G OR I BT G , : THE ELEMENTS OF CIVIL ARCHITECTURE. Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2010 with funding from Research Library, The Getty Research Institute http://www.archive.org/details/elementsofcivilaOOaldr I 1 > //, ,jMvr/ :j:.v. ./> THE ELEMENTS OF CIVIL ARCHITECTURE, ACCORDING TO ©itrubtusf aittr otfoer 3ttttent$, 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. SECOND EDITION. OXFORD, PRINTED BY W. BAXTER, FOR J. PARKER : MESSRS. PAYNE AND FOSS, PALL MAI.L ; AND MESSRS. LAW AND WHITTAKER, AVE MARIA LANE, LONDON. 1818. 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 tra- veller it may be considered as supplying a defi- ciency 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 trea- tises 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 vi PREFACE. terms, accompanied with plates : some illus- trations 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 of Aldrich, by whom the history was composed, w ill 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 its pursuit at home, or the numerous opportunities of improvement that are lost to an ignorant man who traverses the country of Palladio. ADVERTISEMENT. IT 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 a 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. 1 HE wants of man, in solitude or in society, are the sources of his invention and industry. The first of his needs, after the means of subsist- ence, is that of protection for his person and stores, against the severity of climate and the mutability of seasons. His earliest attempts, to provide a permanent shelter for both above ground a , must have been determined by the easiest application of the most obvious materials, such as trees and their branches, reeds, shrubs, rushes, clay, mud, &c. a 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. * Vitruv. 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 would naturally assume some regu- larity 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 b . We find it with the Kamkatschan and the Hottentot ; we meet with it in the American Wigwam ; among the ancient inhabitants of Asia Minor , 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 resist- ance 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. b Sir W. Chambers's Civ. Arch. pag. 1. pi. 1. c Vitruv. b. ii. c. 1. INTRODUCTION. 3 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 mi« - ht 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 t6wards perfection through the several regions of the world, where b 2 4 INTRODUCTION. it has in its birth, growth, and decline, followed the fortune of empires ; if it could be done with any degree of success, would be an attempt much beyond the limits and design of this intro- duction, intended only to give the reader, 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 d 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 acknow- ledgment 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 d About 440 years before the Christian sera. 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, determined the subse- quent practice of those masters, whose struc- tures and writings are now resorted to, as of decisive authority 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 endoAved with quick perception, nice discernment, rich invention. Of exquisite sensibility 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. e Chambray, Blondel, Per- rault, in French ; Count Alexander Pompei, in Italian, 6cc. ; 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 f , 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. f Vitruvius Pollio flourished between 44 and 31 before Christ. 6 The elder Pliny, Frontinus, &c. INTRODUCTION. 1 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- mia3 h 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 any 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 whole 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 further 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 emperors sister Oc- tavia Major ; was by him entrusted with a share k in the management of his military machines, and rewarded with a pension for life. In acknow- h Now Mola di Gaeta. ' Vitruv. b. viii. c. 4. Pref. to b. i. k 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- in.2,' of which he was himself the architect, the Basilica at Fano 1 . 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 m 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, con- curring 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- 1 See his description of it, b. v. c. 1. m See Pref. to b. iii. and vi. n 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 q 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 Avith terms and notions hard to La- tinize, should have mitigated the censure of Al- bert, 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 1 himself, of his having been, for a length of time, host to a C. Julius, son of Masinissa who served under J. Caesar, has been adduced in proof of the personal consideration in which p Pref. to b. ii. i Pref. to b. vii. sub finem ; and Pref. to b. v. r B. viii. c. 4. 10 INTRODUCTION. Vitruvius 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 8 . From the few chronological data found in his work, he appears to have been at the height of his repu- tation between 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 Architecture must have been derived from books ; seeing he has no where intimated his having tra- velled 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 u . s Vide note 1 1 . p. 22. of his Life of Vitruvius, prefixed to his Italian translation. 1 Vide Fabricius's account of Vitruvius in his Biblioth. Lat. by Ernesti, Lipsiae 1773. vol. i. p. 483. u What is become of this copy is unknown ; nor is it even mentioned by the Marquis Poleni in his Exercitationes Vitru- vianae prima?, Padua 173& 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 decline. 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 chastity, propriety, and dignity of manner, which ennoble its productions. But, alas, this state is never lasting ! Tired of the monotony of per- esteemed is that of John de Laet. Amst. apud L. Elzev. 1649, folio. Of the various translations, those of CI. Perraidt 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 genius, 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. prima?, p. 27. 12 INTRODUCTION. 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 incongruity, and finally triumphs in absurdity and confusion. Having presented this general idea of the improvement and perversion of the arts, it remains to offer a slight sketch of the re- storation of that of Architecture, from its growing corruptions after the decline of the Roman em- pire. Its more observable advance in recovery began withFiLippoBRUNELLEscHi x , a Florentine, born in 1377, who distinguished himself in the begin- ning of the fifteenth century. His first employ- ment 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 naturalized 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- x Brunelleschi, born 1377, died 1444, aet. 67- INTRODUCTION. 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 Italian and Oltramontane artists, with the cura- tors of the fabric on that business in 1420, gene- rally thought so extravagant, that he was hissed and driven by force out of the assembly. After this ill treatment he retired to Rome, where having well considered his project, and re-exa- mined whatever was to be found instructive for effecting it, he, upon his recall to Florence, per- sisted in asserting his competency to the under- taking ; 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 insufficient colleague was, at the same time, joined with him in the person of Lorenzo Ghi- berti ; 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 y ; the height of the lantern 36 ; the diameter of the copper ball 4 ; the cross 8 : the aggregate of these sums 202. Cupolas 2 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 reinforce- ments 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 Encyclopedic 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. z 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 whole 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 distinguished the characters of the three Grecian Orders, and employed them with judg- ment. The Neapolitans claim this merit for Stefano, called after his master Masuccio II. who died in 1388 ; and allege in proof the Cam- panile of Santa Chiara, where he meant to ex- hibit 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 continued the church has much hurt the effect. S. Spirito, and the habitations of the re- ligious there. The Capitolo de' Pazzi in Santa Croce ; where, by the side of the altar, were de- posited the remains of the illustrious Galileo Galilei. The uncovered and almost ruined church degli Angeli, an octagon, for the noble family degli Scolari, was carried up to the cornice after his design, preserved 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 Ammanati, 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 families ; that of the house and loggie degli Innocenti ; he designed a house for the Barbadori, unexecuted ; another of the Giuntini in the il Place d'Ogni Santi. The portico of the hospital de' Convales- cent 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 ; and contributed his assistance in the Dome there. a 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, where 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. ( 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 b , canon of the me- tropolitan 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, b 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- ficatoria 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, c2 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 embellishments 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 c The titles of some of them are Momus, a moral and poli- tical work in four books. Trattato di Matematica, 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 antiquae. 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 JEdificatoria, 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 d , 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- mante% 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 inecl. translated by the same. De Pictura libri tres, Latine at Basil 1 540 ; again with John de Laet's edit, of Vitruvius, Amstel. 1649 i translated by Bartoli and Domenichi. d Vide Epist. VII. b. x. e Bramante da Castel Durante o Fermignano, born 1444, died 1514, aet. 70. c 3 22 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 f ; in the church of St. Lorenzo in Damaso ; and gave the design of the palace built 1504 by Cardinal Adriano da Corneto s , 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 h . 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- f Built about 1512. See an elevation of this in Pietro Fer- rerio's Palazzi di Roma, torn. i. plate 24. 8 Vide Elements, plate 53. fig. 1. h Vide Elements, pi. 53. fig. 2. 5 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 24 INTRODUCTION. trance. A detail of this noble design may be 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 pulling 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 fulfil 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 Julius II. and Leo the Tenth, and wrought by the hand of the famous Caradosso. Without the walls of Todi k our artist built an insulated temple, in form of the Greek cross with a beautiful cupola in the middle ; which appears to have been the model of St. Peters. The execution of this great design, actually be- gun in 1513, and carried on with all possible in- dustry, was stopped short by the death of the Pope, and his own, within a year of its com- mencement. 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 k 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 DUrbinoMs 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 likewise the m 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 n Borgo Nuovo for himself, has been mentioned in the article of Bramante. It stood in the vi- cinity of St. Peters, and was taken down, with some others, to clear the ground for the Place and Portico adjoining to that celebrated fabric. 1 Rafaello Sanzio d'Urbino,, born 1483, died 1520, aet. 37. ni A. D. 1515. Vide Elements, pi. 53. fig. 3. n 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 appointed to succeed him as one of the archi- tects 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 pro- vince 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 allaLungara p , which, having since passed to the serene house Baldassare Peruzzi, born 1481, died 1536, aet. 55. p 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 Neapolitan edition of Vasari, af- firms, that all these paintings of Pemzzi, except- ing some clair-obscures on outwalls, were in good preservation in 1759, and the painted cor- nices still of a relief that deceived every unap- prized 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 Bentiv oglio ; very dexterously adapting new constructions to the preserved parts of the old. The portal of the Church of St. Michele in Bosco, at a little 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 executed 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. Peters ; for which that Pontif began to think the plan of 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 q . 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 r , (one of them an oval of very difficult construction, which he left unfinished,) and made designs for two villas of the S. S. s Orsini, near Viterbo, that were car- ried into execution — as likewise others for edi- fices in Puglia. In this situation he began a treatise on the Antiquities of Rome, and a commentary on Vi- i May 6, 1527- r See that of Massimi Alia Valle in P. Ferrerio, torn. i. no. 18. s 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 Vasari wrote, in the hands of Francesco Sanese his disciple. Sebastian Ser- lio, a Bolognese, and Giaeomo 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 s , and the House of Sig. Giuseppe Costa in Borgo 1 Nuovo, were built after his designs : the latter was probably taken down for its vici- nity to St. Peter's. This great architect and painter was born in family distress ; harrassed, through life, with misfortune ; 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 s See P. Ferrerio, torn. ii. no. 34. date uncertain. 1 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 250 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 ascertained. 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 Scaliger 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 u 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 respectability 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 lie belonged lias been matter of further controversy; some calling 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 hrst 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 1 Medici, mentioned by Politian>, with high commenda- tion of the author. This is said to have con- x Exercit. Vitruv. prima?, p. 21. * Miscellan. cent. 1. cap. 77. edit. Ascensii, foL cliiii. D 34 INTRODUCTION. tained more than 2000 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- cundus was at Venice in 1506 and 1508. 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 Pliny's Epistles z , 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 1 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 en- ters 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 1513, 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, opposite 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. i)2 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 stupen- dous 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 Caesars Commentaries, 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 earliest application was to sculp- ture ; but, having- the good fortune to attract the notice of his illustrious townsman Count John George Trissino z , who discovered his natural y Andrea Palladio born 1508, died 1580, aet. 72. z Son of Gaspar 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 152 1, 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 Euclid, Vitruvius, and Alberti, and afterwards taken by him thrice to Rome, where he diligently 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 Italia 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 Romae. 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 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- able, however, that those, who have taken his 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. 65 ing grand Duke of Tuscany. Those of the latter are printed with Baldelli's Italian translation of the Commentaries. It is certain that the pro- found erudition of his noble friend Trissino assisted 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 a in Vi- cenza, begun the twenty-third of May, 1580, by an Academy of that name instituted in 1555, 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 lived 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- a For a description and critical examination of this, see II Teatro Olympico of Count Gio. Montenari. Padova, 174& 8vo. F 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 militia, prefixed to the above-mentioned translation of Caesar's Commentaries. His own death happened on the nineteenth of August, 1580, set. 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 literature 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 foun- dations, 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 b . Vincenzo Scamozzi c succeeded 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 b 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— delle 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 l6l6, set. 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 1600, to travel through France, f3 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 work as published in 1615 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 161G, 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 d , and many passages in it, certainly indicate an d Idea dell' Architettura Universale di V. Scamozzi, in Ve- nezia, per Giorgio Valentino, 2 torn, in folio, 1615, first edition, very rare. F 4 n INTRODUCTION. extravagant opinion of his own sufficiency ; but this does not prove that it had no support in real ability. His sixth book, on the Orders, was thought to deserve a translation into French by Daviler, magnificently republished, with addi- tions from other parts of the authors works, by Du Ruy at Ley den, 1713. Of his book of An- tiquities 6 the learned Marquis Maffei affirms f , 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. e Discorsi sopra l'Antichita 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. f Libro 2 do degli Anfiteatri. INTRODUCTION. 73 1 HE Author of the ensuing Elements died Dean of Christ Church in 1710. 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 subtlety of the scholastic logic. That the vigour of his conceptions might be transmitted unim- paired by the expression of them, he sought, in a familiarity 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, from 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 11 in the other, would enable his his- torian 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 tine 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, recollectedly, 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 1 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- s 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. 5 On Logic, Geometry, &c. INTRODUCTION. 75 fered to the public, through the 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 a 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, &c. 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 1 can ; of whom I do not demand, as Vitruvius does, a knowledge of all sciences, but should a Vitruvius calls him officinator or superintendent. 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. 1 HE 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 having 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 be- ginning 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 ; b 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 c Carbuncle is superior to all. Among these should be mentioned the earth of d Pozznoli, 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 b Formed of chalky earth burnt. c 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. Tliny 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. 81 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 lime, 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 ROOF. §. 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 sixth 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 shouhl 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 lime. The thickness of the foundation, as well as of the wall rising above ground, should gradually diminish, and the diminution on each side should be equal, with this certain rule, that the 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 e . 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, e It is not easy to ascertain the meaning 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 hvws 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 'la-ofofAoc, such is B B. When the stones were ir- regular in size, they termed the structure •tyzvlurolofj.og. The third kind of edifice was called I'/xttAsxtov, or involved, D D, when the stones were even in front, but placed fortuitously. When they filled the middle of the wall internally with broken or pounded cement, they termed it Sia (aixtcov, E E. If the walls are To-o'Soju.o<, and fastened together with iron, they are properly called by Perault, g cramped. See the example F F. AixtuoSstov, or net- work structure, G G, was much used in ancient Rome, and is beautiful to the sight, but Mas 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 f Coag-maitationcs alternas, courses of stones. Corii et Chorii, 8 In the French language cramp6n6e. G 2 84 OF THE ELEMENTS 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 Aiaju-jx-rov, 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, LL; a specimen of which still remains at h 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 ' Formae, 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 1> A city of Italy, twenty miles to the east of Rome. The modern name is Palestrina. * 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 PP of square stones, four feet thick ; their distance six feet. They are bound together by the transverse walls QQ at the same dis- tance. The cavity RR 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 polished those parts that were ex- posed to view. As the wall rises above the ground, its thickness should diminish proportion ably in the manner of a graduated pyramid. The inside structure of the wall should be in a perpendicular line. The thickness of the k 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 climates experience has taught men to carry off the droppings from their shelv- k Called by the Italian writers i7 Pogg'io. 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 Impluvinm. 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, Avhich Vitruvius mentions- b. iv. cap. 2. are these : A G the column or king post j B B collar beams ; C C braces ; D D principal rafters ; E E purlines placed transversely over the principal raft- ers ; F F 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 form 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 crooiced 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. III. 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. . g4 88 OF 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 EH; 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 1 1. The figure M shaped like a wedge represents 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 :1 5'. 3 mod. 15 min.; 4 : 00'. four modules; : 06'. six minutes; and so of the rest. Wherefore the column, and of course the module, maybe 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 m , 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 plinth 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 m 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, asQ; it resembles the hollow of a pulley, and has the Greek name rgo^Xo§. 5 th, the Greek word ° om^uyrj R, in English escape, signifies a scotia, which is inverted upon the annulet, from whence the shaft of the column arises. 6th, The a.7ro$B, or double their front as II, 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.*:; in which roses, or in short any kind of flowers, are carved, as in 2. PLATE V. §. 3. We will now treat of the figures which are carved on these smaller parts of an order ; but as the moderns 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 w r ord 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 w r ith jagged leaves ; /3 /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. gs may be called a scytale 8 ; 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 arseostyle, where the space between the pil- 3 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- cedaemonian 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 as- tragal may be thought like this. The reader by turning to the figure E may form his opinion. 1 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 coun- tenance the construction. 94. OF THE ELEMENTS OF lars is 8 : 00'. 2. diastyle 5:15'. 3. eustyle 4:15'. 4. sys- tyle 4 : 00'. 5. pycnostyle 3 : 00'. u But these proportions must be understood to refer to intercolumniations which are straight; in arched ones the spaces betv/een 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 militate against rule. BOOK I. CHAP. IV. OF THE THREE ORDERS. §. 1. IN the familiar language of architects, the terms, 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 u 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 1G;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 -j- 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. 96 OF 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 are eustyle. 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 lines drawn through the eye at right angles, dividing the square into four parts, on the centre 1 with the radius I a is described the arch a b ; on the centre 2 with the radius 2 b the arch b c ,• on the centre 3 with the radius 3 c the arch c HM.«i.w.*m«/»iM>«ct'»«vf oimr rex* TAH.IX. TAJ3.X. TAB .XI. li.XIL. i:\bxiii TAB .XIV. tab.:xv. YAH. XVI TAB. XVII. TA1J.M HI. TAU.XIX. TAB .XX. TAB .XXI. \ / \ / i'AU XXII. T AH. XXII I. TAB. XXIV. tarxxv: TARXXVI. TABAXYJI. TAIYXXYIU. 1'AB.XXIX. TAB.XXX. TAB.XXXL. TAB.WMI. TAB.Xmil. •1 AH. XXXIV. TAB..XXXV: TAB. XXXVI TAB. XXXVII. TAB.XXXVJJI. 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