is recorded that Serlio retired to Lyons, where
he lived gouty and indigent; and that he after-
wards removed to Fontainbleau, and there ended
his days, as scanty of comfort as rich in re-
nown.
PiRRO LiGORio". The very honourable men-
tion the author of the Elements has made of this
artist, and the elevation of a palace of his design
given in the last figure of the plates, seem to re-
quire that something be here briefly said of him.
He was a noble Neapolitan of the Seggio di
Porta Nuova", deeply versed in the study of
antiquity and the fine arts. By Paul IV. he
was appointed architect of St. Peter^s; but in
that office conducted himself so offensively, by
his contempts of the venerable and yet capable
" Pirro Ligorio Napolitano died 1580.
" A sort of lodges, in different parts of the city, into which
the nobles are distributed.
E 2
52 ' INTRODUCTION.
M. A. Buonarroti, and his rude disputes with
him on matters relative to his charge, that all
the Pope^s partiality to him, as a countryman,
could not keep him where he had placed him.
Pius IV. employed him to design the deposit
of Paul IV. The Palazzine in the wood of Bel-
vedere is thought to be his architecture. The
Palace Lancelotti°, in Piazza Navona, is like-
wise his invention — and he moreover painted
some clair-obscures, of a colour resembling bronze,
in Rome.
Alfonso II. last Duke of Ferrara, used his
service as an engineer, in securing his capital
from the damage it was exposed to by the in-
undations of the Po. In this employment he
ended his days at Ferrara. A great part of his
designs of ancient monuments (of which his mea-
sures are found to be not always just) may be seen
in the Royal Library at Turin.
GiacomoBarozzip, usually called Vignol a,
from a place of that name in the Modenese,
where he was born in 1507, was son of Clement
Barozzi, a Milanese of genteel family; who, not
being suitably provided with the aids of fortune,
and apprehending the effects of civil discord,
left his abode at Milan for a retirement at Vig-
nola, where he died while this son was yet very
** Vide Elements, plate 55. fig. 3.
P Giacomo Barozzi da Vignola, born 1507, died 1573, aet. 66.
INTRODUCTION. 53
young. Thus early deprived of his best support,
our Barozzi yielded to the direction of genius,
and betook himself to the study and practice of
painting in Bologna. This pursuit soon dis-
covering to him the necessity of a good know-
ledge of perspective, he so earnestly laboured
to possess himself of that part of science, as to
supply the want of instruction by the invention
of a method for himself*!. While the exercise of
his pencil supplied him with the mere necessaries
of life, what leisure his occupations of that kind
left him he employed in investigating the prin-
ciples of those arts, he could not be content to
practise from a sole habit of imitation. It was
during this first residence at Bologna that he is
said to have furnished Francesco Guicciardini,
the celebrated historian, (then governor of that
city,) with some excellent designs, afterwards
executed, at Florence, in Tarsia, a sort of mo-
saic of differently coloured woods, formed into
landscapes, architecture, and other picturesque
representations.
The passage was easy, from a deep acquaint-
ance with geometry, perspective, and design, to
Architecture. Vitruvius he had carefully studied.
Yet the attention he bestowed on that first of au-
^ This he has given in a treatise entitled Le due regole della
Prospettiva pratica di Giacopo Barozzi da Vignola, republished
Coi Commentarj di Egnazio Danti, in Roma, 1583, folio.
E 3
54 INTRODUCTION.
thors in this science served but to convince him,
that something more than vt^riting could teach
vras wanted to form the real architect. Where
to seek this the custom of all his antecessors in
that profession had informed him. Arrived in
Rome, he endeavoured to maintain himself as
before by his pencil, w^ith a success by no means
equal to his industry; and therefore, throwing
aside the pallet in disgust, he sought a new re-
source in measuring the ancient remains for the
Academy of Architecture, newly set on foot in
Rome. This employment, conducive alike to
his subsistence and improvement, engaged his
attention so strongly, as, probably, to have given
birth to the Treatise on the five Orders under his
name; which all conversant with this study must
have read, and some prefer to whatever else has
been written on the subject^. He next became
assistant, in the Belvedere, to Giacomo Melin-
ghini of Ferrara, an excellent architect; and was
allowed to frequent the meetings of the Aca-
demy of Architecture, where Marcello Cervini,
afterwards Pope Marcello II. M. (afterwards
Cardinal) MafFei, Alexander Manzuoli, and other
persons of distinction attended; who employed
Vignola in designs and works that contributed
to his support, and extended his reputation.
*■ Vignola's Orders have passed many editions and transla-
tions. The Italian one at Venice, 1570, is an early one, if
not the first.
INTRODUCTION. 55
Francesco Primaticcio, a Bolognese and ex-
cellent painter, coming to Rome about this time
from France to collect pictures, and procure
copies of the most celebrated statues and re-
liefs, in order to their being cast in bronze, as
ornaments for the royal palaces, singled out
Vignola for his assistant there; and at his re-
turn carried him into France, where he passed
two years in planning many works which failed
of execution, through the distress of the times,
by the foreign wars and civil disturbances, with
which Francis I. was continually harrassed.
Returned to Bologna, he gave a design for the
front of St. Petronio, much approved by Giulio
Romano and Christoforo Lombardi'. In the
Facciata de' Banchi, that makes a sort of wing
to that Cathedral, his dextrous management of
the site, and some old buildings that could not
be removed, exhibited a further most advan-
tageous display of his ability ; though his design
was dropped short by the omission of two tur-
rets, that would have added greatly to its effect.
At Minerbio, near Bologna, he built a palace for
Count Isolani. But the most important service,
that neighbourhood owed to Vignola, was his
conducting the Canale del Naviglio, which ran
three miles wide of it, into Bologna; an achieve-
ment spoken of with high applause by Vasari.
• Architect of the Dome at Milan.
E 4-
56 INTRODUCTION.
Meanly recompensed for this great work, he re-
moved to Piacenza ; where he gave the plan and
superintended the foundations of the Ducal Pa-
lace, of which he left the further direction to his
son Giacinto. The citadel of Piacenza was hke-
wise formed by him. It is not easy to ascertain
either the number, or the dates, of the various
edifices of this great artist dispersed , through
Italy. Some of them are the churches of Maz-
zano, St. Oreste, della Madonna degh Angeli in
Assisi, and a beautiful chapel in that of St. Fran-
cesco in Perugia.
Upon his revisiting Rome, he was by Giulius
III. appointed his architect, entrusted with the
direction of the acqua di Trevi, and the con-
struction of the Villa, without the Porta del
Popolo, called Papa Giulio*. At a small dis-
tance, on the Flaminian way, Vignola built a
chapel in the style of the ancient temples, called
St. Andrea di Ponte molle, a work much ap-
plauded. The plan of it is rectangular, the pilas-
ters Corinthian, without pedestals. In Rome
he refitted that Palace of the SSi de' Monti,
which has since been called the Palace of Flo-
rence; being become the property of the Grand
Duke. For the same family he began a palace
opposite that of the household of Borghese, but
was not allowed to conduct it much above the
' Vide Elements, plate 55. fig. 1.
INTRODUCTION. 57
foundations. The Cardinal Alexander Farnese,
who thought highly of Vignola's intelligence of
his art, committed to him that part of the great
Farnese Palace which contains the famous gal-
lery painted by the Carracci. By his order like-
wise our architect built the elegant Corinthian
portal of St. Lorenzo in Damaso ; and a rustic
door to the Farnese gardens, that does credit to
its inventor. The great favour of this Cardinal
to the order of Jesuits suggesting to him the
building of the magnificent church del Gesu,
Vignola was employed to design and conduct
the fabric. The foundation was laid in 1568,
but the superstructure was not carried on by him
to its termination. So far as it had the be-
nefit of his direction, it has every merit ; but the
alterations made in his plan by Giacomo della
Porta, who succeeded him in the superintend-
ence, are by no means to the advantage of the
work.
S. Anna de^ Palafrenieri, near the Vatican, is
supposed to have been built by Giacinto Barozzi,
after a design of his father Giacomo ; — the Ora-
tory of S. Marcello, the Cappella Ricci in Santa
Caterina de' Funari, the deposit of Cardinal
Ranuccio Farnese in S. Gio. Laterano, are all be-
lieved to be inventions of Vignola.
But, if every proof of his skill hitherto specified
were away, the sole palace of Caprarola, about
58 INTRODUCTION.
thirty miles from Rome towards Viterbo, would
establish the superiority of his professional ta-
lents. This singularly magnificent and com-
modious edifice stands solitary, on the brow of
a barren hill, surrounded by other rocky emi-
nences, in a sort of gut opening into a delicious
country. The offices are distributed into several
courts, round the mid-rise of the hill, on whose
summit the palace is placed. It is externally of
a pentagonal form, flanked by five bastions, in
manner to give it the commanding air of a for-
tress. When you have passed the entrance, the
area within is circular, and the fabric rises by
two stories of porticos. One side of the pen-
tagon is occupied by a grand loggia and stair-
case ; and in the other four there are, on each
story, four great apartments complete ; which are
kept free from all communication by means of
the porticos, that run round the great circular
court. More detailed descriptions of this master-
piece of a great master may be seen in Vasari,
Danti ; and, with designs of the whole and the
parts, in D'Aviler's Cours d^ Architecture. It
may, however, be useful to add, that this palace
is no less respectable for the paintings of the
Zuccari (historical of the Farnese family) and the
perspectives of Vignola that adorn it, than for
its architecture. Mons. D. Barbaro, upon a
critical survey of the whole, for which he was
INTRODUCTION. 59
eminently qualified, is said to have exclaimed,
Vincit prcBsentiafamam^.
After the death of Michel Angelo, Barozzi
was declared architect of St. Peter^s, and in that
office erected the two lateral cupolas with the
most agreeable effect. When the Baron Berar-
dino Martirani arrived in Rome from Spain, to
collect designs for the Escurial, and had got to-
gether twenty-two by the most eminent archi-
tects of Italy, he shewed the whole collection to
Vignola; who, judiciously selecting and com-
bining what was most masterly and congruous
in the ideas of so many great artists, and adding
his own to their best conceptions, composed a
design greatly superior to any single one that
had been shewn him. This, when presented and
examined, was favoured with the preference of
the monarch, and an invitation of its author to
superintend its execution; an honour his attach-
ment to Rome would not permit him to accept.
In regard to the general esteem of his probity
and ability, he was commissioned by Gregory
XIII. to settle his differences with the Grand
Duke of Tuscany, concerning the boundaries of
their respective states near Citta di Castello ;
and, having acquitted himself to the satisfaction
of his employer, died immediately upon his return
to Rome in 1573. His remains were deposited
° The reality exceeds all report.
60 INTRODUCTION.
in S. Maria della Rotunda'', with the most re-
spectful attendance of the Academicians and
Professors. It was, says D^Aviler, but just, that
the greatest partizan of ancient Architecture
should have sepulture in the most magnificent
remaining edifice of antiquity. But will not the
want of some monument, or record there, to
attest the fact and mark the spot, ultimately
defeat the intention in his case, as in that of B.
Peruzzi and other worthies, that sleep there unno-
ticed by the numerous successive visitants of that
august structure ?
Our great artist has been, not unfitly, called
the Legislator of Architecture. He, indeed, first
reduced the vao^ue and fluctuatins^ use of the
best authorities to system, and rendered the
detail of that system easy in practice. Of fruit-
ful yet sober invention ; ever attentive to pro-
priety and convenience ; solid, simple, and ma-
jestic, in great works ; elegant and chaste in
such as required the attraction of ornament ; as
quick in availing himself of the advantages of
site, as dextrous in eluding the constraints, or
impediments, it might oppose to his designs ;
had he lived nearer the times when philosophy
(i. e. reason and nature) was to fix the principles
of the fine arts, he had left us an Architecture
(of finite intellect we can at best say) only not
perfect.
* The ancient Pantheon.
INTRODUCTION. 61
Andrea PALLADioy was born at Vicenza,
A.D. 1508, on the 30th of November, St. An-
drew's day, whence the choice of his Christian
name. His earhest apphcation was to sculp-
ture ; but, having the good fortune to attract the
notice of his illustrious townsman Count John
George Trissino% .who discovered his natural
y Andrea Palladio born 1508, died 1580, set. 72.
21 Son of Caspar Trissino, and Cecilia Bevilacqua of a noble
family in Verona, born at Vicenza A.D. 1478. Though he
lost his father when but seven years old, his education was
so well conducted, that he became one of the most knowing
and accomplished noblemen of his time. He was instructed
in Greek, at Milan, by Demetrius Chalcondyles. When 22
years old he went to Rome, in view to improve himself by
conversation with the many learned men resident there. On
his return, at 24, he married a lady of his own name and fa-
mily; but still continued his favourite studies, particularly
those of Poetry and Architecture. He gave the design for re-
forming, and in good part rebuilding, his seat at Cricoli near
Vicenza, commonly ascribed to Palladio ; who, probably, only
superintended the execution. Losing his lady early, to divert
his grief he returned to Rome, and there composed his tragedy
of Sophonisba, (the first regular piece of its kind in the Italian
language, and in blank verse,) which was represented in a
most splendid manner at the expence of Leo X. The author
was by that Pontiff sent ambassador to the Emperor Maxi-
milian I. in 1516, who honoured him with the order of the
Golden Fleece, and employed him, as did afterwards his suc-
cessor Charles V. in many important negociations with different
Sovereigns. Those ended, he was called to Rome by Clement
VII. and appointed his ambassador to Charles V. and the
Republic of Venice. Restored to repose in his own country,
in 1521, he married a second time a lady of his own name and
62 INTRODUCTION.
propensity to mathematical science, he was by
his new patron directed to the reading of Euchd,
Vitruvius, and Alberti, and afterwards taken by
him thrice to Rome, where he dihgently mea-
sured and designed the choicest remains of an-
cient Architecture. He visited Rome a fourth
time, in consequence of a call to employment in
the fabric of St. Peter; but, finding on his arrival
there the Pope dead, and all things in confusion,
he made no other advantage of that journey than
to review and remeasure those relics of Roman
magnificence, he had before examined and ad-
mired. He further corrected his measures and
designs in a fifth journey to that capital, in com-
pany of some Venetian gentlemen his friends.
About this time he printed a little book of those
antiquities, usually joined to that entitled Mira-
family, Bianca Trissina. By the former match with Giovanna
Trissina, he had two sons, Francis and Julius; by this latter
a third, named Cyrus. When the issue of both grew towards
manhood, quarrels on matters of interest arose between them,
which involved their father in a long law-suit, and, in the
end, deprived him of most of his property. Worn out with
vexation, and thus reduced in circumstances, he abandoned
his country, and repaired to Rome; where he died the follow-
ing year, 1550, and was buried in the church of St. Agatha.
In the midst of his serious occupations he found time to com-
pose many considerable works in verse and prose; among
which is the epic poem of the Italian liberata da' Gotti.
The respect to a character so early illustrious in literature,
that prompted this note, will, it is hoped, render its length
pardonable.
INTRODUCTION. 63
bilia Romse. Thus diligently prepared, he ,at
his return entered vigorously on practice, with
the most advantageous offers of employment in
his own country, and out of it. At 29 years he
was entrusted with the conduct of the public
Palace at Udine, called II Castello, begun by
John Fontana. Near the same time he planned,
and directed the execution of, the porticos in-
closing on three sides the great hall of justice
at Vicenza; a work of which he speaks (b. iii.
c. 20. of his Architecture) with more conscious-
ness of his success than he has upon any other
occasion discovered. He was invited by the
Cardinal of Trent to build his palace in that
city. By Emanuel Filibert, Duke of Savoy, on
the same account. By the city of Bologna, for
the front of the great church of St. Petronio, for 'S
which he made four different designs. By that
of Brescia, for the rebuilding the public palace
there, nearly destroyed by fire. The Republic
of Venice, his natural sovereign, both pensioned
and employed him, after the death of Sansovino,
on all occasions. In Vicenza, and its neigh-
bourhood, he left ample proof of his superior
taste and skill in a great variety of houses, villas,
churches, and other public buildings. The de-
signs of most of these he has inserted in his
well-known book of Architecture. It is observ-v
able, however, that those, who have taken his p{:^
measures from the actual fabrics and compared.^;!^
64 INTRODUCTION.
them with what are set down in the designs there
given, have found many differences of propor-
tion; but, if these are not improvements as to
effect, it has not been noticed that they are pre-
judicial to it.
Palladio is generally believed to have had a
fifth book of his Architecture nearly ready for the
press when he died, containing designs of ancient
temples, arches, sepulchres, baths, &c. which,
with his other unpublished plans and writings,
he left to his particular friend, the Senator Gia-
como Contarini, (no mean judge of that art,)
upon whose demise they were all dispersed.
Some the late Earl of Burlington collected in
his travels, and printed with great magnificence
at his own expence. It is highly probable that
many of those scattered designs were executed
in different places, at different intervals, after his
death; with no other indication of their author
than what their manner must afford the discern-
ing observer. It is not therefore always safe to
deny him the credit of an invention, the style
should warrant his, because the date of the exe-
cution is posterior to his decease.
He was particularly curious in whatever re-
lated to the art of war, as practised by the an-
cients; and laboured much in the explanation
of Polybius and Caesar, by plans and discourses.
His elucidations of the former author, yet un-
published, were dedicated to Francis the reign-
INTRODUCTION. |55
ing grand Duke of Tuscany. Those of the latter
are printed with BaldeUi^s Itahan translation of
the Commentaries. It is certain that the pro-
found erudition of his noble friend Trissino as-
sisted him greatly, in the study of the Roman
art of war ; and thence, by mistake, might arise
the tradition of the same friend having been his
master in Architecture likewise. Palladio ex-
plained many difficulties in Vitruvius to Mons.
D. Barbaro ; and furnished him the drawings,
that accompany his Italian translation of that
author with a commentary.
The last great effort of our architect's genius
was the design of the Olympic Theatre^ in Vi-
cenza, begun the twenty-third of May, 1380, by
an Academy of that name instituted in 1556, of
which he was a member, and had been one of
the first promoters. In this work he meant to
realize his own idea of the ancient theatres, as
derived from Vitruvius and the remaining Roman
structures of that kind ; but he hved not to con-
duct it further than a part of the foundations.
His surviving son Silla was appointed to the
superintendence upon his decease ; and Sca-
mozzi (as himself declares) directed the standing
scenes. The completed fabric was viewed, by
the best judges of the time, with rapturous ad-
* For a description and critical examination of this, see II
Teatro Olympico of Count Gio. Montenari. Padova, 1749,
8vo.
66 INTRODUCTION.
miration ; and has, ever since, been reputed a
prodigy of the art, in a country where its won-
ders are not rare even to the critical eye. Its
form differs from that of the ancient models, in
being a half ellipse instead of a semicircle. This
change was an accommodation to site, no little
contributive to the merit of the whole inven-
tion.
Palladio is described as rather low of stature,
of a pleasing countenance, cheerful and open in
conversation, but ever observant of his superiors
in rank or knowledge. Fond of the society of
men of letters, and well able to bear his part in
discourse with them. In the exercise of his pro-
fession, he is said to have been communicative
and engaging to his workmen, without descend-
ing to a familiarity derogatory from the respect
they owed him.
Beside his surviving son Silla, he had Leoni-
das, bred an architect likewise ; and Horatio,
who applied to law. Both these died young,
within three months one of the other. Their un-
timely loss he laments in his dissertation on the
Roman mihtia, prefixed to the above-mentioned
translation of Csssar's Commentaries. His own
death happened on the nineteenth of August,
1580, aet. 72, at Vicenza, where he was buried,
with the usual honours of a superior artist, in
the church of the Santa Corona, of the Domi-
nicans.
INTRODUCTION. 67
Among the numerous good Italian architects
of the sixteenth century, fruitful in genius of
every kind, pre-eminence is, by the joint suf-
frages of his countrymen and of foreigners, as-
signed to Palladio. A perfect acquaintance with
the hterature and sciences subservient to his art,
a profound study of the ancient models, and a
quick perception of whatever contributes to the
greatness of effect that distinguishes them, con-
spired to advance his natural aptitude for his
profession to excellence. Not content to mea-
sure and design the edifices of antiquity, as a
matter of form, he traced them to their found-
ations, examined their grosser materials, and
the various modes of combining them, as con-
ducive to strength, or reductive of expence. In
the superintendence of his own works he was
particularly attentive to the manual execution.
If we examine his peculiar style, his greater
buildings have an air of grandeur, that seems to
be the result of volume, proportion, and ornament,
dictated by propriety. His Villas speak them-
selves the retreats of nobility, veiled but not
hid. — If analogy between the human and ma-
terial fabrics (much resorted to by writers on
Architecture) be allowable here, perhaps we may
not unfitly say that the general effect of PaL
ladio's edifices is similar to that of personal dig-
nity well dressed. In a word, the perfection of
F 2
68 INTRODUCTION.
his whole manner has occasioned him to be
called the Raphael of architects^.
ViNCENzo ScAMOzzi'^ succcedcd to the pub-
lic appointments of Palladio. He was born in
Vicenza, of parents in good circumstances. His
father Gio. Domenico, a man of letters and a
good architect, procured him the best masters ;
particularly for mathematics and design. Under
these his proficiency was such, as enabled him
to compose a large work on Perspective at the
age of 22, while he yet remained at Vicenza.
To advance himself in Architecture, he studied
with emulous attention the fabrics of Sansovino
and Palladio, then going on at Venice. With
'' Of the buildings ascribed to him, not in his book, are, in
Venice, the Church of S. Giorgio Maggiore, the Refectory
and other pieces of the Monastery — Front of that of S. Fran-
cesco della Vigna, built by Sansovino — del Redemtore alia
Zuecca de' Cappucini — deile Zitelle — di S. Lucia — some re-
pairs of the Ducal Palace. At Vicenza, Santa Maria Nuova —
Palazzo Prefettizio, his name on the east front — Facade of the
Palazzo Tornieri — that of the Pal. del Conte L. Schio— a house
of his design supposed for himself, but which, it appears, he
could have occupied only as a renter — Arco delle Scale del
Monte, from the manner thought to be a design of his — Doric
Loggia, and a door, in the garden of the Counts Valmarana —
two rustic doors in the garden of Count Porto. In Padua, nel
Borgo di Santa Croce, a house of singular contrivance, for the
conveniences it includes in small area. In Bologna, northern
front and court of Pal. Ruini, since Ranucci. In Parma, part
of the Theatre, carried on by Bernini, Spada, and Magnani.
•= Vincenzo Scamozzi born 1552, died 1616, aet. 64.
INTRODUCTION. 69
the same view he next visited Rome ; where he
perfected himself in mathematical science by the
instructions of the celebrated P. Clavius; and
availed himself of all the advantages his situ-
ation afforded for accomplishing himself in his
profession, by the most studious observation of
the ancient edifices subsisting there. Not sati-
ated with these, his still eager curiosity carried
him to Naples and its adjacencies.
Upon his return he fixed at Venice, and began
his practical career with the Deposit of the Doge
Niccolo da Ponte in the church of Sa. Maria
della Carita; which gained him such credit as
procured him further honourable employment, in
the prosecution of the library of St. Mark, begun
by Sansovino, and the addition of the public
museum to it. He had afterwards the prefer-
ence of those in trust for the continuation of the
Procuratie Nuove, in the piazza of St. Mark ; in
which he added a third order to the design of
Sansovino; an alteration not generally approved.
In his own way he did not conduct the work to
its completion. That was effected by his suc-
cessor in office Baldassare Longhena.
Having conceived the design of giving to the
public his great work, entitled Idea dell' Archi-
tettura Universale, and feeling the want of some
information not to be acquired on his side the
Alps, he took the opportunity of an embassy
from Venice in I6OO, to travel through France,
F 3
70 INTRODUCTION.
Lorraine, Germany, and Hungary. The enlarge-
ment a mind like his must receive from such a
field of observation as this could not but dispose
public opinion still more in his favour; and, ac-
cordingly, the demand for his services became
at his return to Venice distressfully great. In
consequence, the public and private buildings,
in which he was more or less concerned, in the
capital, at Vicenza, Padua, and other places of
the Venetian domain, are too numerous to be all
mentioned in an abridgment like this. The more
distinguished fabrics of his design are — in Ve-
nice, the palace Cornaro, on the great canal, of
three orders, Doric, Ionic, and Corinthian, in-
cluding a magnificent court — in Vicenza, the
palace Trissino, now Trento, a noble structure
— at Sabionetta in the Mantuan, a Theatre after
the ancient model, for the Duke Vespasian Gon-
zaga of that title — at Florence, the second story
of the palace Strozzi — in Genoa, Palazzo Ra-
vaschieri of three stories. Rustic, Ionic, Corin-
thian. In 1604 he was called to Saltsburg,
where he built the Cathedral. His skill as a
military architect is proved by the famous for-
tress of Palma in Friuli, of which he laid the
first stone in presence of the Venetian generals
in 1593. Besides his more known constructions
in Italy, he furnished a great number of designs
for foreign countries, at the request of sovereigns
and other personages.
INTRODUCTION. , 71
This multiplicity of occupations much short-
ened the leisure he wished to employ on the
above-mentioned ample Treatise of Architec-
ture, which he intended to divide into twelve
books. ^ He therefore reduced it to ten; but,
though such is the number announced in the
title-page, the vyork as published in l6i5 con-
tains but six, i. e. books 1, 2, 3, of the first part,
and 6, 7? 8, of the second. The supply of this
imperfection was unhappily prevented by his
death in 1616, at the age of 64, in Venice, where
he had sepulture in the church of St. Giovanni e
Paolo, without a monument; but one was, many
years after, erected to his memory in the church
of St. Lorenzo in Vicenza, his native city. His
effects were left to an adoptive son Andrea To-
aldo, of the family of Gregorj, who took the
name of Scamozzi .
Concerning the professional merit of Sca-
mozzi judgments have been different and ex-
treme. Some (among these Mons. de Cham-
bray) disgusted, perhaps, with his ostentation of
extraneous erudition, his intimations of his own
superiority, and reticences concerning other art-
ists, have refused him the praise justly due to
him. The title of his work on Architecture^,
and many passages in it, certainly indicate an
^ Idea deir Architettura Universale di V. Scamozzi, in Ve-
nezia, per Giorgio Valentino, 2 torn, in folio, 1615, first edition,
very rare.
F 4
72 INTBODUCTION.
extravagant opinion of his own sufficiency; but
this does not prove that it had no support in real
abihty. His sixth book, on the Orders, w^as
thought to deserve a translation into French by
Daviler, magnificently republished, with addi-
tions from other parts of the author's works, by
Du Ruy at Leyden, 1713. Of his book of An-
tiquities^ the learned Marquis MafFei affirms ^
that it is the only one where any thing is said on
the internal repartition and distribution of am-
phitheatres, and contains information on the
subject never before given or sought for. The
judicious Count A. Pompei is large and parti-
cular in praise of his Orders, and pronounces
the designs in his book and many of his build-
ings highly commendable; among the latter he
specifies the palace Cornaro as a master-piece
of art. When he succeeded to the direction of
fabrics, that were to be continued upon settled
and well-concerted plans, it must be allowed
that he was too prone to indulge his self opinion,
in the attempt to do more than enough, and bet-
ter than well.
^ Discorsi sopra TAntichita di Roma di V. Scamozzi, con
XL Tavole in rame per Battista Pittoni, in Venezia per Fran-
cesco Ziletti, 1582, in folio, very rare likewise, the plates from
designs of Baldassare Peruzzi.
' Libro 2'^'' degli Anfiteatri.
INTRODUCTION. 73
The Author of the ensuing Elements died
Dean of Christ Church in 17 10. An article
relating to him in the Biographia Britannica
(perhaps not the most accurate, or complete, in
that valuable collection) saves the necessity of
mentioning things generally known concerning
him, and leaves us at liberty to conform to our
plan by hinting only what may be supposed to
affect his qualification, as a judge and teacher of
the fine arts. A person he, undoubtedly, was of
true and versatile genius, assisted by learning,
converse, and travel. An acute and accurate
observer, a patient thinker, a deep and clear
reasoner. His natural portion of these faculties
was improved by a perfect acquaintance with
mathematical science, and quickened by the sub-
tlety of the scholastic logic. That the vigour
of his conceptions might be transmitted unim-
paired by the expression of them, he sought, in
a famiHarity with classical elegance and pro-
priety, the habit of exhibiting them with force
and lustre. The warm suns of Italy, the domes-
ticity with congenial spirits he contracted there,
exalted his inbred taste, and rendered it excur-
sive through the whole field of arts. There he
became impassioned for Architecture and Music,
firom such specimens of both as no other coun-
try can afford. That the impression was not
merely local and momentary, his executed de-
74 INTRODUCTION.
signs ^ in the one, and his yet daily recited com-
positions '' in the other, would enable his histo-
rian to prove.
Become President of a numerous and learned
society, in one of the two Universities that dis*-
tinguish our island as a nursing mother of sci-
ence, the suavity of his manners, the hilarity of
his conversation, the variety and excellence of
his talents, in conjunction with a fine person,
conciliated and attached all committed to his
superintendence to such a degree, that his latest
surviving disciples, of the first rank, have been
seen unable to speak, recollected ly, of their in-
tercourse with him, without the tenderest indica-
tions of affection to his memory. Ever ready to
direct, assist, and encourage their endeavours in
pursuit of useful knowledge, he lowered himself
(if such works be not rather fit only for a great
master) to the composition of different elementary
pieces' for their instruction. Among these, in fa-
vour of the few, whose happier fortunes permit
them to join elegant with solid information, he
compiled the rudiments of Architecture now of-
« The Peckwater Quadrangle at Christ Church, the Church
and beautiful Campanile of All Saints in Oxford, are of the
number, and, most probably. Trinity College Chapel. See
Mr. Warton's Life of Dr. Bathurst, p. 71.
^ Those of the devotional kind are still current in all our
best choirs.
' On Logic, Geometry, &c.
INTRODUCTION. 75
fered to the public, through t\\e very liberal con-
cession of the governing Members of Worcester
College, friends to science too true, too zealous,
to rejoice in the exclusive possession of any means
subservient to its propagation.
THE FIRST PART
OF THE
ELEMENTS
OF
CIVIL ARCHITECTURE.
Architecture is the art of building well:— the
Architect, he who practises the art; who may be con-
sidered in three views. 1. The sumptuary, who fur-
nishes the expence of the building. 2. The projector,
who designs the plan. 3. The * operator, or he who
erects, or adorns, an edifice.
Architecture is twofold: one, Civil, which is concerned
in edifices destined to the uses of peace, and its attend-
ants, the liberal arts, &c. such as churches, palaces,
porticos, kc. The other Military, whose province is
fortification and the construction of machines for war.
Of the first, beauty is the chief object ; of the second,
security; of both, conveniency.
Of this science, then, there are two divisions, of which
in the following books it is my purpose to treat ; and I
shall endeavour to instruct the projecting Architect as
briefly and clearly as I can ; of whom I do not demand,
as Vitruvius does, a knowledge of all sciences, but should
* Vitravius calls him officinator or superintendant. Surveyor in Eng-
lish.
78 OF THE ELEMENTS OF
wish him to understand mathematics and design. I
should be glad if he followed this study from particular
inclination. For, as in all pursuits a natural propensity
is of great importance, in this it is an indispensable re-
quisite.
I shall therefore presume that I am addressing myself
to such a student ; and shall so explain to him the lan-
guage and most approved precepts of Architecture, that
he may either rest satisfied with my instructions^ or be
able by his own application to supply my omissions. I
shall divide the work into two parts, each consisting of
three books: the first part will treat of Civil Architecture,
the second of Military. The first book will contain
general rules : the second will speak of public and pri-
vate edifices : the third of the ornaments of building :
the fourth will describe fortifications: the fifth naval
Architecture : the sixth instruments of war.
BOOK I. CHAP. I.
OF THE APPARATUS.
IHE three chief properties of a good building are
these, utility, strength, and beauty. Utility will be con-
sulted if each part of the building be well arranged, of
suitable dimensions, and in proper position. Strength
will ensue, if the walls stand perpendicularly on well laid
foundations, and are thickest at the bottom. All aper-
tures should fall exactly one under the other, so that a
void space be over a void space, and walling over wall-
ing. Beauty arises from parts handsome and necessary,
correspondent to each other, and to the whole.
CIVIL ARCHITECTURE. 79
To provide for these things accurately, let the Archi-
tect first make a draught on paper of the intended work:
1. the Ichnography, which describes the ground plot ;
2. Orthography, the elevation or front of the mansion ;
3. Sciagraphy, or Scenography, which exhibits the front
and the sides retiring in a perspective view. To execute
this requires a knowledge of design, of which I suppose
the Architect already possessed.
By the aid of these schemes he will ascertain the size,
proportion of the parts, site, ornaments, and the respec-
tive costs, so as to judge of the expence of the building.
For he should be aware, that his own credit and the
strength of the structure much depends upon his havmg
a sufficiency of materials well seasoned, workmen and
money at command, before he begins, that the building
may go on and be completed without interruption.
§. 2. The materials for building are timber, stone,
sand, lime, and metals.
The properest season for felling timber is from the
beginning of Autumn to the latter end of February,
when the moon is waning, and the weather temperate.
Green or over dried wood requires great labour in
working: none is fit for use that has not been laid by
some time, and covered over with cow-dung : timber is
unfit for making joists, doors, or windows, till it has
been cut down three years.
Air hardens stone. Stones which are fresh dug up
are easiest worked, and should be immediately put under
the tool. Those of a harder nature are employed im-
mediately; those of a softer kind, not till they have
been two years exposed to the weather.
Among stones we may reckon bricks (and tiles,)
80 OF THE ELEMENTS OF
1. testaceous; "unbaked; or those which are at least five
years dried by the sun; or, 2. which are baked by fire,
but not till they have been made two years. In autumn
it is best to dig them, and from a white, chalky, yielding
earth. The loom during the winter should be kept
steeped, and made into bricks in the spring. The size of
the brick, or tile, according to the practice of the Greeks,
should be proportioned to the grandeur of the edifice :
the greatest, Pentadori, are five spans each way, and are
used in public buildings; moderate ones, Tetradori, four
spans; the smallest, called by Vitruvius Didori, by Pliny
more fitly Lydii, two spans, fit for private houses; which
the Romans likewise made use of, and which are in
length a foot and an half, or cubit, and a foot broad.
Sand is of three kinds; pit sand, river sand, and sea
sand; pit sand is the best ; but of this the white is in-
ferior both to the blackish and red sort: the ''Carbuncle
is superior to all. Among these should be mentioned
the earth of ^PozzuoK, which immediately hardens in
the water, and becomes stone. Of the river sand, that
is the best which is found in torrents. Sea sand is of
the least value; but if cleared from the saline particles,
by washing, is of use in the plaistering or rough casting
of walls.
Lime is made of stone calcined ; but that from the
pumice stone, shells, and river pebble, does for plaister-
ing walls. The best stone for burning to lime is that
to Formed of chalky earth burnt.
t A sort of earth dug out of the mountains in Hetruria, hardened by the
subterraneous vapours of those hills : Pliny and Vitruvius call it Carbun-
culus. Vitruv. ii. 4. Pliny xvii. 4.
d Pozzuoli, anciently Puteoli, a city near Naples, famous for its Mole
made of this earth. See Addison's Travels, Remarks on Italy, &c.
• * CIVIL ARCHITECTURE. gl
which is white, very hard and dense, and which loses a
third of its weight in the kiln. It must remain there
sixty hours at least. Cement is composed from one part
of Hme, with three parts of pit sand, or two parts of
river or sea sand.
Metal has various names and uses: 1. iron for nails,
hinges, handles, chains, &c. 2. lead for soldering pipes
and roofs. The ancients made these things mostly of
3. copper; or 4. brass; 5. of copper, brass, and lead:
bronze was made in imitation of Corinthian brass. This
composition was usually employed for the bases of pillars,
and their capitals; likewise for doors and statues. But
of these things enough; seeing the architect, particularly
the inventor of the plan, has little concern in these
matters.
BOOK I. CHAP. II.
OF THE FOUNDATION, WALLS, AND EOOF.
§. 1. In laying foundations, first examine the soil, partly
by external appearances, such as plants, water, trees,
stones, &c. partly by making frequent openings in the
ground. Avoid a soil sandy, gravelly, soft, marshy, or
artificial, or made ground; avoid ruins also^ unless they
are known to be strong and firm. Buildings require a
-soil dry, solid, firm, that resists the spade, and does not
dissolve when moistened.
For, if the nature of the ground afford it, the hollow
for the foundation should be dug down to the solid, and,
in the solid, carried down to the siyth part of the height
G
82 OF THE ELEMENTS OF
of the building, and a little more, if cellars or any sub-
terraneous offices are intended.
If the nature of the soil afford not solidity, the ground
must be strengthened by a multitude of piles, on which
the walls that surround the area, or divide it, may rest.
The length of the piles should be an eighth part of the
height of the walls: their thickness a twelfth part of
their own length. Let them be driven in by repeated
strokes, rather than by very forcible ones.
Let the foundation be twice the thickness of the wall,
more or less in proportion to the solidity of the ground,
and the dimensions of the building. Let the bottom of
the trench be exactly level. It was formerly laid with
Tiburtine stone: now a course of stones is placed over
planks or beams. The stones should be without mortar,
lest the wood be destroyed by the hme. The thickness of
the foundation, as well as of the wall rising above ground,
should gradi^ally diminish, and the diminution on each
side should be equal, with this certain rule,thatthe middle
part of the upper order should rest in a perpendicular
line upon the middle of the lower. To save expence,
the foundation work is not continued solid under the
whole building, but interrupted by the means of arches,
particularly in marshy ground: and in the walls of larger
buildings, columns are carried up: a thrifty and useful
invention, if winding stairs are placed in them^.
PLATE I.
§. 2. There are many kinds of walls : one, which Vi-
truvius either names uncertain, or inserted, I know not
which; it may be either. Uncertain, or irregular walls,
® It is not easy to ascertain the njeaning of the Author here. Query,
whether he has in view those round turriform erections, at equal intervals,
so common in the walls of our old castles ?
CIVIL ARCHITECTURE. 83
are those (see Palladio on uncertain stones) where the
stones are laid with their natural dimensions, and their
figure and size of course uncertain. This is explained by
scheme the first, A A. Perault properly terms that kind
of wall inserted, where the stones are of a determinate
size, and placed in a regular order; for instance, in brick
work. In this kind of work, the ^ rows of stones joined
together should be alternate, that the middle stones may
be rendered firm and close by those above them. This
rule should take place in the middle of the wall, if pos-
sible; if not, at both the sides.
The Greeks made their walls in the manner of brick
ones, with a hard stone or flint of a square form, i. e. of
equal depth and breadth. A wall thus constructed, they
called 'I<ro8ojttoj, such is B B. When the stones were ir-
regular in size, they termed the structure ^/suSio-oSo/xoj.
The third kind of edifice was called IjxttXsxtov, or involved,
D D, when the stones were even in front, but placed
fortuitously. When they filled the middle of the waif
internally with broken or pounded cement, they termed
it hoi jaixTwv, E E. If the walls are 'lo-oSojocoi, and fastened
together with iron, they are properly called by Perault,
scramped. See the example F F. AtxTvo^erov, or net-
work structure, G G, was much used in ancient Rome,
and is beautifuUo the sight, but was apt to crack. Where-
fore, according to Palladio, no ancient specimen of this
kind remains. Vitruvius has given the same account.
PLATE II.
The precepts of Palladio may be explained in the
second plate. The net-work, A A, is the first kind of
^ Coagmentationes alternas, courses of stones. Corii et Cliorii.
i In the French language crampon6e.
84 OF THE ELEMENTJ5 OF
structure, and which he disapproves. To ensure the
strength of which he proposes to erect brick buttresses at
the angles B B, and to place transversely, or longways,
six courses of bricks at the bottom C C, in the middle
three D D, wherever the net-work is raised six feet.
The second is brick work; which, especially in the
walls of a city or extraordinary building, is constructed
like the A<ajU,ixTov, for the bricks appear, E E. The
rubbish lies concealed in the middle, F F. In the bottom
there are six courses of larger bricks; then some less
at the height of three feet; then the walls are bound
again with three courses of larger bricks; an example
of this kind still remains in the Pantheon, and the hot
baths built by Dioclesian.
The third kind are walls made of cement, I I, com-
posed of rough pebbles out of a river or from a rock;
sometimes of shell, as are the walls of Turin in Pied-
mont. This kind of wall should be bound by three
courses of bricks, at the height of two feet, as K K. The
fourth species is the uncertain^ L L ; a specimen of which
still remains at ^ Praeneste.
The fifth kind is built with square stones, and is called
Pseudisodomum, as M M; to be seen now at Rome, in
the temple of Augustus. The sixth kind, which may
be seen at Sirmion upon the lake of Garda, is a species
of wooden walls, N N, and are called* Formse, and are
stuffed with stone, mortar, &c. at random. The planks
being taken away, the wall O O appears; and is called
formaceous. To this species, namely sixth, the seventh
h A city of Italy, twenty miles to the east of Rome. The modern name
is Palestrina.
i The Spaniards call these walls mud walls ; they are formed of two
planks set edgeways at a distance, opposite each other, according to the
intended breadth of the wall. See Palladio on the writings of the An-
cients.
CIVIL ARCHITECTURE. 85
may be referred, which may be seen in the ancient walls
at Naples. There are two walls P P of square stones,
four feet thick; their distance six feet. They are bound
together by the transverse walls Q Q at the same dis-
tance. The cavity R R left between is six feet square,
and is filled up with stones and earth. •
According to Palladio, great care and art is necessary
to connect the stones, and that a proper juncture is es-
sential to the beauty and strength of the work. This
effect the ancients produced in such a manner as to
escape the eye: they laid their stone first in its natural
state, and afterwards pohshed those parts that were ex-
posed to view. As the wall rises above the ground, its
thickness should diminish proportionably in the manner
of a graduated pyramid. The inside structure of the
wall should be in a perpendicular line. The thickness
of the " Podium or foot of the wall is half that of the
foundation: in the middle of the wall, or front band, the
thickness is diminished half a brick: at the top, or crown
of the building, another half brick is taken away. Some
sculpture or bass-relief should conceal outwardly the
gradual diminution.
Above all, attention should be paid to the angles,
which should be rendered as firm as possible with long
and hard stone laid with a level and rule. The openings,
windows, &c. should be removed from the angles as far
at least as the quantum of their breadth.
§. 4. The walls being finished, the roof is to be put on,
which anciently used to be flat; and in warm climates is
so now. In cold and temperate cHmates experience has
taught men to carry off the droppings from their shelv-
k Called by the Italian writers il Pog^.
'g3
86 OF THE ELEMENTS OF
ing roofs by placing gutters in them to collect the water
falling from the eaves, and to convey it by pipes into the
part of the court-yard, which they termed Impluvium.
Ridged roofs are either shelving two ways like a
cockle'*s shell, or four ways like a tortoise's shell. The
top of the roof should be elevated in proportion as the
climate is exposed to thick or frequent falls of snow. In
Italy Palladio advises two ninths of the breadth of the
building to form the height of the roof.
In England three fourths is in general the measure.
In Germany they raise them higher.
PLATE III. FIG. I, II.
The timber work of a roof, which Vitruvius mentions
b. iv. cap. 2. are these: A G the column or king post;
B B collar beams; C C braces; D D principal rafters;
E E purlines placed transversely over the principal raft-
ers: FF smaller rafters. We now add to these many
other parts, to which there are no Latin names, and we
place them in other directions. But the timber work
belongs to the surveyor's business; the architect will
content himself with the rules of Palladio, which advise
with regard to this matter that partition walls should be
erected, which will sustain part of the weight, and pro-
duce many advantages to the whole of the roof.
Roofs originally were made of reeds and leaves, or
leaves and clay: afterwards with reeds and straw, or with
clay beaten together with short straw; which custom re-
mains even now in cottages. Pliny relates that Rome
was covered with shingles, that is, with small pieces of
thin boards, to the time of the war with Pyrrhus. Cy-
naras invented burnt tiles: who found out lead, brass,
and copper, is unknown. Byzas of Naxus introduced
CIVIL ARCHITECTURE. 87
the use of small pieces of marble cut into the fonn of
slates. The ancients, which one wonders at, knew not
of our slate stone'.
The English seldom use any metal except lead, and
that in the form of thin plates, and not tile fashion;
often slate, but chiefly burnt tiles, and those either flat
or crooked.
In placing them both they lay laths across the rafters,
to which they connect the tiles in the manner of scales.
The crooked and gutter tiles are so disposed as that one
of the latter may always be placed between two of the
former; the work thus constructed they imagine bears a
resemblance to the tails of peacocks, wherefore they call
such roofs PAvoNACEOus. Five representations of tiles
are shewn in plate 3. A is the ridge tile : B the crooked
tile; the rest are plain or flat tiles.
BOOK I. CHAP. in.
WHAT IS AN ORDER.? WHAT ARE ITS MEMBERS.? WHAT THE
GREATER AND LESSER PARTS OF THE MEMBERS.?
§. 1. I SHALL now treat of the ornaments of walls;
and first of columns.
A column is either attached to a wall, being inserted
in some part of it, or stands off* from the wall, so that the
air surrounds it. The one may therefore be called an
inserted column, the other an insulated one. For those
houses are called insulated, which stand distinct from
others, and are surrounded by the air, as an island is by
the salt water.
1 Peculiarly good at Horsham in Sussex.
G 4
88 QF THE ELEMENTS OF
PLATE III. FIG. IV.
A column has three parts. The base B C ; the shaft
C D ; the capital D E. The other parts you see in the
drawing are adjuncts of the column; at the bottom, be-
low is the pedestal A B, above, the architrave E F, with
the frieze F G, and the cornice G H ; which three parts
are comprehended under the single term entablature
E H ; the column with the pedestal is termed the co-
lumnation A E. By the side of the column in arched
work imposts are placed supporting the vault of the in-
tercolumniation, as I I. The figure M shaped like a
wedge represehts the stone placed in the middle of the
arch, and is called the key-stone.
The shaft of a column, properly so called, is round ;
when the face is plain it is called a pilaster, and differs
only in this circumstance from the column; in every
other respect it resembles a column, and is subjected to
the same rules. It is generally inserted, but often in-
sulated.
An order is the graceful symmetry of a pillar with its
adjuncts, restrained by fixed bounds: symmetry is so
called, I apprehend, because it constitutes the order of
columns; by Vitruvius and others the symmetry is
termed proportion or kind.
To determine the exact symmetry, the semidiameter
of the column is cut into 30 parts, and is called a mo-
dule, whose parts are minutes ; the mensurations which
consist of these are expressed as in an astronomical cal-
culation ; for instance, 1 : 20'. signifies 1 mod. 20 min. ;
3 : 15'. 3 mod. 15 min.; 4 : 00'. four modules ; : 06'. six
minutes; and so of the rest. Wherefore the column, and
of course the module, may be increased or diminished at
the discretion of the architect. The size of the module
CIVIL ARCHITECTURE. 89
being proposed, the whole symmetry of the entire order
is likewise ascertained, as will be shewn in its proper
place.
PLATE IV.
§. 2. Among the members of an order, or the greater
parts, we may reckon the columnation and the entabla-
ture. Other writers call those members, which we call
parts of members, and of which we have already treated.
Among the parts the smaller divisions or particles are
worked by the tool of the sculptor.
Some parts are flat, as the plinth A, which is a paral-
lelopiped"", and has the name and figure of a brick, or
rather a tile. When placed on the capital of a pillar it
is called an abacus, and sometimes made with hollow
sides, as B. 2d, The fillet, or platband C, is a kind of
phnth of a more oblong shape. From this the reglet D
and the listel E differ only by their being smaller. The
reglet when placed on the cornice is called the corona
or larmier, which always projects, and its lower part is
called its chin. A circular listel is called an annulet ; a
reglet divided, its parts alternately omitted, is called a
dentil F; sometimes the bisection is equal, but generally
the parts left remaining are the greater.
Some of these particles have cushion-like appearances,
or a swelling curve, as 1. the tore G, which resembles a
muscle or fleshy tumor; or, as others conjecture, because
the word torus means a rope. The lesser tore H is ex-
pressed diminutively by the Latins torulus. That which
is still less I is called an astragal, and has berries often
cut on it, as K. 2. The echinus L, or quarter round, is
™ Parallelopiped (in geometry) is one of the regular bodies or solids
comprehended under six rectangular and parallel surfaces, the opposite
ones whereof are equal.
90 OF THE ELEMENTS OF
half a large tore. Sculptured, as M, it is termed ovicu-
lated, because artists imagine the sculpture to imitate eggs
and anchors. This part is called an echinus, because of
its resemblance to the prickly coat of chesnut, and to the
gaping which that fruit exhibits in its state of maturity.
Other particles of an order are hollow, the common
name to which is scotia", from a Greek word signifying
darkness. The scotia is 1st horizontal in the chin of the
larmier, as N : 2d, upright, as O ; 3d, inverted, as P ;
4th, composite, that is, both inverted and upright, as Q ;
it resembles the hollow of a pulley, and has the Greek
name rgo^iXoj. 5th, the Greek word ° uTrotpvyvj R, in
Enghsh escape, signifies a scotia, which is inverted
upon the annulet, from whence the shaft of the column,
arises. 6th, The caro^etn^ S means a scotia upright under
the annulet in which it terminates.
N. B. The apothesis is less than die apophygis, from
whence the shaft is gradually diminished: not indeed as
some imagine like the frustum of a cone, but in the most
approved models it exhibits a small swelling downwards.
This is called by the Greeks the entasis of the pillar, and
may be most conveniently described by the same instru-
ment with which Nicomedes drew the figure in geometry*
called by him a conchoid^.
" Scotia is a semicircular channel between the tores in the bases of co-
lumns, or between the torus and astragal.
o The Greek words a,vo(puyyi and avo^Kfn are small hollow rings at the
top and bottom of the shaft of a pillar. The top is the u-ro^vyn, the bottom
one the a-ro^iffn. The ancients used whole unhewn trees in the infancy of
Architecture for their columns; and to prevent their splitting at top or
bottom, bound them in those places with these rings ; a're(puyh means an
escape, i. e. from the evil attending their splitting by the weight they sus-
tained ; aTaS-io-ts the removal of that inconvenience. See Baldo's Vitruvius*
article Apophyge,
P A name of a curve, which always approaches nearer to a straight line
to which it inclines, but never meets it.
CIVIL ARCH4TECTURE. 91
Of this class are those channellings in the shaft of the
column, which are called by the several names of ''stri^,
sTRiGEs, or, as others name them from their shape, stri-
GiLEs. For thie sake of distinction we will call those
strij: which meet in an acute hollow, as T, and are
twenty in number ; striges^ which meet in an obtuse
one, as V, and are twenty-four. These have also their
swelHng and diminution in proportion to that of the co_
lumn. Sometimes they are filled with a small twig, as it
w^re, to the third part of their height, as X, called by
Aristotle pa^Swo-jv. Wherefore a shaft of this kind we
denominate a virgated one.
Some particles of an order are formed with a waving
appearance, i. e. convex and concave, as the sTnTi^jj, Xua-ig,
xvfjiUTm', sima, upright and inverted, unda, cyma, cyma^
tium, Doric, and Lesbian, which words writers variously
confound. That we may form a distinct notion, the
larger undulated one shall be called sima, or cyma, from
its figure : the less, from its smallness, cymatium. The
shape of each is fourfold: 1. upright, which is hollow
above and outward, as Y ; 2. inverse, which is hollow
below and inward, as Z ; 3, converse, which is hollow be-
low and outward, as T; 4. perverse, which is hollow
above and inward, as A.
Modillions are to be ranked among the smaller un-
dulated parts of a column, whose front appearances are
* In this and some other instances the translator has been under the neces-
sity of retaining the Latin names, as he finds none in English which will fiilly
come up to their meaning. Columns of this kind are ranked by the English
architects under the general name oijluted columns. See Baldi's Lexicon
Vitruvianum, under the articles Sti-iee and Striges.
' 'ETiTiBUi X«<r/f, are synonimous words, saving the variation proceeding
from their situation. See Baldi's Vitnivius, under the articles WtrSif and
Cyma, cymatium, and sima, signify a wave of a smaller or greater degree.
92 OF THE ELEMENTS OF
generally such as the example 12 represents; but their
sides are flat, as 0: sometimes inverted, as A; and al-
ways carved and supported with flowers. Some call them
mutules, but we term those mutules which are parallelo-
pipeds properly so called, and are either mutules single
in their front, as the Greek H, their side as 4>, or double
their front as H, the side as ^. The fixed place of all these
mutules and modillions is in the cornice directly under
the crown. The spaces between the modillions and mu-
tules are called caps.e; in which roses, or in short any
kind of flowers, are carved, as in ^.
PLATE V.
§. 3. We will now treat of the figures which are carved
on these smaller parts of an order; but as the modems
have been too profuse of these ornaments, we will men-
tion only those with which the ancients were most con-
versant. We shall take the liberty of using new words
for these things, as, though the things themselves remain,
the names of them are become obsolete; unless perhaps
K is the vine of Pliny and Virgil, the garland work of
Vitruvius, and L the encarpus of the same author, and
what the Italians mean by the word festoon.
Among those that want names, the carving A is called
by the French postes, (we will call it in Latin veredaria,)
meaning the same thing. B, I, M are enleafed parts ;
b b with jagged leaves; jS /3 with aquatic; I I with
purslain leaves; M M with oaken leaves. The laurel and
parsley, and leaves of other plants known at first sight,
are frequently carved. The carving C is shield fashion,
or orbiculated; D may be termed enchannelled : N
ensealed.
E is a smaller astragal, bound with a spiral line, and
CIVIL ARCHITECTURE. 93
hiay be called a scytale"; F exhibits the spiral line, the
astragal being taken away, and may be called a tendril*;
G and H are beaded astragals; for distinction's sake let
G be called a necklace, and H a rosary. The four figures
represented by O are properly termed labyrinths, which
the ancients have described under various forms :. but
this rule held universally, that none were executed but
with right angles.
§. 4. The greater members (of the orders) are fur-
nished with these minuter parts with all their variations
and additions, whether they are plain or carved, or both.
For instance, the base which is called attic (see a speci-
men of it in plate 6.) has a plinth, a trochil, two listels,
and a larger and lesser tore, and its height is always
one module. It derives its name from the attic column,
(of which hereafter,) to which it particularly belongs,
though it be adopted very generally by other columns.
The following is the order of the members and parts
as they rise. First, the base of the pedestal, the trunk,
or die, and the cornice; next, the base of the column,
the shaft, and the capital; so far is termed the colum-
nation ; then follows the architrave, frieze, and cornice,
of which consists the trabeation or entablature.
Intercolumniations are constructed in five ways: the
first mode is araeostyle, where the space between the pil-
' Scytale is in one sense a kind of serpent, which the twisting of the
spiral line may seem to represent ; and in another, the staff, which a La-
cedasmonian general sent to his brother officer, who had one of a similar
kind, round which he wound the letter he received. The form of the astra-
gal may be thought like this. The reader by turning to the figure E may
form his opinion.
t Claviculus in the original may be rendered thus perhaps, as clavicula
signifies a young twig or shoot of a vine, and the figure F seems to counte-
nance the construction.
94 OF THE ELEMENTS OF
lars is 8 : OC. S. diastyle 5 : 15'. 3. eustyle 4 : 15'. 4. sys-
tyle 4 : 00'. 5. pycnostyle 3 : OO'." But these proportions
must be understood to refer to iijtercolumniations which
are straight ; in arched ones the spaces between the co-
lumns are much more extensive, nor have they any term
to distinguish them.
The same observation holds with respect to the lowest
order of columns where they are many. In this case the
intercolumniations of the superior orders should be equal
to those of the lowest: though elsewhere this circum-
stance would miUtate against rule.
BOOK I. CHAP. IV.
OF THE THREE ORDERS.
§.1. IN the familiar language of architects, the termsy
kind and order, are synonimous, and the number of the
orders is five; the Tuscan, Doric, Ionic, Corinthian,
Roman or Composite. But to distinguish the terms,
kind and order, we shall only call three of them orders
namely, the Doric, the Ionic, and the Corinthian, being
the most ancient, and invented by the Grecians. The
rest we shall name kinds.
PLATE VI.
§. 2. The Doric order, invented by the Dorians, is of a
robust and manly appearance: wherefore in the works of
" Araeostyle, diastyle, systyle, pycnostyle. See these proportions of dis-
tance in the pillars described in Ware's Body of Architecture, London edit.
1756, by T. Osborn and J. Shipton, in Grays' Inn.
CIVIL ARCHITECTURE. 95
antiquity the. pillar was without a base, as men were sup-
posed to walk with bare feet. Afterwards the attic base
was added, which indeed gives a great beauty to the
order.
The height of the pedestal is 4 : 20'. the trunk has a
square face ; the column when insulated is high 16 : 00'.
when inserted 17 : 10'. The shaft may be fluted. In
the capital the great ring is called the hypotrachelium
or neck. The intercolumniations are diastyle. The en-
tablature is generally the fourth part of the height of the
shaft or nearly.
In the cornice triglyphs are sculptured, an ornament
peculiar to this order. They consist of three shanks,
E F G, and the like number of channels A, B, C + D;
for the two angular demichannels constitute the third.
Under the triglyph six drops are sculptured in the archi-
trave, and above, in the chin of the larmier, are eighteen
drops in three ranks. It is a rule to place the middle of
the triglyph on the middle of the pillar, and to make the
space square between the triglyphs, which is called the
metop.
In this, and in the other precepts, X marks the figure
of the cornice, Y of the capital, Z that of the imposts.
PLATE VII, VIII.
§. 3. The Ionic order is sometimes called the female
order, since it is more slim and elegant than the Doric,
and is thought to exhibit a matron-like appearance.
Wherefore many of its ornaments imitate the female
habit ; particularly the volutes, by which the capital of
the column is, as it were, curled. They are peculiar to
this order, and require a minute description, of which
hereafter.
m QF THE ELEMENTS OF
The height of the pedestal is 5 : 08'. of the column
18 : 00'. The base, in ancient specimens, is generally
attic: the shaft fluted: the intercolumniations areeustyle.
The height of the entablature is a fifth part^ or nearly, of
the height of the column. The frieze is pulvinated.
The volutes of the capital were generally by the an-
cients made elliptic; the exact description of them is
unknown, but in appearance they are very beautiful : at
present we make them circular, according to the follow-
ing description. Under the echinus of the capital is the
astragal, the height of which, divided into two parts,
gives the centre of the circle, which is called the eye of
the volute. Then a square is drawn within the eye, and
in that square, another, each of whose diagonals is cut
into six parts, and the segments are marked in the plate
by their respective numbers. Lastly, having produced
the two straight Hues drawn through the eye at right
angles, dividing the square into four parts, on the centre
1 with the radius 1 a is described the arch a b; on the
centre 2 with the radius 2 b the arch be; on the centre
3 with the radius 3 c the arch c d, &c.
This is the appearance of the capital as viewed in front;
if it is seen sideways, its appearance will be as exhibited
in the other figure ; where the middle swelling A resem-
bles an upright tore with two small ones « a on each side,
it is called a belt. The swellings on each side, B B, are
called cushions : C is the side of the outmost spiral
line in one volute, K that in the other.
PLATE IX, X.
§. 4. The Corinthian order is more delicate than the
Ionic, resembling the graceful figure of a virgin . Among
the ancients it had much resemblance to the Ionic ; ac-
eiVlL ARCHITECTURE, 97
cording to Vitruvius it imitated ^)ie Ionic in every part
but in the capital of the piJlar. Wherefore in the most
admired works the base of the column is attic; the shaft
fluted. The entablature is a fifth part of the height of
the column.
The height of the pedestal in our figure (which is taken
from Palladio) is a fourth part of that of the pillar: the
height of the pillar 19 : 00'. The intercolumniations are
systyle, the height of the entablature is a fifth part of the
column. Under the larmier afe modillions, with an
echinus and dentil. No objection should be raised against
some specimens in the antique, in which the column has
often 20 : 00', and its entablature has one fourth or two
ninths of the pillar: as each of these proportions claim
attention from their singular beauty.
A pretty Gf e^k story is tpld of the origin of the capital
of this column, which I shall omit, as Vjllalpandus gives
a more probable, yet a dubious account. Consult Vitru-
vius, b. iv. chap. 1. and Villalpandus, vol. ii. b. v. 'chap.
9S. Were I permitted to conjecture, I should not think
it improbable, that, as the shaft of a pillar represents the
trunk of a tree, so the tree, being lopped and sprouting
again, furnished the hint for the design of this capital.
The height of the capital is 2:10'. The minutes go to
the abacus, whose angles are cut off, ai;\d its sides arched
in the following manner. On the given line a a=S : 00',
the square a a d d'ls described^ whose diagonals and dia-
meters are drawn as in the plate; c^ is = 2: 00', and
through g is drawn ef\\ad. Then having made c h =
1 : 05', the periphery /A/is described passing through the
points,/, h,f, by 25 : e. 3.
The abacus, with its angles cut of and its sides hol-
lowed, has four parts which are called horns, A A. In
the middle of the curvature is sQme sculpture, B, which
H
9S OF THE ELEMENTS OF
is called a flower or rose, whatever figure it really as-
sumes. C is called the bell, from its shape, and supports
the abacus. Its circumference is supposed to be divided
into eight parts, in those at the bottom are placed eight
leaves DD; their height : 20'. Behind these are placed
eight more, E E; their height is double that of the lowest
ones, and placed, as may be seen in the plate, alternately :
so that if you suppose a c the place of the lowest leaf, b d
will be the place of the one immediately above, &c. The
second leaf under the rose of the abacus has on both
sides a stalk F from which two tendrils sprout. The
greater one G under the horn of the abacus is called the
volute: the smaller one H under the flower, the helix.
Wherefore there are eight volutes, which meet in pairs
under the horns of the abacus; and the eight helices
meet in a similar manner under the flowers of the abacus.
They are supported by the third row of leaves springing
from the eight stalks. The leaves in the Grecian models
are those of the acanthus, in the Roman they are oftener
those of the olive.
BOOK I. CHAP. V.
PLATE XI.
OF THE TWO KINDS.
§. 1. The Romans have added to the three Grecian
orders two, which we call Kinds, taken from the Greeks,
(as in most things the Romans were their imitators.)
The first kind is Etruscan, or Tuscan, which also may
be called Rustic; it differs from the Doric as much as
CIVIL ARCHITECTURE. 99
the appearance of an inhabitant of the country does from
one of a city. There is extant no ancient specimen of it
with an entablature. Vitruvius speaks of it as rustic
even to deformity; nor are modern artists more favour-
able to it, except Palladio.
. The height of the pedestal is 2 : 00', the face flat. The
pillar is 14 : 00' high; the shaft plain. The intercolum-
niations araeostyle. The height of the entablature is a
fourth part of the column.
PLATE XII, XIII, XIV.
§. 2. The second kind is Composite, which is three-
fold: 1. The Italian (which is called Composite by way
of eminence) is, I think, never mentioned by Vitruvius.
It is composed both of the Ionic and Corinthian; which
two exhibit more graces in combination, than either of
them would if joined singly with the Doric. The Com-
posite is more slender than the Corinthian, and more
ornamented with sculpture; if the latter bears any resem-
blance to a young maid, the former represents an harlot.
The height of the pedestal is a third part of the column,
6:20'; for the height of the column is 20:00'. The
shaft admits of flu tings. The intercolumniations are
pycnostyle. The height of the entablature is a fifth part
of the column; its base is attic, or rather lonico-Co-
rinthian. The bell of the capital, like that of the Co-
rinthian, is enleaved, with a capital resting on it, like the
Ionic; with this difi*erence, that it has a Corinthian
abacus, and volutes under the horns of the abacus, rising
as it were out of the middle of the bell. By these rules
Palladio, with great judgment, restrained the enormous
liberties which even the ancients introduced into thia
kind.
11 2
100 OF THE ELEMENTS OF
The second species of the Composite is Dorico-Ionic;
the only remaining instance of which may be seen at
Rome, in the ruins of the Temple of Concord. The base
of the column is Attico-Ionic, and without a plinth,
except in angular pillars. The capital is lonico-Doric,
with the volutes projecting, as in the Itahan; the abacus
is Corinthian; the frieze is sculptured, but the larmier i»
plain. It has a beautiful appearance, and may not im-
properly, for the sake of distinction, be called Roman.
The third species of the Composite would be Dorico-
Corinthian, if any instance occurred; its appearance is
elegant enough, and its capital would suit the column
which is called Attic, of which hereafter. But we say
nothing of this, as it is without example.
The third species of Composite is therefore where the
column is of one order and the entablature of another;
for instance, when the column is Corinthian and the en-
tablature Doric. This is approved of even by Vitruvius;
and, in fact, was introduced in the Temple of Solomon,
whose columns were Corinthian supporting a Doric en-
tablature. From the annexed plate the whole plan will
be understood, and is not to be exceeded in beauty.
This kind may be termed Jewish, and whatever is con-
structed after that fashion.
PLATE XV, XVI, XVII.
§. 3. Vitruvius relates, b. i. c. 1. that human figures
were sometimes put in the place of columns, as symbols
of some signal victory. He mentions two instances of
this workmanship, which we arrange under the terms a
Foreign Kind; for such we call every kind that, though
in use, is not comprehended under the rules we have be-
fore explained.
CIVIL ARCHITECTURE, 101
The first foreign kind is the Persian; in which Persian
men are placed in the room of columns, as in the trophy
of Pausanias; on these is always placed a Doric entabla^
ture.
The second foreign kind is the Cariatic; where in-
stead of pillars female figures are substituted, supporting
an Ionic entablature; for, in the origin of this kind,
women of Caria, who were taken captives, were repre-
sented; and the same name was afterwards transferred
to all female figures.
The third foreign kind degenerates from the Italian;
for instead of straight piUars, we see them twisted, a style
unworthy of imitation; for they want strength, and are
unequal to bear any burden; and if they are not so in
fact, they have the appearance of being weak. I should
pronounce them to be inelegant in their form, if I were
not overruled by the authority of the divine Raphael.
Of this kind, all the parts, except the shaft of the pillar,
are Italian.
The fourth foreign kind is what Vitruvius calls Atti-
curges, Attic work, and Pliny the Attic column, having
four angles, and four equal sides. It differs from a de_
tached pilaster, as it wants the swelling and diminution,
and is rather a pier than a column: nevertheless it has
a very regular base, which is called Attic, and its capital
is Dorico-Corinthian; in which, under a Doric abacus,
is an oviculated echinus, resting on an enleaved bell.
* Vitruvius relaWs the origin of the Cariatides. He observes that the
Greeks, having taken the city of Caria, (a country in Asia Minor, between
Lycia and Ionia, near the side of the mountain Taurus. See Plin. b. v. c. 27.)
led away their women captives ; and, to perpetuate the memory of their
servitude, represented them in their buildings supporting columns. The
Lacedaemonians, in like manner, having conquered the Persians at Platasa,
perpetuated their victory by substituting the figures of Persian men for
columns. See lib. i. c. 1.
h3
102 OF THE ELEMENTS OF
Antes^ resemble somewhat the Attic columns, {Antce^,
of which I shall speak hereafter, are different,) but differ
in these two circumstances; first, that they are placed no
where except in the angles, or in the junction of walls;
secondly, because their base and capital retain the pro-
portions of the pillars with which they are associated:
wherefore a determinate base and capital are seen in the
Attic columns, but not so in the Antes. Both the Antes
and Attic columns have their fixed situation ; the former
at the extremities of walls, the latter at the sides of gates.
PLATE XVIir.
§. 4. Columns are generally coupled, though some-
times single. When two or more are combined, a pedi-
ment or frontispiece is made above the entablature, whose
form is either triangular, or, if smaller, round. Its cir-
cumference is sculptured in the same manner as the
cornice, and is called the cornice of the pediment.
On the angles of a triangular pediment are placed
Acroteria, or pedestals on which statues are erected.
The inside part, inclosed by the cornice of the pedi-
ment, is called the Tympanum, and is generally adorned
with figures in sculpture, expressive of the origin or use
of the edifice, and often with the arms of the person at
whose expence the building was erected. If there be an
inscription, the frieze is the proper place for it; it is sel-
dom seen in the list of the architrave. But in some
instances the inscription is seen both in the frieze and
architrave; nor in the face of the entablature is there
any sculpture except in the cornice.
y Antes were square pilasters placed at the corner of walls.
^ Antae, pilasters attached to the building, and resembled pillars.
CIVIL ARCHITECTURE. 103
BOOK 1. CHAP. VI.
A REVIEW OF THE ORDERS AND KINDS.
PLATE XIX, XX.
§. 1. We are much indebted to Palladio for his beau-
tiful selections from the remains of ancient artists, which
he has made with so much taste; and for the rules
formed on them, which he has laid down with equal
knowledge and judgment; applying them to the five re-
gular orders in such a manner that the just proportion
is so ascertained, and so gracefully appropriated to each
particular column, that we distinguish with the greatest
ease at first sight each individual member. Wherefore,
in gratitude to his services, we will pass by other writers,
and cheerfully follow his footsteps.
Nor would we restrain the architect by laws so rigid,
as never to depart from the strictness of rules. For
Architecture, as well as her sister arts. Painting and
Poetry, claims some indulgences, and may be permitted
to use them, when compatible with taste and elegance.
Variety has here an ample range; and so many are the
models extant, which though differing from one another,
yet are all graceful in themselves, that it becomes a
difficult task either to prescribe with accuracy, or to
select with judgment. Nevertheless the architect will
obtain a sufficient knowledge of each precept and rule,
if he pays an earnest attention to the following detail.
§. 2. I. Remote antiquity propped the roofs of their
houses with the trunks of trees, their extremities being
girded with iron to prevent their splitting; sometimes the
iron was doubled; they often put under them a stone,
or a tile or two, to keep them dry. They placed regu-
H 4
104 OF THE ELEMENTS OF
larly upon these trunks beams of greater or smaller size;
rafters, beams % upright or transverse, joists, &c. parts
that were necessary to a roof or floor, (which is a kind of
horizontal roof.) The art in its advanced state imitated
these parts by sculpture in marble: the pedestal repre-
sented the stone; the plinth the tile; the column the
trunk of the tree; the sculpture of the base and capital
the iron braces; the architrave the beams placed upon
the trees; the frieze the extremities of the rafters, with
the intermediate spaces; the remaining parts are imi-
tated by the cornice, in which the modillions represent
the ends of the principal timbers cut off; the dentils
those of the upper rafters.
The origin of each part, greater or less^ should be at-
tended to, that its figure^ size, and situation may be given
to it. This rule was of such importance among the an-
cient Greeks, that they never suffered any part of an
edifice to be sculptured which did not represent some
part of the carpentry, in its proper situation. In a later
age this rule grew obsolete at Romcj but in general
prevails even at this day.
This rule (and Palladio adopts it) forbids frontispieces
to bie divided at the top, as is customary in these days,
because they resemble gutters; so that to divide the pedi-
ment is as absurd as to expose to view the roof of the
compluvium^.
This rule forbids the cornice to be so ktge as Serlio
has made it in the Composite order, and the mutules to
be so large as Alberti has made them in the Corinthian
order. This rule forbids likewise the excessive projec-
tion of the cornice, which is seen in the Temple of Ju-
a See BaUi's Vocabulary for a further explanation of th^ terms. Art.
Templa, Asseres, &c.
^ Clutters receiving the rain from various roofs.
CIVIL ARCHITECTURE. 105
piter, commonly called torre di nkrone. It forbids
the dentils to project so far as is seen in the Corinthian
cornice of Cataneo. It forbids the crown to be left out
in the cornice, (though Alberti advises it upon the au-
thority of the Temple of Peace, and other edifices of ge-
neral excellence,) for the reason that roofs are never made
without Temipla", This rule likewise forbids many other
things; which, as the architect will observe them noted
in modern authors, we leave them to his judgment.
§. 3. II. The description of a column is partly taken
from the form of a tree, and partly from the human
figure: from the one it derives its swelling, from the other
its diminution. The flutes and grooves imitate the fold-
ing of drapery : the plaits of the men's clokes (for the
Greek column is masculine) were mostly made straight:
those of the women's robes were sometimes twisted; an
imitation of which may be seen in a temple near the
river Trebia. That the shaft may be sculptured seems
defensible, by its resemblance to the tree with its bark
on.
§. 4. III. Buildings should be uniform; i. e. as they
should be strong, so they should show their firmness.
Those that are elegant should be conspicuously so. On
which account the more delicate order of pillars (if there
be more than one) should be placed upon the larger
order : twisted columns, which are called Cartouches'*,
and shafts braced with rings, as if they had been broken
and repaired, should be avoided by all means. It may
c Tetnpla, purlines ; timbers laid transversely over the greater rafters to
support the smaller ones.
<» The word in the original is from the Italian term Cartoccio, which
signifies a scroll of paper.
1 06 OF THE ELEMENTS .OF
be asked, if a fluted shaft is not inferior to a plain pillar
by this rule ; it is certain that perpendicular channels
are preferable to those that are twisted.
Too much carved work is destructive of elegance; if
it projects too much it seems to burden the building, and
threaten its ruin. The sculpture lately to be seen in the
Baths of Dioclesian in the Corinthian style, though of
exquisite workmanship, was a fault rather than a beauty.
Artists in the classical age of Augustus were sparing of
sculpture. The style which is called the August, and is
really so, consists of a few small parts distinct from one
another, of accurate and bold symmetry, with little carv-
ing. At Rome in the Basilica^ of Antoninus, or rather
in the Temple of Mars, the frieze which is pulvinated, is
placed between two reglets or lists; by this means it is
conspicuous itself, and does not hide the Cymatium,
placed upon it. The science of optics dictated this rule,
and others of the same kind, which in the works of the
ancients call for our praise and imitation.
§. 5. IV. Variety is agreeable, if not repugnant to the
rules already admitted. The helices *^ in the Pantheon,
in the Temples of Jupiter Stator, and that of Diana at
Nismes, are worthy of imitation, though constructed in
different uncommon styles : such a variety is agreeable
to the caprices of Nature; but those which imitate the
horns of rams in the baths of Dioclesian deviate much
from propriety and elegance. At Nismes, instead of the
uppermost reglet of the cornice is an echinus under-
neath, the mutules are inverted. In the Temple of Jupiter
Tonans, one of the two echines in the cornice is carved
^ A term for any large building, church, palace, &c.
f Helices, the curling stalks under the flowers in the Corinthian order.
From the Greek word ikiffu. Volvo.
CIVIL ARCHITECTURE. 107
in an uncommon manner. In the Temples of Peace, Ju-
piter, and Mars, instead of the sima recta of the archi-
trave, an echinus is put under the scotia. In the Tem-
ple of Fortuna Virilis the height of the entablature is
regular, but half of it is given to the cornice. In the
Temple of Jupiter Stator the same circumstance occurs,
and in both the second fascia only of the architrave is
carved. In the Temple of Vesta at Rome the horns of
the abacus are not shortened. In her Temple at Tivoli,
the ends of the channels and the cavity of the trochile or
casement are not round but square: but all these devia-
tions are faultless. In proper places the fancy of the
artist wanders secure from error.
§. 6. V. The idea of fitness should above all things be
attended to : for this reason the ancients carefully at-
t^ended to the suitableness of a column to its edifice, and
of the ornaments to their columns. The Ionic column
had not been found in the Temple of Diana, but that the
Doric was less adapted to that edifice; and in the Tem-
ple of Venus even the Ionic had been improperly placed,
Cariatic columns in any temple would have been ridicu-
lous ; as it would have been introducing monuments of
vengeance into an asylum of mercy. The carved work
of the Doric order in the baths of Dioclesian is cen-
sured ; if it be not admitted to be excessive, it cannot be
thought to be manly. The same fault is to be found in
Scamozzi's rule for the Doric column, particularly with
respect to the flutings in the shaft.
But to preserve fitness, a general rule is set aside
with success; for instance, in the Ionic capital the faces
of the volutes are generally made opposite each other:
but with great judgment the artist has made them con-
tiguous, in the angular columns of the Temple of Fortuna
108 OF THE ELEMENTS OF
Virilis; so that the same column very properly and hap-
pily corresponds with both orders. In the Corinthian
capital, instead of volutes and helices, figures representing
the horse Pegasus were substituted, even in the Augustan
age; but they were substituted in the Temple of Mars.
Ultor: instead of the flower of the abacus was seen an
eagle grasping thunder, but it was in the portico of the.
Emperor Severus. For the same reason, i. e. fitness,
there are Composite columns in the Temple of Concord.
But inventions of this kind should be attempted seldom
and with caution, as in no other department of the art is
success so precarious.
§. 7. VI. The rules observed by the ancients carry an
authority with them which may not be disputed. In
compliance with which we must not mix the Italian kinds
of Architecture with the Grecian orders, nor the Compo-
site with the Tuscan; nor should the Tuscan order be
introduced in edifices in a city, except in the case of an
insulated column. We at present neglect these circum-
stances, and yet preserve some practices that seem more
repugnant to the principles of good sense. Reason would
place the small fillet of the architrave upon the greater,
as may be seen in the arch at Verona, and the temple
at Pola; in most instances the practice is the reverse.
The moderns, according to the Roman fashion, put the
dentils under the mutules, (i. e. the small rafters under
the principal ones;) this practice the ancient Greek
artists condemned ; nor did Diogenes in the Pantheon,
being an Athenian, pursue this plan. In the ancient
Grecian pediments, neither mutules nor dentils are seen ;
but they are found in the Roman: so that the temple
near Scisis, a city of Umbra, whose pediment is without
these ornaments, is perhaps Grecian. Reason forbids
CIVIL ARCHITECTURE. 109
the corona to be omitted in the cornice; but in the Tem-
ple of Peace, and in others, practice warrants it. Reason
enjoins ornamented dentils, but they are often left plain.
We should not indeed rashly condemn these instances,
but suspect our own judgment ; and presume there may
be a reason, of which we are ignorant, to justify their
use.
But every thing which is ancient in this art demands
not our imitation; for time which has destroyed more
noble, may have left us less beautiful models. Sometimes
necessity and not the good sense of the architect directs
the execution; as in the temple at Rome called del
BATTEsiMO Di CONSTANTINO; wlicrc between the base
and apophyge of an Italian column leaves are intro-
duced ; in the cornice under the dentil is placed an up-
right cima, and immediately under that another; each
case is unsupported by authority, but somehow or other
a temple was to be erected from the ancient ruins. The
artist deserved praise who so well complied with his task.
Necessity only can excuse the instance ; where he is left
to his own judgment, he will not follow a model defen-
sible only on the plea of necessity.
BOOK I. CHAP. VII.
OF ROOMS AND THEIR PROPORTIONS.
§. 1. JlJY the term habitaculum, as no better word oc-
curs to me, I mean what the Italians call a stanza, and
the English a room, which appellation comprehends any
space whatever encompassed with walls, a floor, a ceiling.
no OF THE ELEMENTS OF
or a roof. There are various species of rooms distin-
guished by proper titles ; a general name (if I mistake
not) is no where found, but the many terms which dis-
criminate the species of rooms are used promiscuously
even by the most accurate writers. But, as mathemati-
cians do, we will define the terms we mean to use.
The word cubiculum implies a place where there is
a couch or bed to lay down on ; the word thalamus is
used in the same sense, but more strictly is a nuptial
chamber. To the cubiculum, or bed room, is annexed
the antecubiculum or antechamber, which Pliny the
younger names by the Greek word proccetium. The anti-
thalamus I suppose to have a different meaning; as in
the Greek houses it did not join to the thalamus, but an-
swered to it on the other side. See Vitruvius, b. vi. c.
10. On the right and left of the Prostas s are two rooms,
one of which is a thalamus, the other an antithalamus,
or a similar one opposite to it. Hermolaus '' is of the
same opinion, and objects properly to amphithalamus;
for, how can a room that is placed opposite to another
be called amphithalamus*.? And if the rooms did not
stand opposite one another, how could they be on the
right and left hand.? As we have introduced the word
amphithalamus, we may use it to signify a postcubiculum,
or room placed behind another; which sense Philander
seems to have annexed to it.
The word triclinium, if we regard its etymology,
S A portico, or any vacant space, entrance, &c. with square pilasters on
each side of it.
h Hermolao Barbaro published a translation, with notes, of Vitruvius in
the year 1384. By birth a Venetian, and descended from ancestors emi-
nent for their political and literary characters, &c. See Diet. Historique,
a Caen, 1783.
• Amphithalamus, composed of the Greek word u/A(p), which signifies ge-
nerally around, close to, and sometimes opposite. See Constantin. Lexic.
CIVIL ARCHITECTURE. Ill
means a room where there are three couches or beds.
The Romans, whose principal repast was supper, called
this room a coenaculum or ccenationem. The Greek
words 8/xX»voj,l^axX<vo J, marked the number of the couches
in the room. Triclinium is a general name in Latin for
them all. Plautus makes use of the word biclinium,
and A. Gellius of scimpodium% the former meaning a
room with two couches, the latter, where only one was
to be found. Sometimes triclinium was put for the
couches themselves, and for the word coenaculum dieta
or zeta, which are synonimous.
Oeci in general meant rooms of considerable extent,
some of which were set apart for the use of the men to
feast, &c. only, and others for the women to spin in, &c.
Palladio and Alberti call them saloons, meaning in Eng-
lish great halls.
That the word exhedra means a place where there
were benches cannot be doubted, and is properly a room
for the purposes of conversations of all kinds, and to pass
the middle of the day in. But Cicero makes trichnium,
cubiculum, and exhedra synonimous.
Conclave means a room of less extent in the retired
parts of a house ; which, accurately speaking, does not
signify one room only, but many which are accessible
by one key. Plautus somewhere uses the word concla-
vium, which may assist us in finding the difference; we
may call conclave a closet, conclavium an apartment;
which I apprehend Pliny the younger by the figure sy-
nechdoche', expressed by the word dioeta. Apartments
to which men alone had access were called andrones and
^ 'SxifAiro%tv signifies a little bench or stool with one foot only, and held
but one table. See Hesychius on the word.
1 A figure in speech, which takes the whole of a thing for a part, and
the reverse.
112 OF THE ELEMENTS OF
andronitides; those the women only frequented were
called gynsecia or gyneeconitides; those for strangers,
hospitalia; for winter, hibernacula. Among the Romans
andrones had another signification, of which hereafter.
The word piNACOTHECA'"impHes from its derivation
a receptacle for pictures or painted tablets, and in this
meaning all writers concur ; whether it be synonimous
with tablinum is yet undecided. We may use the au-
thority of Pliny the elder, who says the tablinum con-
tained books and vouchers of transactions in public
offices. The modern name for these records is archives,
and sometimes storehouses; which is a general term, ac-
cording to Isidorus, for all places where the instruments
of any art whatever were deposited. Public archives are
sometimes called exchequers. In the roof there are often
rooms which we term solars, the roofs which admit them
are called by Vitruvius tecta ubi majora sunt spatia,
those which do not admit them tecta commoda. By
the words cella familiarica, is meant any room for ser-
vants, or the vestiarium, by the French called a garde-
robe, by us a wardrobe; for it is likewise used for any
recess where there is a close stool or water closet; and
sella, thus applied, is spelt with an s.
The terms • bibliotheca and mus^eum require no
translation. Of vestibules and courts we will speak
hereafter.
PLATE XXI.
§. 2. Rooms are in general quadrangular, seldom
round. If the length be 1, the breadth L, the height a,
from the rules of Palladio in the first instance 1 =L, in
the second \=^ 2U, which is the diagonal of the
breadth squared, and sometimes is called the diagonal
™ From the Greek word »•/»«$ a tablet, iri^nfu to place.
CIVIL ARCHITECTURE. 113
breadth; in the third 1 = 1 JL; fourth I = 1 |L; fifth
1=1 |L; sixth 1=2 L; and if the ceiling be flat it will
be a = L in the first story, but « = # L in the second.
But in the first story especially, a coved ceiling will be
handsomer and more secure, and a greater height must
be given to it. Wherefore if the room be square, let a
be sesquitertian of L; if oblong, instead of a let a mean
be taken between L and 1, either arithmetical =2) L + 1,
or geometrical = V 1 L, or harmonical =2) L + 1) 1 L.
There are other proportions of height, according to
Palladio, which are not reducible to rule. These may
be used occasionally, and with due discretion.
§. 3. M. Muet has laid down these proportions. The
least length of a saloon should be 2 L, the greatest in a
palace 3 L. Those of a mean size S^L and 2 |L. Let
the length of the antichamber be either a diagonal of its
breadth, or sesquialteral. Let the chamber or bed room
be either square, or longer than it is broad by an eighth,
seventh, sixth, or fifth part. To constitute the height of
these three rooms take | or ^ or f of their breadth in the
first story; and in the second let it be a twelfth part less
than the former. If the ceiling be arched, to form the
height take the breadth lessened by a sixth, eighth, or
twelfth part of itself, in the first story, in the second di-
minished by a sixth part of the former; if there be a
third story, the height of it will be f of the second.
The pergulae, or galleries, should have their breadth
16, 18, or 20 feet; in a palace 24 feet. The length
must be a multiple of the breadth; not less than five
times, nor greater than eight times. The height in the
first story the same as that of the saloon, antichamber,
and bedchamber in the same story; but in the second
equal to the breadth; or if the ceiling is coved, the
I
114 OF THE ELEMENTS OF
breadth should be increased by a fifth, a fourth, or a
third part of itself.
§. 4. Floorings are made in various fashions. 1. The
barbaric, which Pliny reckons the most ancient, were
probably of the most simple construction. I imagine
therefore these floors were made of earth rammed down
till it became firm and compact, or with bones (as we see
often in the country) or stones driven into it. But these
pitched or barbaric floors, from their vague signification,
may, I apprehend, include floors of plaster. 2. Plaster
floors are made of pounded bricks and coarse sand, with
a mixture of lime. 3. Those floors I term coctilia whicli
are laid with bricks or tiles. 4. Those lapidea made
with hewn stone. 5. Lignea, those that are made with
boards joined together, such as are at present mostly
used. 6. Tesselated and Mosaic floors are those which
are composed of small pieces of marble, shell, or glass,
in the shape of lozenges, &c. stained with different co-
lours, and arranged so as to represent painting or pic-
tures. On account of the variety of their materials, floors
were called lithostrota, hyalostrota, cerostrota, ooylostrota'',
&c. At first these materials were confined to pavements
or floors, afterward they were transferred from the ground
to vaulted ceilings.
The subtegulanea, or floors made of tiles, come under
the description of the above, and likewise other obsolete
pavements. For an account of these, and floors exposed
to the open air, (which are not to be found in England,
but are frequent in warmer climates,) see Pliny, Nat.
Hist, book xxxvi. chap. 25.
" Algety laid with stone; I'aXaf, with glass; xi^ets, with horn; l,vkov,
with wood.
CIVIL ARCHITECTURE. 115
§. 5. Ceilings are likewise constructed in various forms;
in some that are flat, the timbers of the story placed over
them are open to the view; in this case the distance of
the timbers from each other should be sesquialteral of
their thickness; a greater distance would be injurious to
the beauty of the ceiling, a less to the strength of the
wall. But for the most part the timbers are concealed
by wainscot or stucco; both which may be either left
plain, or adorned with paintings, or any other ornaments
in relief. In some instances many of these modes are
adopted, in others they are all blended together. Hence
arises so great a variety, that Palladio asserts that no
rule can invariably be laid down with respect to ceil-
ings.
§.6. Of vaulted ceilings the Latin names are not fully
ascertained. Arcus,forniv, testudo, concha, earner a°, are
terms applied without distinction to all vaulted ceilings
whatever. The two Greek words, hemisphjsrium and
HEMiCYLiNDRUM, are sufficiently understood, and always
imply the most perfect kind of arch, tliat is, the semicir-
cular one.
But vaults are often made not in the form of a semicir-
cle, but with a less degree of inflexion; or, as Vitruvius
expresses it, " ad circinum delumbata."" See b. vi. chap.
5. This kind of vault is not circular, but by the help of
a compass originates from a semicircle in the following
manner.
In Fig. 8. c a b d IS a semicircle equally divided at
pleasure, c d the radius drawn at right angles : c e the
apsis or height of the arch you intend to describe, which
o All signifying an arch.
i2
116 OF THE ELEMENTS OF
the Italians term frezza, we sagitta^. On the centre c witli
the distance c e describe the semicircle c g e g parallel to
the former. Let the radii c f and the sines /g be drawn;
where the radii cut the periphery of the lesser circle, let
right lines be drawn to the sines parallel to the diameter;
through the points where they intersect them let the
equable curve a e h he drawn, which is the curve re-
quired.
Palladio says that the arches of ceilings, less than semi-
circular, are most advantageously described when they
have the frezza or arrow a third part of the breadth of
the room. This he shews by seven plans of as many
rooms constructed by himself, with arched roofs pecu-
liarly adapted to them.
1. The first he terms il volto a crocieba, or crossed
vault. It is formed by two arches cutting one another
across in the shape of an X, which Philander thinks was
meant by the testudo of the ancients. 2. A fascia, or
bark fashion; I would rather style it fornix, cradle- wise,
but under that term the hemicylindrical arch is compre-
hended. 3. and 7. is termed a remenato, whose curve
is a subsegment of a circle, or a segment less than a
semicircle. 4. Ritondo, in the French language en cul
DE FOUR, which we term oven-wise. This form of a ceil-
ing is adapted to a square room, and is thus constructed.
In each of the angles a kind of impost is left for it to rest
on; it begins with a semicircle, and gradually contracts,
so that in the middle it makes a subsegment of a circle,
and widens into a semicircular curve the nearner it ap-
proaches to the angles. 5. A lunette, which Philander
P Frezza, sagitta, an arrow in English. In mathematics the term sig-
nifies a versed line of an arch, standing on the chord like an arrow. See
Chambers's Dictionary.
CIVIL ARCHITECTURE. 117
calls lunulated, consisting of the four parts of a crossed
vault. 6. A,coNCA, which may be termed a channelled
vault, as it resembles the hollow of a ship or pinnace, and
is sometimes called by the Italians a schiffo.
Palladio has spoken of the first four arches as in use
among the ancients, the two latter as inventions of the
moderns : which information may satisfy the architect
without paying attention to the pedantry of grammarians,
who in this case, as well as in others, interfere imperti-
nently in matters unconnected with their province.
BOOK I. CHAP. VIII.
OF APEETUEES.
Apertures are doors, windows, the tunnels of chim-
neys, and, according to some writers, staircases. Sir H.
Wootton gives the following excellent rules with respect
to them: first, that they should be as few and as small as
conveniently they may : because every aperture weakens
a building: wherefore, in the second place, the apertures
should be as distant as possible from the angles of an
edifice, as the angles ought to be made very strong.
Philander observes that the gates of cities were arched,
but in sacred and private buildings the doors and windows
were always quadrangular. This was the practice of the
ancients, but neglected by the moderns. The ancient
custom, as is likewise the present, was to strengthen the
square apertures by concealed arches. Though Vitruvius-
advises to contract the openings of doors at the top, as
may be seen in the Temple of Vesta, near the Tibur, the
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118 OF THE ELEMENTS OF
modems have not adopted this plan: for though an
aperture of that kind may be more firm, yet it fails in
the beauty of its appearance.
PLATE XXII.
§. 2. The void space of the door is called lumen hy-
poTHYRi, or simply lumen ; the sides of which are in-
closed by two antj:, that is, jaumbs or square posts, on
which is placed the supercilium or upper lintel, the
opposite to which is the lower one or threshold, on which
we tread. To the ant^ and supercilium is affixed
what is called from that circumstance the antepagmen-
tum, or architrave ; the upper part of which, covering
the upper lintel, is called the upper architrave; the Fascia
running round, the Corsae. On the antepagmentum,
as an architrave, rests the hyperthyron, like a frieze,
and over that the cornice. The ornament above that
may be called the corona lata. The ancones, or pro-
thyrides, are of almost the same form with modillions;
they project on each side the door, and have a leaf ge-
nerally carved at the bottom of them. The wooden con-
texture that fills the aperture of the door, is called the
leaf of the door. The parts of which are A, the upright
rail; B, C the transverse ones; C the middle one; D the
sunk border of the pannel; E the pannel.
§. 3. The principal door of a building has no determi-
nate dimension; but varies according to the grandeur of
the house and its possessor, or its use. Palladio agrees
with Vitruvius, that the height from the floor to the ceil-
ing should be divided into three parts and a half; that
two parts should be given to the height of the aperture,
and to its breadth one, after deducting from it the twelfth
CIVIL ARCHITECTURE. kt9
part of the height. M. Muet proposes the least breadth
of the principal door to be seven feet and a half, the
largest twelve feet. The height to be one and a half of
the breadth, or rather the double of it.
With regard to rooms, Palladio has laid down these
rules for the doors : the least breadth of the aperture
should be two feet, the greatest three feet, and the height
agreeable to the least, five feet ; to the greatest, six and a
half. M. Muet is of opinion that the least breadth should
be two feet and a half, and the height, suitable to it, five
and a half. The breadth, from three to four feet, re-
quires the height to be twice as much. In a royal palace
the breadth of five or six feet may be allowed to the
opening, and the height may be double of it, or some-
times less than double by a fifth or fourth part of the
breadth.
§. 4. Vitruvius being silent on the subject of windows
and their structure, Palladio lays down these rules. Great
care is to be taken (says he) that the openings of windows
oe not wider or narrower than is proper. Let not their
breadth be less than a fifth, or greater than a fourth,
part of the breadth of the apartment : and their height
be double their breadth, with an additional sixth part of
it; and if there be more stories than one, the height of
the lower one, diminished by a sixth part of it, will give
the height of that next above.
Windows, though belonging to rooms of unequal di-
mensions, yet, if in the same story, should themselves be
equal: to contrive this, and th^t the architect may adhere
without difficulty to the rules of symmetry, let there be in
the story a room, the length of which exceeds its breadth
by two thirds. Let its breadth be divided into nine
parts, two of which will give the breadth of the aperture
i4
120 OF THE ELEMENTS OF
of the window ; and four with a sixth part added will be
a proper height. These dimensions will suit all the win-
dows of that story in which the abovesaid apartment is
constructed.
M. Muet has laid down the following proportions : let
the opening of a window be four feet and a half or five
feet wide : in a royal mansion six : its height at least
double of its width. It will be handsomer, if a fourth,
a third part, or one half of its width be added. In the
second story, the height of the first may be decreased by
its 12th part; in the third, a fourth part may be taken
from the height of the second.
PLATE XXIII. XXIV.
§. 5. The ornamental parts of doors and windows, ac-
cording to Palladio, are, the architrave, frieze, and cor-
nice. The breadth of the antepagmentum, or architrave?
ought to be not less than a sixth, nor greater than a fifth,
part of the breadth of the void: the projecture to be a
sixth part of its own breadth. From thence may be taken
the dimensions of the frieze and cornice, in the four ways
exhibited in the plate. In all, first let the architrave be
divided into four parts: let the cornice have for its height
five of these parts: the frieze, in the first and second de-
sign, three : in the third, a fourth more : in the fourth,
one half. The other parts will be sufliciently understood
by consulting the plate.
§. 6. The fire-places of the ancient Romans had not
chimneys, but only the funnels of them: chimneys such
as ours are were, if at all, very rare at Rome : but in-
stead of them, in the subterraneous part of the house,
an oblong vault was made, which was heated partly by
CIVIL ARCHITECTURE. 121
lighted wood, partly by being filled with hot water; from
this the heat flowed to the saloons, dining rooms, and bed-
chambers, through ducts constructed in the inside of the
walls, in every direction, and reaching to the top of the
building; and in them were vents, made in all those
places where they wished to procure heat, covered with
lids, which were stopped or unstopped at pleasure. Our
own habitations would be rendered (in my opinion) much
more convenient if we adopted this plan.
Chimneys at present are made, for the most part, in
the thickness of the walls, with their openings visible in
the apartment, and their funnel rising outwards above
the top of the roof. The apertures are limited by two
jaumbs, and the mantle-tree, on which a pyramid is con-
structed, reaching to the ceiling, and on it a shelving
funnel is erected. The floor of the chimney is called the
hearth; the part opposite to the opening is called the
chimney's back.
Muet proposes these following proportions for chim-
neys: in kitchens, saloons, and dining rooms of an extra-
ordinary size, the breadth of the apertures should be
from 6 to 8 feet. Their height from 4^ to 5. The pro-
jection or depth from the forepart of the jaumb measured
to the back of the chimney from 2^ to 3 feet. Thence
the hollow of the pyramid gradually diminishes till it
reaches the bottom of the funnel 4 or 5 feet long; from
10 to 15 inches broad, and not more. In bedchambers
the breadth of the opening should be from 5| to 7 feet;
the height 4 feet or 4^ ; the projection 2 feet or 2^. In
common parlours and servants' rooms, the breadth of the
opening should be from 4 to 5 feet; the height and pro-
jection the same as in bedchambers..
Palladio proposes, in a summary way, that the funnel
122 OF THE ELEMENTS OF
in the chimneys of rooms should be from six to nine
inches wide, and two feet and a half long, and that the
opening of the funnel where it joins to the pyramid may
be somewhat contracted. The mantle-tree should be of
very elegant workmanship, and by no means of the rustic
kind, unless in very large buildings.
PLATE XXV— XXX.
§. 7. Staircases, properly so called, are separated or
subdivided by steps. Those gentle ascents sometimes
constructed in palaces in the place of stairs do not come
under this appellation.
In staircases three properties are required; 1st, that
they have a full and steady light; 2d, that they be large
in proportion to the size of the building; the steps should
be from 12 to 4 feet long; should they be shorter than 4
feet, persons meeting each other would be delayed. 3d,
they should be convenient ; to the building they will be
so, if under them lumber, &c. can be concealed ; to those
who ascend them, if their ascent is easy. The steps
should be unequal in immber, (the ancients had some
superstition about making them equal,) and a resting
place or landing should be contrived after 9, 11, or at
the utmost 13 steps. The height of the steps should be
six inches, or at least four, where there are many without
interruption. The breadth for the most part is a foot,
never more than a foot and a half. The steps should be
laid or joined, according to the Italian phrase con un tan-
tino di Scarpa with a little incHnation or slope, which
will greatly contribute to the ease of the^tscent.
Staircases are made either spiral, which are called
cockle stairs ; or in a right line, which are called straight
CIVIL ARCHITECTURE. 123
ones. The spiral have less space, and are more difficult
to climb. Staircases are either circular or elliptical, each
of which is madcAvith straight steps, or (which is the better
mode) with contorted ones; and are either inserted in
the wall only, or in a pillar only, or in both.
If the pillar be in the middle, let the diameter of the
space be divided into three parts, one of which must be
given to the pillar; or (as in Trajan''s pillar) four parts
of the diameter, when divided into seven, must be allowed
to the steps. In cockle stairs, where there is no pillar,
let the diameter of the space be divided into four parts,
and two of them be occupied by the steps. The best
constructed staircases, particularly spiral ones, are those
which are void in the middle, both that they may re-
ceive light from above, and likewise that persons ascend-
ing and descending may see one another.
Among the straight staircases, which at present are
most common, some are oblong, and consist of two as-
cents, with an oblong landing placed between them, or
they are square. In the square ones let the space be di-
vided into four parts, and two given to the steps, two to
the void, in which the thickness of the wall will be in-
cluded, if there be a wall instead of a void.
Sometimes the narrowness of the place obliges the
architect to make steps in the angles of the landing
places; in this case, making the angle of the landing
the centre, and its breadth a radius, describe a quadran-
tal arch, and divide it into as many parts as the radius
has feet.
From these elementary rules for the construction of
staircases, an almost infinite variety in them is produced,
which it is needless to speak of in the detail. Let the
architect pay attention to the best models ; and, furnished
124 OF THE ELEMENTS, &c.
with these general principles, make use of his own judg-
ment in his designs; remembering, at the same time, that
the due construction and commodious placing of them will
call for the utmost exertion of the powers of his art.
THE SECOND PART
OF THE
ELEMENTS
OF
CIVIL ARCHITECTURE.
TREATING OF
PUBLIC AND PRIVATE BUILDINGS.
PLATE XXXT.
§. 1. In the preceding book all those things which con-
stitute strength or beauty in buildings in general have
been considered ; it remains now to mention what things
contribute to the utility of particular buildings: we will
begin with a private house in a city.
In choosing the situation, its vicinity to public edifices
should be principally attended to; that is, we should
build as near as convenient to the place where the business
of the owner chiefly calls him. Every one would wish
to be near a church, but especially a priest, a nobleman
near the prince's court, the lawyer near the hall of justice,
the merchant near the exchange, the trader in the prin-
cipal street; and every other citizen in the same manner
would choose his dwelling according to his occupation —
not far from the river, if any flows near the city; at a
distance from a tallow-chandler, a brewer, a soap-boiler.
126 OF THE ELEMENTS OF
a butcher's shop, or any other business attended with an
unsavoury smell; far from the noise of the anvil, the
hammer, and the saw ; and, above all, (as Cato says,) at
a distance from bad neighbours. In short, that spot is
most eligible in which you can construct a regular house,
that is, one with right angles; where room, leisure, and
cleanliness may be obtained, and you may procure to
your house the advantages of a rural situation. If all
the above conveniences cannot be met with, it is prudent
however to aim at as many as possible. The same ob-
servation may extend to the other precepts.
In general there are three divisions of a city house.
The lower, some of whose parts are generally under
ground ; the middle one is consigned to the use of the
owner and his friends, and contains one or two stories.
The highest consists of smaller rooms placed over the
middle ones with solars, if the roof admits of them.
§. 2. In the middle part a more spacious room should
be constructed, and if it contains two stories, another
room not less should be raised over that; the lower of
these is by the Italians called entrata, the higher sala,
or saloon ; we may call them entrance and hall. The
halls should be as spacious as may be, wherefore a square
is preferable. The oblong is the better the nearer it ap-
proaches to the square. Palladio gives to none of them
a length greater than double the breadth.
Adjacent to the entrance and hall, the large, small,
and middle sized rooms, together with the principal stair-
cases, should be so placed, that an easy and free passage
may be had into the entrance, hall, and other apartments
of the same story. Moreover rooms of different size
should be placed near one another, so as to be of mutual
convenience.
CIVIL ARCHITECTURE. 127
In marking the proportions of these the architect
should have an eye to the office and dignity of the pos-
sessor. Men of ordinary fortune want not houses either
large or magnificent. Money lenders and inn holders
wish to have them convenient, showy, and well secured
from thieves. Lawyers build them with more elegance
and space to receive their clients. Merchants require
rooms to stow their goods in ; well defended, and facing
the north. Men in office and noblemen demand houses
large, lofty, ornamented, and in short princely.
In a stately mansion the height of the larger room is
such, as to equal both the heights of the two lesser, by
which means one of them is placed over the other, by
the side of the larger room; which circumstance in great
houses is of much utihty. Rooms thus constructed, the
Italians call amezata, or halved; we may call them half
stories. These are seldom found in houses of moderate
size ; but in their stead closets are adapted to the larger
apartments, each to each, if it may conveniently be done.
The architect will likewise provide that each room has
its proper aspect. Summer rooms should face the north,
and should be large and spacious for the sake of coolness.
Picture rooms with the same aspect for the sake of a re-
gular and continued hght. Winter apartments should
be less than summer ones, and face the west, or rather
the south, as they require warmth. Rooms used in
spring and autumn, likewise bedchambers, should face
the east, on account of the morning light. For the same
reason libraries should be to the east, and because that
aspect is most favourable to the preservation of the books.
From the latter we ought to look into the pleasure
grounds. In a large house the chapel (as churches do)
should face the east ; so should also, in a smaller edifice,
the oratory, which answers to the chapel. The architect
128 OF THE ELEMENTS OF
should be informed, that in houses of any splendour an
oratory and a museum are as requisite as a dining-room
or a bedchamber.
§. 3. So far with respect to the division of a house
above ground, which is the most magnificent part of it;
but in a house, as in the human body, there are parts
which, though of eminent use, are yet of inferior dignity
to the rest ; such irt imitation of nature we should keep
private. Some of these should be placed in the highest
part of the mansion. Under ground should be cellars,
kitchens, woodhouses, bakehouses, store rooms, laundries,
and other offices. Such a situation will be most con-
venient for them, and the body of the house will be more
ample, commodious, healthy, and pleasant. The stables
with the haylofts placed over them, and the coach houses,
should be separated from the mansion, and erected where
the dung may be most easily carried into the gardens.
If they are built on one side of the house, all the offices
on the other side, except the cellars, will exactly corre-
spond with them. Over each of them servants'* rooms
on either side should be placed suitable to their respec-
tive employments.
§. 4. The entrance or door of the house is generally
in the middle of the front, sometimes, if the situation re-
quires, in the middle of the side. From the door directly,
or with some space intervening, we arrive at the entrance,
and from thence proceed to the apartments. These in
every house should be so contrived, that they should be
of similar figure and dimensions, and opposite each other;
so that the windows on one side may correspond with
those on the opposite side, and be of the same size and
symmetry, and placed in the same horizontal line. The
CIVIL ARCHITECTURE. 129
doors of the apartments should be made directly fronting
each other, that when they are all open the view may be
continued through the whole suite of rooms. The ob-
jection of Wootton, namely, that no room except the last
would be private, an able architect may obviate : especi-
ally if he contrives with judgment the back stairs, which
we call the servants' stairs. The observance of the three
last requisites, use, strength, and beauty, alike require,
and they should be observed in each particular story : in
the combination of them, the fourth precept above men-
tioned should be attended to ; namely, that void should
be over void, and walling over walling.
§. 5. The chimney of every apartment, if it be placed
in the middle of the side, will be an ornament; but this is
not necessary, especially in a bed room : if it be placed in
the comer of an apartment, the room will be enlarged by
it, and a common shaft with four funnels will accommo-
date as many chimneys.
Back stairs are useful in all houses ; where there are
half stories they are necessary. The principal staircase
should be placed as we have before described; and it will
be disposed to great advantage, if in the way to it the
more beautiful parts of the house may be seen.
Much grandeur and elegance would also be added to
the house by the erection of a pediment in the front ;
which, though less usual in England, will be found in the
plate.
132 OF THE ELEMENTS OF
the windows. It looks towards the north, and into the
gardens, and so capacious are its dimensions, that it
would contain two triclinia placed opposite each other
with their respective circuits. It has folding doors in the
middle, and windows made to open like doors to com-
mand a view of the gardens.
The Egyptian oecus, far exceeding the others in
beauty, (see plate 34,) contains the height of two stories,
so that it has two orders or rows of columns. The lower
ones are insulated, with an architrave only placed upon
them, according to Vitruvius, but to which Palladio pro-
perly adds a frieze and a cornice. On the corona of this
rests an entire wall, in which is inserted a second order
of columns; which are either half or three-quarter ones.
They are placed directly over the insulated columns, and
are a fourth part less; and in their intercolumniations
are windows. In the part below, the wall stands off from
the columns, but is connected by means of the story above;
so that round the sides of the hall a walk is formed by
the columns, covered with a floor open to the air, and
with a balustrade.
§. 3. Of the CAv^DiUM we can say nothing certain.
Varro by cav.^dium and atrium plainly means the same
thing : Pliny the younger ma:kes a manifest distinction
between them: Palladio and Barbaro, who take Vitruvius
for their guide, adopt the opinion of Varro. Mr. Per-
rault so far agrees with Pliny, that he translates cavjsdium
un cour de maisofi, and atrium ww vestibule; in short,
Vitruvius himself does not sufficiently explain his mean-
ing, but makes use of cav.^dium in the plural number,
and divides it into five kinds. With respect to my own
opinion, in a niatter so doubtful every one should be left
to his own judgment ; but he who admits the following
CIVIL ARCHITECTURE. 133
'exposition will not, I think, be far from the meaning of
Vitruvius. In the Roman houses there were generally
an ATRIUM and a peristylium; two areas open to the
air, or at least open to the height of the house, around
which the apartments were so arranged that each of the
courts exhibited the appearance of a market place; and
from the atrium into the peristylium the way lay
through the tablinum, whose entrance fronting, and
generally open, afforded an uninterrupted passage ; the
proportions of these three were adapted to the figure of
the atrium. Vitruvius, I apprehend, called each of
these a cav^edium, and divided them into five kinds, ac-
cording as the figure of the atrium varied.
PLATE XXXV— XXXIX.
§. 4. I call therefore an atrium a quadrangular area
oblong in a certain, proportion, all whose sides are sur-
rounded by apartments. Its length should be five thirds
of its breadth, or one and a half of it, or the diagonal of
its square: the height corresponding to all of these
should- be the same; that is, three fourths of their length.
If the apartments arranged on each side are covered
with shelving roofs, which are placed on the walls as not
to extend into the area beyond the entablature; this kind
of court will be called an atrium displuviatum'.
But if the eaves, as in plate 35, by the addition of
beams, should project a little into the area, this is called
a Tuscan atrium.
And if, as in plate 36, by the addition of other beams
on each side, the projection should become greater, and
the beams be supported by four insulated columns, it will
* See Vitruv. lib. vi. cap. 3.
k3
134 OF THE ELEMENTS OF
be called an atrium tetrastylon, and will have the two
wings A A on each side opposite to each other.
N. B. " In every atrium that has wings they should
*' be equal and alike : each as wide as the sixth, seventh,
" eighth, ninth, or tenth part of the length, according as
" the length may be from 30 to 40, from 40 to 50, from
*' 50 to 60, from 60 to 80, from 80 to 100 feet. The li-
" minary, or, as others call them, the limitary beams,
" that is, their architraves, should be raised in such a
" manner on the top of the wall, as that the height of the
" wall should be equal to the breadth of the atrium."
The lumen or aperture of the impluvium should not be
more than a third or less than a fourth part of the
breadth of the atrium, in order that the length of it may
be made proportionate.
Moreover, if the two wings, as in plate 37, be orna-
mented with columns, this will be a Corinthian atrium;
if Hkewise a colonnade walk be made in the inside lower
than the roof of the apartments, and covered with a floor
open to the air, and a balustrade, this may be called for
the sake of distinction a Corinthiac atrium. See
plate 38.
Lastly, if the whole area be covered, as in plate 39,
with a testudo roof, it will be called atrium testudi-
NATUM, and will receive the light through windows six
feet high inserted in the crown of the wall which sur-
rounds the court.
§. 5. What the room called the tablinum" signified,
we have already explained : with respect to its figure it
should be square ; and, to be proportionable to the
ATRIUM, its side should be two thirds, or a half, or two
fifths, of the breadth of the atrium, according as its
" See tablinum, b. i. c. 7.
CIVIL ARCHITECTURE. 135
breadth may be from 20 to 30, from 30 to 40, from 40
to 60 feet. Let the height under the limitary beam be
an eighth added to its breadth, and a third of the same
breadth should be added above, in consideration of the
ceiling.
PLATE XL.
OF THE PEEISTYLIUM.
§. 6. The PERisTYLiuM (or, according to Julius Pol.
lux*, PERicioN, for the Greek word xicov signifies a co-
lumn) seems analogous to the cloister in a convent or
college, for it is a quadrangular area, longer by a third
part than it is broad; the middle of the area is open to
the air, its sides forming a walk encompassed with co-
lumns, which are often insulated, and often Hkewise in-
serted, whose height is always equal to the breadth of
the porticos. Sometimes the insulated columns are
ranged over the inserted ; sometimes there are three or
more orders, and a wall with windows occupies the in-
tercolumniations, particularly of the upper order. By
the combination of all these modes a great variety is
given to the building. As the dimensions of the areaare.
not laid down by any writer I have seen, I shall not pre-
tend to define them; but that they had some certain pro-
portion to the ATRIUM I have not the least doubt. With
respect to its situation, it fronts the atrium; at least ac-
cording to Vitruvius, who describes its length as lying
transversely, and its breadth as retiring inward. The
difference between the peristyhum and the atrium is
obvious; as the wings only of the latter are adorned
with columns.
By the due proportion and proper disposition of the
* See his Onomasticon, or Dictionarium Reruni et Synonimorum, &c.
K 4
136 OF THE ELEMENTS OF
ATRIUM, the TABLINUM, and PERISTYLIUM, the CAV.E-
diUm of Vitruvius before mentioned is, I apprehend,
completed; and if the cav^dium of PHny the younger
should mean any else, (as it appears to do,) it may per-
haps be a name common to all quadrangular areas which
are surrounded by apartments, and open within, but are
of such figure and proportions as do not properly fall
under the description of atria or peristylia; such as
for the most part are the quadrangles of colleges in the
Universities.
PLATE XXXV, XXXVI.
§. 7. We will now, with Palladio as our guide, form
the proportions of the Tuscan cavjidia. Immediately
from the vestibule we proceed to the atrium, whose length
is to its breadth as three to two, and whose breadth i» to
the side of the tablinum as live to two. From the tabli-
num we enter the peristylium, which is longer across by
a third part than its depth, and its porticos should be as
wide as the columns are high. The other parts may be
made as in plate 35, or varied according to the pleasure
of the architect, provided he adheres to the general rules.
The tetrastyle cav^dia may be thus constructed,
agreeable to the same writer. Through the vestibule we
proceed to the atrium, whose length is to its breadth as
five to three ; the half of its breadth gives the side of the
tablinum, the third of it the aperture of the impluvium.
The eighth part gives the breadth of the wing; and the
sixteenth part forms the diameter of the four columns,
which are likewise of the Corinthian order. The peristy-
lium is a third part longer crossways than in depth. It
has two orders of columns; those below are Doric 16
feet high ; the breadth of the porticos is the same. The
columns above are Ionic, a fourth part more slender than
CIVIL ARCHITECTURE. 137
the Doric; they rest on a base or pedestal entire two feet
and three quarters high.
Of the TESTUDiNATED and Corinthian atrios we
shall treat more properly hereafter. Of the displu-
viATED, with Palladio, we shall say nothing.
BOOK II. CHAP. III.
OF THE PRIVATE CITY HOUSES OF OTHER NATIONS.
§. 1. Many nations, as they differ in cHmate and
manners, vary likewise in their modes of building. It
will be of singular advantage to the architect to be well
acquainted with their particular plans, and diligently to
study the ancient models, more especially those of the
Greek and Roman artists. We proceed therefore to treat
of these ; and as the designs of Mons. Perrault generally
explain Vitruvius, and Palladio supplies the defects of
M. Perrault, we will lay before the reader the plans of
both, and mark the places described by each of them
with the same letters.
PLATE XLI, XLII.
§. 2. A city house among the Greeks has no vestibule
opposite the street Z, and no court in the entrance, but a
harrow passage A, called in Greek ^ugoo^siov or gateway,
on one side of which are the stables B, and on the other
the porter's lodges C.
From thence you enter the ])eristylium, but improperly
so called, as it has porticos only on three sides D, and in
that part which faces the south there are two antae, one
on each side, forming an aperture to the space E retiring
138 OF THE ELEMENTS OF
inward, which was called 'sygofotg and waf «?. These antspy
are separated by a considerable distance, being one and
an half of the side of the building which runs back; on
these piers the beams of the adjoining stories rest. On
the right hand and left of these are three apartments on
each side; two of a moderate size H H called the tha-
lamus and ANTiTHALAMUs; to each of which was an-
nexed a larger antechamber, as G, and a smaller room
behind T. Around the porticos in the inside were ranged
the common rooms for dining K, bed rooms L, and serv-
ants' rooms I. Beyond these antechambers, were larger
rooms or halls F set apart for women and their employ-
ments, separated by an inner room O, and looking into
the open courts Y. This part is called the gyn-^co-
NITIS.
More inward are the andronitides, or men's apart-
ments. In these the rooms are more spacious, theperisty-
lium of greater extent, the porticos in the highest degree
ornamented, the vestibules magnificent, and their doors
of suitable grandeur. The porticos of this peristylium
are four P N; all being either of the same height, or at
least three of them, the fourth N which fronts the south
may be higher than the rest. A peristylium having a
portico of this latter kind is called Rhodian; the reason
of its name is merely conjectural. In this court, toward
the south, are square halls T of so great an extent, that
in each of them four triclinia might be conveniently
arranged, and sufficient space left for the attendance of
the servants, and for games. In these the men feasted
without the company of women. The dining rooms, called
y The three words antae, prostas, and pastas, mean the same things, viz.
square columns or piers, on each side an entrance or door- way. The reader,
by referring to the note on b. iii. ch. 1. of Vitruvius, may inform himself
of the various opinions concerning these terms.
CIVIL ARCHITECTURE. 139
ciziCENE, Q and rooms for pictures fronted the north.
The EXHEDR^* R fronted the west, and the Hbraries
were placed toward the east.
Apart from these edifices on either side were the lodg-
ings for strangers V, which were separated by passages
or alleys X, called by the Greeks jitso-auAat, and by the
Latins improperly andrones. The strangers' buildings
have their separate gates, dining rooms, and bedcham-
bers; together with storerooms furnished with provisions,
that they might after the first day's visit enjoy liberty
and retirement. The guests were received the first day
at the table of their host, who afterwards sent them eggs
chickens, olives, apples, and other productions of the
country : hence pictures representing these presents were
called XENIA.
PLATE XLIII, XLIV.
§. 3. In the entrance of Roman houses there is a ves-
tibule V, called by Palladio a loggia, by Perrault iArgo^u§ov,
In the design of Perrault the cav^dium B follows con-
trary to the opinion of Vitruvius, who, b. vi. ch. 8. ex-
pressly says that in the city the courts are next to the
gates; wherefore Palladio immediately next to the vesti-
bule places the atrium C, which in this example is testu-
dinated; its length is equal to the diagonal of the square
of its breadth, its height under the hmitary beam equal
to its breadth. In the design of Perrault it is Corinthian,
with the wings as D.
In each of the designs the tablinum follows next E,
then the peristyhum F, both constructed according to
the general rules. In the porticos of Palladio the apart-
ments G have the same breadth with the porticos, and
* Rooms for the purposes of conversation or sleeping. See the note on
Vitruvius, b. vi. ch. 5.
140 OF THE ELEMENTS OF
an equal altitude, with an addition of one third for the
arching of the ceilings : H are Corinthian oeci, or halls :
I Tetrastyli, halls with four pillars; K Egyptian: L
Cyzicene : M Square halls : N Exhedrae : O Libraries :
P Stables : Q Baths : X Shrubberies : Y Walks planted
with trees.
The names of most of those things we have marked
with letters themselves explain their uses. Of the rest
their purposes varied according to the pleasure of their
possessor. The atria, or courts, were adorned with the
statues of the ancestors of the master of the mansion. In
them " likenesses taken in wax were preserved in various
" cabinets, that on any family deaths these representatives
" might accompany the funeral ceremonies, (whence we
" may conjecture why the courts were very near the
" gates,) to which every person, who had ever been con-
" nected with the family, repaired. On the pictures of
" the deceased they drew out his pedigree. The tablinum
" was filled with books and records of acts performed in
" his magistracy. The statues of conquered nations were
" erected without the walls, and round the confines of the
" mansions ; the spoils of the enemy were annexed to
" them; nor was it lawful for any purchaser of the place
" to refix these trophies.'' Plin. Nat. Hist. 35. 2. But
these were the manners of ancient times, more particularly
whilst the Commonwealth flourished. But after the death
of Augustus, Architecture with the other arts so far de-
generated, that from that time to the latest period of the
empire, in proportion as works of art were modern, they
abounded in faults and bad taste. So far with respect to
the private remains of ancient cities.
PLATE XLV, XLVI.
We should now treat of modern city houses peculiar
to each nation: but since Architecture, restored in Italy.
CIVIL ARCHITECTURE. 141
has not arrived at any perfection out of that country, we
will add only three specimens taken from Palladio.
The first is of a monastery at Venice, which is called
II Convento della CARiTAjOr the Convent of Charity:
Palladio in the design of it imitated the style of a palace in
ancient Rome. He describes it in the second book of
his Architecture, chap. 6, as follows.
It is a Corinthian atrium, the length of which is the
diagonal of its breadth squared. Each wing is a seventh
part of its length wide. The columns are of the Com-
posite order, 35 feet long, and three and a half in dia-
meter. The aperture of the impluvium is a third part
of the breadth of the atrium. Not within but on the
side of the atrium, instead of a tablinum is a sacristy;
opposite to it is the chapter house ; the ceiling of each
rests on a Doric cornice; and in each, columns support
a middle wall, which divides the cells or chambers from
the passages. In that part next the church is a staircase
of an oval figure, open, and of equal beauty and utihty.
From the court you go directly into the peristylium, or,
as it is commonly called, the cloister, which has three
orders of pillars inserted in the wall, as in the plate.
Below are Doric pillars projecting three parts in four;
above these are Ionic, less by a fifth part; the highest of
all are Corinthian, diminishing in the same proportion.
The upper intercolumniations are filled up by a wall with
windows in it: the lower ones are formed by open arches.
In the highest order are the cells of the brothers, a space
being left for passages. Lest the ceilings should be too
heavy for the walls^ they are made of reeds, as we shall
shew in its proper place. Beyond the peristylium is the
refectory, the length of which is double the breadth; the
height, which is sesquialteral of the breadth, is carried to
the third story of the peristylium ; on each side is,a per-
142 OF THE ELEMENTS OF
tieo ; tinder it a store room or wine cellar, made in the
same manner as cisterns are, that no water may enter.
Adjacent to the refectory are the kitchen, ovens, the
yard for poultry, wood house, laundry, garden, and other
necessary offices. In this convent, rooms for strangers
included, there are 44 apartments and 46 cells.
PLATE XLVII, XLVIII.
§. 5. The second plan represents a house insulated,
standing in the middle of the city of Vicentia near the
market place, which therefore in the first order has shops,
together with mezati or half stories. The entrance next
to which is the vestibule is made projecting, and above
the entrance the hall is as much larger as is the breadth
of the vestibule. On each side also is an entrance, in
which the columns supporting the story above them make
the breadth of the portico proportionable to its height-
In the middle of the building is a peristylium, (or rather
a cavaedium, as it is square,) the lower porticos of which
are of the Tuscan order, the higher of the Composite.
Opposite to the grand entrance is an oecus, which" may
be called Corinthian : in the angles are four octagon oeci,
capable on account of their form of being applied to va-
rious uses. The offices are partly in the higher stories.
The store rooms, &c. under ground ; for as the building
is placed on an eminence, no apprehension of incon-
venience from water can be entertained.
The next design, which casually offigrs itself, is taken
from the third chapter of the same book. The lower
rooms of this edifice are only subterraneous in part,
being raised five feet above ground, so that they can re-
ceive no inconvenience from the neighbouring river, and
the higher stories command a more extensive prospect.
CIVIL ARCHITECTURE. 143
The apartments above ground consist of two stories; the
lower order is Doric, the higher Ionic. In the lower a
portico is extended through the whole of the front. All
the apartments have their ceilings vaulted; in the larger
ones, the height from the floor to the sagitta is an arith-
metical mean between 1 and L. The middle sized rooms
are of equal height with the others, with groined vaults-
The lesser rooms have entersoles with winding' staircases
leading to them. In the second order the hall is in the
middle of the front, and on each side is a lofty vestibule.
The height of these three rooms reaches to the roof. The
hall is as much larger than the entrance, as is the breadth
of the portico under it ; and as it projects beyond the
body of the building, the angles of it are supported by
double columns.
BOOK 11. CHAP. IV.
OF A VILLA OR COUNTRY HOUSE, AND OF A HOUSE BUILT
IN THE SUBURBS OF A TOWN OR CITY.
§. 1. The term villa, taken in its full sense, means a
country house with a farm annexed : but we shall here
understand no more by it than a house built for rural
retirement; in the size, situation, and structure of which
the plan of a farm house is not to be lost sight of. This
observation refers in some degree to the rules for the de-
sign, but gives no latitude to the meaning of the term.
With respect to the style of a villa, the ancients agreed
that it should be such that the estate and the viUa might
mutually accommodate each other. The situation most
convenient to the house is in the middle of the farm, and
144 OF THE ELEMENTS OF
near, if possible, to a navigable river; if not, at least near
a flowing stream; for a stagnated water should be
avoided as a nuisance, especially if it be frequented by
swallows. The ancients, before they determined on the
spot of ground, examined the entrails of the cattle that fed
on the soil, and if they found their livers of a hvid co-
lour, they immediately deserted the place. Attention is
likewise to be given to the air, that it be pure and whole-
some; and we should choose an elevated situation, to
have a free current of wind. We should avoid a valley
inclosed by hills, for in such a spot both the sun and
wind will be detrimental. If you are obliged to build
your villa on a hill, let it have a temperate aspect, and
let it be placed at a distance from any other higher hill
or rock that may be opposite to it, lest it should be over-
shadowed by the hill, or from the reflection of the sun
from the rock it should be scorched as it were with two
suns. The nature of the soil should be enquired into,
the healthiness of which, as well as of the air and water,
may be discovered various ways; but these are to be
sought from adepts in natural history.
§. 2. The parts of a villa, according to Columella, are
three ; first, the mansion, where the master lodges ; se-
cond, the rustic, in which the bailiff" and labourers live,
and where the instruments of husbandry are preserved ;
third, the granaries, or places for storing the grain.
The mansion house differs not materially in its design
from a private house in a city. Let the granaries and
rooms for labourers form one continued range, and be
joined in such a manner to the mansion, that the master
may walk through the whole premises under cover.
Let the bailiff lodge near the gate, and the labourers
in a place where they may guard the villa. You should
CIVIL ARCHITECTURE 145
remove as far from the villa house as is convenient the
oxen, horses, and all beasts of burden, on account of the
ill smell occasioned by their dung ; but let them be in a
spot warm and open to a current of air. Breeding ani-
mals, such as fowls, hogs, doves, sheep, &c. should have
situations suitable to their nature and use, which will
vary and be determined according to the different man-
ners and customs of the country.
Wine is of that delicate nature that nothing receives
hurt sooner. A cellar should be dug where no noise,
smell, heat, or moisture can reach ; and, according to
some writers, where there are no roots of trees. The
cellar should receive its light from the north or east; the
floor should sink in the middle, that if any wine should
run out it may not be lost. Under cover near the cellars
the vessels should be placed at such a height, as that,
when the wine in them shall have fermented, it may
easily be conveyed into the barrels through pipes made
of wood or leather.
Let the granaries front the north, as that aspect is cold
and dry, and the weevil-^ will not breed there ; for which
reason this situation is very favourable to the preserva-
tion of the grain. Let their floors be made with plaster,
or, if this cannot be done, with boards, but by no means
with lime, which would materially injure the grain.
Barns should have the same aspect as granaries, and for
the same reasons. Let the hay-lofts be fronting the west,
or rather the south ; for the sun will dry the hay, and
prevent it from heating and catching fire, which it often
does when laid up too moist. The places where the im-
plements of husbandry are deposited should face the
south, and be under cover.
* A small worm or mite that feeds on corn and other grain.
L
•r
146 OF THE ELEMENTS OF
The area constructed for the purpose of threshing
should be placed in such a manner that it may be seen
from the mansion, but so as that neither the dust may be
blown towards the mansion, nor the chaff fly into the
garden. It should be spacious, and have the advantage
of the sun, and should be either pitched, or laid with
flint. Varro moreover advises that it should be round,
and swelling in the middle. Tt should have porticos on
all sides, which in the heat will afford a shade, and a
shelter against sudden showers.
PLATE XLIX.
The villa of the ancients is described by Vitruvius,
b. vi. c. 9. which Palladio has explained by a diagram as
follows. At the entrance is a vestibule, whose aspect is
towards the south. Near it, a passage only between, is the
kitchen, which receives its light from above; it is square,
and has a fire-place in the middle, but no chimney in
the side of it. On the left of it are stalls for oxen, with
mangers, &c. fronting the east and the fire ; by this ex-
pedient they prevented the oxen from looking rough and
unsightly. On the same side the baths, with other ad-
joining offices, projected towards the south as far as the
vestibule. Opposite to these on the right hand the rooms
for the wine presses answered the baths, and had the ad-
vantage of the south, east, dnd west aspects. Behind
these were the wine cellars, which received their light
from the north, were renioved at a distance from all noise,
and the heat of the sun. Over these were built the gra-
naries, which received their light from the same quarters.
On each side of the peristyle or cavaedium were placed
the stables in the warmest spot, but not fronting the fire-
place. The sheep pens, and the places for all other cat-
CIVIL ARCHITECTURE. 147
tie, the hay and straw lofts and bakehouses, were placed
securely, and at a distance from the fire. Behind all
these is the mansion, whose front has the same aspect as
the vestibule of the villa; for in a villa the atrium or
coui^t is placed backwards, contrary to its situation in a
town house, where the court is next to the gate.
PLATE L.
§. 4. On the Brenta is a magnificent villa of Sieur
Mocenico, a Venetian nobleman, erected by Palladio,
which will serve as a specimen for a modern villa. Four
porticos of a circular form, and spreading out from the
opposite angles of the mansion, seem to invite strangers
to their embraces: on the sides of which, and in the
front, and near the river, are the stables; behind are the
kitchens, and over these offices appertaining to them. In
the middle of the front of the mansion is a loggia or
vestibule of eight columns of the Composite order, and
forty feet high, whose intercolumniations in the middle
are systyle, on each side pycnostyle. Behind these are
pilasters two feet wide, and one and a quarter thick,
which support an open gallery to the height of the first
story ; on the sides are constructed two loggias of six
columns each. Behind the vestibule, on each side of the
entrance is a dining room or triclinium, 20 feet broad
and 40 long ; on the side of each is an exhedra twenty
feet in the square, whose height is sesquitertian of its
side ; for a ceiling constructed with a schiffb, requires a
third of its side for the height of the coving. Through
the entrance you go into the great court, whether you
call it peristyle or cavaedium ; it has two orders of co.
lumns all round; the higher are Corinthian, a fifth part
smaller than the Ionic placed under them : the porticos
l2
148 OF THE ELEMENTS OF
are as wide as their columns are high, their diameter de-
ducted, and the adjoining apartments are the same, in
order that the roof may receive as much support as pos-
sible from the partition wall. In the inner portico, op-
posite the entrance, is the grand staircase, with a double
ascent, as in plate 27 ; then is seen a larger saloon, or
oecus, 30 feet broad, the length is double and sesquial-
teral of the breadth. It has wings with columns, by which
the symmetry of the other parts is proportioned to the
height. The hall above this has none, as its height
reaches to the roof ; the apartments placed in the same
story are as high only as they are broad. The remaining
space to the height of the hall is left for entersoles.
§. 4. A house built in the suburbs is of a middle nature,
between the town house and the villa. In the construc-
tion of it neatness should be attended to, but retirement
more ; its principal requisites are ease and repose. Its
appearance is neater than the country house, and not so
splendid as one in the city. It neither boasts of pastures,
or sumptuous dining rooms; content with a study, a
garden, and extensive walks. It will be conducive to
health if it be placed somewhat on an eminence, and to
pleasure if it has a view of the city you have left behind
you.
PLATE LI, LII.
Palladio supplies us with the two following specimens
of houses of this sort. In the former, which every way
commands a fine prospect, there are four vestibules, and
in the middle of the house a circular hall with four en-
trances, which rises above the roof, and receives its hght
from the top. The ground plot is inscribed in a square ;
CIVIL ARCHITECTURE. 149
the angular spaces are filled by four staircases for ser-
vants. These lead both to the entersoles, which are over
the smaller rooms, and to the gallery, which goes round
the hall to the height of the second story. The upper-
most apartments are eight feet high ; the offices are un-
der ground.
The construction of the second edidce is elegant, and
may be varied many ways. There are two vestibules,
each of which is of the Ionic order, and the podium (the
bottom part of the wall) projects at its lower extremity.
The rooms above ground have two stories; small turrets
are erected at the four angles. Palladio has described a
villa as consisting of two areas, that in the front for the
use of the master of the house that backward for the
purposes of country business. Without these the edifice
would be suburban; without the turrets and vestibules
it would become a smaller suburban house: and so also,
if the rooms above ground have only one story, and the
site being changed, the entrance be made where the
back door is, and a study be put in the place of the re-
maining vestibule, instead of a hall you substitute a sa-
loon in the Egyptian style, and erect watch towers in
the angles.
PLATE LIII, LIV, LV.
§. 6. In these three plates we have described nine
fronts of superb palaces, which at this time may be seen
in Rome.
The first is the palace of the King of England, built
by Bramante de Urbino in the Borgho Nuovo, A. D.
1504. It was lately in the possession of Cardinal Hieron.
Colonna.
The second is the palace of the Duke de Sora, in the
150 OF THE ELEMENTS OF
Apparitors'* ward, commonly called Rione di Parione,
which the same Bramante built for his friend the Car-
dinal Nicol. de Fieschi, A.D. 1505. But I imagine
there was no turret annexed to it.
The third is the palace of SSri CafFarelli in the ward
of St. Eustachio, but described only in part. The archi-
tect was Rafaele d'Urbino, A.D. 1505.
The fourth is the house once belonging to Rafael him-
self, in the Borgho Nuovo, and was of his own construc-
tion, A. D. 1513. Wherefore we have here exhibited
the plan without the absurd and useless ornaments it is
now loaded with, which style was so repugnant to the
taste of that celebrated artist, that the additions were no
doubt made by some other architect. Raphael himself
gave the plan of this building. The person at whose ex-
pence it was erected was Pope Leo X. The builder was
Bramante.
The fifth is the palace Alia Lungara, once belonging
to Agost. de Chigi, a particular friend of Raphael.
Here is preserved the celebrated picture of Galatea by
Raphael, with some others. The architect was Baldas-
sare Peruzzi, A.D. 1518. Here Peruzzi painted a xyst
or portico with so much art, that the resemblance de-
ceived even Titian, who had been previously informed
of this wonderful work.
The sixth is the palace of SSri Cenci in the afore-
mentioned ward of St. Eustachio, close by the custom-
house. Julio Romano gave the design of it for his friend
Paoli Staci, A.D. 1535.
The seventh stands without the Flaminian gate, com-
monly called La Porta del Popolo. The plan of this
building was designed by Jacomo Barozzi da Vignola,
A. D. 1553, during the pontificate of Julius TIL The
name of the palace is Vigna di Papa GiuHo III. The
CIVIL ARCHITECTURE. 151
plate represents a part of the front as somewhat pro-
jecting.
The eighth was erected by P. Dominico PacaneUi da
Faenza, the mathematician, for Cardinal Alesander, A. D.
1585. This edifice is in the ward commonly called Rione
di Monti, and fronts the Forum or La Piazza de Apo-
stoli.
The ninth is the palace of the Torrian family, com-
monly called SSri di Torres, built by Pirro Ligorio for
a Neapolitan nobleman, A.D. 1560. This edifice stands
in the Circus where games were celebrated ; it is now
called La Piazza Navona. To the merit of Pirro Ligorio
every one bears ample testimony, who professes any know-
ledge of Architecture, and of the arts connected with it,
or makes any pretensions to antiquarian researches.
I have exhibited these specimens for the benefit of
young students, which they may imitate with equal plea-
sure and advantage, either by varying them in some par-
ticulars, or copying from them in others. Different
tastes will of course approve difi*erent models : by an
EngKshman it has been deemed most proper to select
those, which he apprehended would suit best the English
manners. We here conclude our account of private
edifices.
THE END.
BAXTER, PRINTER, OXFORD.
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