On Doric Order
The text of Vitruvius says that from the pavement to the coffers, that is from the pavement of the portico up to the ceiling ….. should be divided into three and a half parts, two of these are to be for the door space – that in my opinion, is what the text of Vitruvius says. However, because the individual measurements cannot be shown well on such a small figure, I shall describe them in more detail on the following page and show them in a larger figure.
Therefore, having made, as I said, three and a half parts from the pavement to the underside of the coffers, two parts should be for the door space; this height to be divided up into XII parts: one for the front of the antepagmenta, called pilastrades, and five and a half for the width of the door space – if the door space is XVI feet or lower, the upper part should diminish by a fourteenth part. The supercilium, called architrave, ought to be the same height. Within this the Lesbian cymatium with the astragal are to be carved – the cymatium should be a sixth of the pilastrade. I interpret the Lesbian astragal in the way shown in the figure A. Although the text clearly seems to imply that the cymatium should be carved only above the supercilium, however because of what I have seen on the antique, I wanted to make it around the pilastrade. In place of a frieze, a hyperthyrum should be set over the supercilium, of the same height, in which, the text says, you should carve the Doric cymatium and the Lesbian astragal in the sculpture of the cyma. This passage is very confused, and I am inclined to believe that the text is corrupt and that where it says scima scalptura - That is, the Doric cymatium and the Lesbian astragal without sculpture, whose form and proportion are in the figure at D and A. The text appears to say that the cymatium of the flat corona should be level with the tops of the capitals. If that is the case, then the corona turns out very large. I gave as much projection to this as the supercilium>/I> is high, as the text says. Although I would never carve such a corona on my work, nevertheless, in describing the ornaments I wanted to give my personal opinion about this and show its appearance in a figure.
I have given more careful consideration to that passage of Vitruvius where he says you should carve the Doric cymatium and the Lesbian astragal on the sculpture of the cyma, and I have also conferred with some Greeks, where the conclusion was that the scima scalptura means ‘sculpture in bas-relief’ – that is, that this work should not have as much projection as the others and thus the sculptures could not have so much relief. I affirm, as a result of having seen elements of this sort on ancient buildings – that is, astragals, leaves, ovolos and other work of bas-relief – that what it means is 'sculpture in bas-relief'
Although it is a fact that in our times it is not the custom to build doors which diminish in the upper part as the ancients used to do – a development which I would not condemn for many reasons - nevertheless a few intelligent architects have built some which were not liked by the majority of people. Therefore, if the architects have built a simple Doric door with little ornament, he could observe the order and the proportion of the following figure. Its opening should be twice as high as it is wide. The pilastrade should be a sixth part the width of the opening. Around this an ovolo in low relief with its bands is to be carved, taking up a fifth of the pilastrade. Even though for the previous door this was a sixth, I nevertheless wanted to make it in this way because I observed it taking up a fifth on an ancient door of medium size. As I said above, this ovolo should not be a quarter of a circle, but a half flatter. Vitruvius calls this member the Lesbian cymatium, to judge from a comparison of the text with the ancient examples. The remaining part of the pilastrade should be divided up into IX parts, five given to the larger frieze and four to the smaller one. Above the pilastrade should be placed the cornice, whose height is the same as that of the pilastrade. This is to be divided up into three equal parts: the first for the cyma reversa with its astragal and necking; the second for the corona called gocciolatoio with its smaller cyma; the third for the cymatium called cyma recta, but with an eighth extra added to it. For the projection (called sporto) of the cornice the rule given at the beginning of this Order should be observed.