Translation

1. First, Thales thought that water was the principle of all things. Heraclitus of Ephesus (who because of the obscurity of his writings was called Dark by the Greeks), fire; Democritus, and Epicurus who followed him, atoms, which our writers have called unbreakables, some indivisibles. But the school of the Pythagoreans addedair and earthy to water and fire. Therefore Democritus, although he did not name "things" as such, but supposed "atoms" only, seems to have spoken of them as such because although they may be separated out, they are not damaged nor destroyed, nor cut up into parts, but retain in themselves for ever a perfect solidity.

2. Ex his ergo congruentibus cum res omnes coire nascique videantur ut eae in infinitis generibus rerum natura essent disparatae, putavi oportere de varietatibus et discriminibus usus earum quasque haberent in aedificiis qualitates exponere, uti cum fuerint notae, non habeant qui aedificare cogitant errorem, sed aptas ad usum copias aedificiis comparent.

Translation

2. Since therefore from these, being in correspondence, all things seem to come together and be born, and since by nature they have been divided into infinite kinds, I thought I ought first to deal with the varieties and differences of the use of them, and what qualities they show in buildings; so that when they are familiar, those who think of building may not make mistakes but get supplies fit for use.

COMMENT

It is not the intention of Vitruvius to give here a penetrating explanation about the natural philosophy of his time. He only mentions the greatest philosophers and refers shortly to their ideas abut the four elements: water, fire, air and earth. He refers also shortly to the atomic theories of his time. His purpose is not to show his intellectual supremacy but he only wants to demontrate that, if one wishes to build, one must be aware of the properties and possibilities of the building materials. The knowledge of these materials find finally his roots in the knowledge of natural philosophy which is about the characteristics of the elements out of which the materials are composed.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Les dix livres d'architecture de Vitruve, Corrigés et traduits en 1684 par C. Perrault, Paris, 1684.
Vitruvius, De Architectura libri X, ed. F. Granger, London, 1962.
Ton Peters, Vitruvius, Handboek bouwkunde, Amsterdam, 1999.
H. Knell, Vitruvs Architekturtheorie, Versuch einer Interpretation, Darmstadt, 1985.

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