VITRUVIUS, BOOK I, CHAPTER 3On the parts of architecture
1. Partes ipsius architecturae sunt tres: aedificatio, gnomonice, machinatio. Aedificatio autem divisa est bipertito, e quibus una est moenium et communium operum in publicis locis conlocatio, altera est privatorum aedificiorum explicatio. Publicorum autem distributiones sunt tres, e quibus una defensionis, altera religionis, tertia opportunitatis. Defensionis est murorum turriumque et portarum ratio ad hostium impetus perpetuo repellendos excogitata, religionis deorum inmortalium fanorum aediumque sacrarum conlocatio, opportunitatis communium locorum ad usum publicum dispositio, uti portus, fora, porticus, balinea, theatra, inambulationes, ceteraque, quae isdem rationibus in publicis locis designantur.
Translation
1. The parts of architecture itself are three: building, dialling, and mechanics. Building in turn is divided into two parts; of which one is the placing of city walls, and of public buildings on public sites; the other is the setting out of private buildings. Now the assignment of public buildings is threefold: one, to defence; the second to religion; the third, to convenience. The method of defence by walls, towers and gates has been divised with a view to the continuous warding off of hostile attacks; to religion belongs the placing of the shrines and sacred temples of the immortal gods; to convenience, the disposal of public sites for the general use, such as harbours, open spaces, collonades, baths, theatres, promenades, and other things which are planned, with like purposes, in public situations.
2. Haec autem ita fieri debent, ut habeatur ratio firmitatis, utilitatis, venustatis. Firmitatis erit habita ratio, cum fuerit fundamentorum ad solidum depressio, quaque e materia, copiarum sine avaritia diligens electio; utilitatis autem,
Translation
2. Now these should be so carried out that account is taken of strength, utility and grace. Account will be taken of strenght when the foundations are carried down to the solid ground, and when from each material there is a choice of supplies without parsimony; of utility, when the sites are arranged without mistake and impediment to their use, and a fit and convenient disposition for the aspect of each kind; of grace, when the appearance of the work shall be pleasing and elegant, and the scale of the constituent parts is justly calculated for symmetry.
Comment
In this chapter Vitruvius gives the contents of what will follow.
The architect has a triple task:
Building is further divided in two parts: public and private.
In this summary no mention is made of book II which treats building materials. It comes between townplanning and building activity in the narrower sense. The place of this book is quite obvious. The knowlegde of building materials has nothing to do with townplanning, but is necessary before starting any building activity, which starts finally in book III.
Building activity must further obey the rules of strength, utility and grace.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Les dix livres d'architecture de Vitruve, Corrigés et traduits en 1684 par C. Perrault, Paris, 1684.
Chapter 4
Suggestions and remarks?
In the first place comes building, clearly the primary task of an architect. Building is treated in books I to VIII.
In the second place comes dialling and the rendering of time. This is treated in book IX where Vitruvius starts from a reflection on ancient cosmology to end with a description of various kinds of dials and their inventors.
In the third, and last, place comes mechanics. This is quite understandable from Vitruvius' point of view who has been a war engineer under Julius Caesar. These mechanics are treated in book X which falls apart in two clearly defined parts. The first part (chapters 1 - 9) covers civil engineering while the second part (chapters 10 - 16) is about military engineering.
Public building is about townplanning (Book I, chapters 4 - 7), temple building (Books III and IV) and public building (Book V).
Private building is about houses, farms and villas (Books VI - VIII).
As for strength: buildings are not seen as a simple consumption article. They must last for a long time and therefore have to be build on solid ground with the appropriate materials.
With the two following categories (utility and grace) Vitruvius refers to the second chapter and resumes his notions of decor and distributio, adding a notion of symmetry. Symmetry, in the Vitruvian sense, must be understood as the correct fitting of the different parts and details of a building as we shall see in the detailed descriptions of the five orders in books III and IV.
Vitruvius, De Architectura libri X, ed. F. Granger, London, 1962.
Ton Peters, Vitruvius, Handboek bouwkunde, Amsterdam, 1999.
L.Callebat, Organisation et structures du De architectura de Vitruve, in Munus non Ingratum, ed. H.Geertman&J.J.De Jong, Leiden, 1989, pp. 34-38
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