Vitruvius

Marcus Vitruvius Pollio (born ca. 80/70 BC?; died ca. 25 BC) was a Roman writer, architect and engineer (possibly praefectus fabrum during military service or praefect architectus armamentarius of the apparitor status group), active in the 1st century BC.

Biography

Little is known about Vitruvius' life. His first name Marcus and his cognomen Pollio are uncertain as they are only mentioned by Cetius Faventinus. Most inferences about his life are extracted from his only surviving work De Architectura.

Born a free Roman citizen, Vitruvius served the Roman army under Julius Caesar in Hispania and Gaul. As an army engineer he specialized in the construction of war machines for sieges. In Hispania the Siege of Massilia 49BC involved many siege tactics. In Gaul the decisive Battle of Alesia 52BC, the Battle of Gergovia, the siege of Avaricum, and the siege of Uxellodunum, all centered around sieges of large Gallic cities. During this same time period a Roman military officer Mamurra also served as praefectus fabrum in Hispania and Gaul under Julius Caesar. Vitruvius has the reacurring theme of politics outweighing skill throughout the ten books of De Architectura, possibly in reference to Mamurra. In later years the emperor Augustus, through his sister Octavia Minor, sponsored Vitruvius, entitling him with a pension to guarantee his financial independence. His date of death is unknown, which suggests that he had enjoyed only little popularity during his lifetime.

De Architectura

Vitruvius is the author of De architectura, known today as The Ten Books on Architecture, a treatise written of Latin and Greek on architecture, dedicated to the emperor Augustus. This work is the only surviving major book on architecture from classical antiquity. Mainly known for his writings, Vitruvius was himself an architect. Frontinus mentions him in connection with the standard sizes of pipes. The only building, however, that we know Vitruvius to have worked on is, as he himself tells us, a basilica at Fanum Fortunae, now the modern town of Fano. The basilica has disappeared so completely that its very site is a matter of conjecture.

Vitruvian Man by Leonardo da Vinci

Vitruvius is famous for asserting in his book De architectura that a structure must exhibit the three qualities of firmitas, utilitas, venustas — that is, it must be strong or durable, useful, and beautiful. According to Vitruvius, architecture is an imitation of nature. As birds and bees built their nests, so humans constructed housing from natural materials, that gave them shelter against the elements. When perfecting this art of building, the ancient Greek invented the architectural orders: Doric, Ionic and Corinthian. It gave them a sense of proportion, culminating in understanding the proportions of the greatest work of art: the human body. This led Vitruvius in defining his Vitruvian Man, as drawn magnificently by Leonardo da Vinci: the human body inscribed in the circle and the square (the fundamental geometric patterns of the cosmic order).

Vitruvius is sometimes loosely referred to as the first architect, but it is more accurate to describe him as the first Roman architect to have written surviving records of his field. He himself cites older but less complete works. He was less an original thinker or creative intellect than a codifier of existing architectural practice. It should also be noted that Vitruvius had a much wider scope than modern architects. Roman architects practised a wide variety of disciplines; in modern terms, they could be described as being engineers, architects, landscape architects, artists, and craftsmen combined. Etymologically the word architect derives from Greek words meaning 'master' and 'builder'. The first of the Ten Books deals with many subjects which now come within the scope of landscape architecture.

Roman technology

The work is also important for its descriptions of many different machines used for engineering structures such as hoists, cranes and pulleys, as well as war machines such as catapaults and ballistae, and siege engines. He also describes the construction of sundials and water clocks. Books 8, 9 and 10 form the basis of much of what we know about Roman technology, now augmented by archaeological studies of extant remains, such as the water mills at Barbegal in France. His description of aqueduct construction cannot be bettered, especially for the way they are surveyed, and the careful choice of materials needed. He describes many different construction materials used for a wide variety of different structures, as well as such details as stucco painting. Cement and lime receive in-depth descriptions, the longevity of many Roman structures being mute testimony to their skill in building materials and design.

It is worth noting that Vitruvius advises that lead should not be used to conduct drinking water. He comes to this conclusion in Book VIII of De Architectura after empirical observation of the apparent laborer illnesses in the plumbum foundries of his time. In 1986 the United States banned the use of lead in plumbing due to lead poisoning's neurological damage.

Vitruvius gives us the famous story about Archimedes and his detection of adulterated gold in a royal crown. When Archimedes realised that the volume of the crown could be measured exactly by the displacement created in a bath of water, he ran into the street with the cry of Eureka (word), and the discovery enabled him to compare the density of the crown with pure gold. He showed that the crown had been alloyed with silver, and the king defrauded.

Design for an Archimedean water-screw

He describes the construction of Archimedes' screw in Chapter X, although doesn't mention Archimedes by name. It was a device widely used for raising water to irrigate fields and dewater mines.

Rediscovery

His book De architectura was rediscovered in 1414 by the Florentine humanist Poggio Bracciolini. To Leon Battista Alberti (1404-1472) falls the honour of making this work widely known in his seminal treatise on architecture De re aedificatoria (ca. 1450). The first known edition of Vitruvius was in Rome by Fra Giovanni Sulpitius in 1486. Translations followed in Italian (Como, 1521), French (Jean Martin, 1547 , English, German (Walter H. Ryff, 1543) and Spanish and several other languages. The original illustrations had been lost. New woodcut illustrations, based on descriptions in the text, were added in the 16th century, probably by Fra Giovanni Giocondo in Venice in 1511. The surviving ruins of Roman antiquity, the Roman Forum, temples, theatres, triumphal arches and their reliefs and statues gave ample visual examples of the descriptions in the Vitruvian text. This book then quickly became a major inspiration for Renaissance, Baroque and Neoclassical architecture.

Lists of names given in Book VII Introduction

In book seven's introduction Vitruvius goes through great lengths to present his credentials for writing De Architectura. Similar in concept to a modern day reference section, the author's position as one who is knowledgeable and educated is established. The topics listed range across many fields of expertise reflecting that in Roman times as today construction is a diverse field. Some modern day knowledge is derived only from descriptions given in the introduction, it is apparent that there are many ancient texts and individuals works that are lost due to the fact that many listed are unheard of. Vitruvius makes the point that some of the most talented individuals work is unknown while many who are of less talent but greater political position are well known. This theme runs through Vitruvius’s ten books repeatedly and here in the chapter seven introduction he illustrates this by naming some of the most talented individuals in history that are known today because only in that they are listed here:

List of physicists Thales, Democritus, Anaxagoras, Xenophanes

List of philosophers Socrates, Plato, Aristotle, Zeno, Epicurus

List of kings Croesus, Alexander the Great, Darius

On plagiarism Aristophanes, Ptolemy I Soter, Attalus

On abusing dead authors Zoilus, Homeromastix, Ptolemy I Soter, Philadelphus

On divergence of the visual rays Agatharchus, Aeschylus, Democritus, Anaxagoras

List of writers on temples Silenus, Theodorus, Chersiphron and Metagenes, Ictinus and Carpion, Theodorus the Phocian, Hermogenes, Arcesius, Satyrus and Pytheos

List of Artists Leochares, Bryaxis, Scopas, Praxiteles, Timotheus (Timotheos)

List of writers on laws of symmetry Nexaris, Theocydes, Demophilus, Pollis, Leonidas, Silanion, Melampus, Sarnacus, Euphranor

List of writers on machinery Diades of Pella, Archytas, Archimedes, Ctesibius, Nymphodorus, Philo of Byzantium, Diphilus, Democles, Charias, Polyidus of Thessaly, Pyrrus, Agesistratus, Abdaraxus

List of writers on architecture Fuficius, Terentius Varro, Publius Septimius

List of architects Antistates, Callaeschrus, Antimachides, Pormus, Cossutius

List of greatest temple architects Chersiphron of Gnosus, Metagenes, Demetrius, Paeonius the Milesian, Ephesian Daphnis, Ictinus, (Philo) Philon, Cossutius, Gaius Mucius

Trivia

A small lunar crater has been named after Vitruvius and also an elongated lunar mountain Mons Vitruvius close-by. This crater was near the valley that served as the landing site of the Apollo 17 mission.

See also

• Archimedes
• Aristotle
• Ctesibius
• Colen Campbell
• Pliny the Elder

References

• Indra Kagis McEwen, Vitruvius: Writing the Body of Architecture. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2004. ISBN O-262-63306-X
• B. Baldwin, "The Date, Identity, and Career of Vitruvius." In Latomus 49 (1990), 425-34.

External links

• The Ten Books on Architecture online: cross-linked Latin text and English translation
• The Ten Books on Architecture at the Perseus Classics Collection. Latin and English text. Images. Latin text has hyperlinks to pop-up dictionary.
• Latin text, version 2
• Ten Books on Architecture at Project Gutenberg (Morris Hicky Morgan translation with illustrations)
• Vitruvius on line: http://www.cesr.univ-tours.fr/architectura/Traite/Auteur/Vitruve.asp
• Leonardo da Vincis Vitruvian man as an algorithm for the approximation of the squaring of the circle
• Vitruvius' theories of beauty - a learning resource from the British Library
• An Eye for Architectural Theory - Who Vitruvius Was?
• Shockwave-Animation: The Odometer of Vitruv