The Ten Books on Architecture
or where the space is enclosed, to use in a building columns of somewhat
slender proportions, since we can help out by a duly proportionate
number of flutings.
4. The walls of the cella itself should be thick in proportion to its
size, provided that their antae are kept of the same thickness as the
columns. If the walls are to be of masonry, let the rubble used be as
small as possible; but if they are to be of dimension stone or marble,
the material ought to be of a very moderate and uniform size; for the
laying of the stones so as to break joints will make the whole work
stronger, and their bevelled edges, standing up about the builds and
beds, will give it an agreeable look, somewhat like that of a picture.
CHAPTER V
HOW THE TEMPLE SHOULD FACE
1. The quarter toward which temples of the immortal gods ought to face
is to be determined on the principle that, if there is no reason to
hinder and the choice is free, the temple and the statue placed in the
cella should face the western quarter of the sky. This will enable those
who approach the altar with offerings or sacrifices to face the
direction of the sunrise in facing the statue in the temple, and thus
those who are undertaking vows look toward the quarter from which the
sun comes forth, and likewise the statues themselves appear to be coming
forth out of the east to look upon them as they pray and sacrifice.
2. But if the nature of the site is such as to forbid this, then the
principle of determining the quarter should be changed, so that the
widest possible view of the city may be had from the sanctuaries of the
gods. Furthermore, temples that are to be built beside rivers, as in
Egypt on both sides of the Nile, ought, as it seems, to face the river
banks. Similarly, houses of the gods on the sides of public roads should
be arranged so that the passers-by can have a view of them and pay their
devotions face to face.
CHAPTER VI
THE DOORWAYS OF TEMPLES
1. For the doorways of temples and their casings the rules are as
follows, first determining of what style they are to be. The styles of
portals are Doric, Ionic, and Attic.
In the Doric, the symmetrical proportions are distinguished by the
following rules. Let the top of the corona, which is laid above the
casing, be on a level with the tops of the capitals of the columns in
the pronaos. The aperture of the doorway should be determined by
dividing the height of the temple, from floor to coffered ceiling, into
three and one half parts and letting two and one half[4] thereof
constitute the height of the aperture of the folding doors. Let this in
turn be divided into twelve parts, and let five and a half of these form
the width of the bottom of the aperture. At the top, this width should
be diminished, if the aperture is sixteen feet in height, by one third
the width of the door-jamb; if the aperture is from sixteen to
twenty-five feet, let the upper part of it be diminished by one quarter
of the jamb; if from twenty-five to thirty feet, let the top be
diminished by one eighth of the jamb. Other and higher apertures should,
as it seems, have their sides perpendicular.
[Note 4: Codd. _duae._]
2. Further, the jambs themselves should be diminished at the top by one
fourteenth of their width. The height of the lintel should be equivalent
to the width of the jambs at the top. Its cymatium ought to be one sixth
of the jamb, with a projection equivalent to its height. The style of
carving of the cymatium with its astragal should be the Lesbian. Above
the cymatium of the lintel, place the frieze of the doorway, of the
same height as the lintel, and having a Doric cymatium and Lesbian
astragal carved upon it. Let the corona and its cymatium at the top of
all be carved without ornamentation, and have a projection equal to its
height. To the right and left of the lintel, which rests upon the jambs,
there are to be projections fashioned like projecting bases and jointed
to a nicety with the cymatium itself.
3. If the doorways are to be of the Ionic style, the height of the
aperture should be reached in the same manner as in the Doric. Let its
width be determined by dividing the height into two and one half parts
and letting one of them form the width at the bottom. The diminutions
should be the same as for Doric. The width of the faces of the jambs
should be one fourteenth of the height of the aperture, and the cymatium
one sixth of the width. Let the rest, excluding the cymatium, be divided
into twelve parts. Let three of these compose the first fascia with its
astragal, four the second, and five the third, the fasciae with their
astragals running side by side all round.
4. The cornices of Ionic doorways should be constructed in the same
manner as those of Doric, in due proportions. The consoles, otherwise
called brackets, carved at the right and left, should hang down to the
level of the bottom of the lintel, exclusive of the leaf. Their width on
the face should be two thirds of the width of the jamb, but at the
bottom one fourth slenderer than above.
Doors should be constructed with the hinge-stiles one twelfth of the
width of the whole aperture. The panels between two stiles should each
occupy three of the twelve parts.
5. The rails will be apportioned thus: divide the height into five
parts, of which assign two to the upper portion and three to the lower;
above the centre place the middle rails; insert the others at the top
and at the bottom. Let the height of a rail be one third of the breadth
of a panel, and its cymatium one sixth of the rail. The width of the
meeting-stiles should be one half the rail, and the cover-joint two
thirds of the rail. The stiles toward the side of the jambs should be
one half the rail. If the doors have folds in them, the height will
remain as before, but the width should be double that of a single door;
if the door is to have four folds, its height should be increased.
6. Attic doorways are built with the same proportions as Doric. Besides,
there are fasciae running all round under the cymatia on the jambs, and
apportioned so as to be equal to three sevenths of a jamb, excluding the
cymatium. The doors are without lattice-work, are not double but have
folds in them, and open outward.
The laws which should govern the design of temples built in the Doric,
Ionic, and Corinthian styles, have now, so far as I could arrive at
them, been set forth according to what may be called the accepted
methods. I shall next speak of the arrangements in the Tuscan style,
showing how they should be treated.
CHAPTER VII
TUSCAN TEMPLES
1. The place where the temple is to be built having been divided on its
length into six parts, deduct one and let the rest be given to its
width. Then let the length be divided into two equal parts, of which let
the inner be reserved as space for the cellae, and the part next the
front left for the arrangement of the columns.
2. Next let the width be divided into ten parts. Of these, let three on
the right and three on the left be given to the smaller cellae, or to
the alae if there are to be alae, and the other four devoted to the
middle of the temple. Let the space in front of the cellae, in the
pronaos, be marked out for columns thus: the corner columns should be
placed opposite the antae on the line of the outside walls; the two
middle columns, set out on the line of the walls which are between the
antae and the middle of the temple; and through the middle, between the
antae and the front columns, a second row, arranged on the same lines.
Let the thickness of the columns at the bottom be one seventh of their
height, their height one third of the width of the temple, and the
diminution of a column at the top, one fourth of its thickness at the
bottom.
3. The height of their bases should be one half of that thickness. The
plinth of their bases should be circular, and in height one half the
height of the bases, the torus above it and congé being of the same
height as the plinth. The height of the capital is one half the
thickness of a column. The abacus has a width equivalent to the
thickness of the bottom of a column. Let the height of the capital be
divided into three parts, and give one to the plinth (that is, the
abacus), the second to the echinus, and the third to the necking with
its congé.
4. Upon the columns lay the main beams, fastened together, to a height
commensurate with the requirements of the size of the building. These
beams fastened together should be laid so as to be equivalent in
thickness to the necking at the top of a column, and should be fastened
together by means of dowels and dove-tailed tenons in such a way that
there shall be a space two fingers broad between them at the fastening.
For if they touch one another, and so do not leave airholes and admit
draughts of air to blow between them, they get heated and soon begin to
rot.
5. Above the beams and walls let the mutules project to a distance equal
to one quarter of the height of a column; along the front of them nail
casings; above, build the tympanum of the pediment either in masonry or
in wood. The pediment with its ridgepole, principal rafters, and
purlines are to be built in such a way that the eaves shall be
equivalent to one third of the completed roof.
CHAPTER VIII
CIRCULAR TEMPLES AND OTHER VARIETIES
1. There are also circular temples, some of which are constructed in
monopteral form, surrounded by columns but without a cella, while
others are termed peripteral. Those that are without a cella have a
raised platform and a flight of steps leading to it, one third of the
diameter of the temple. The columns upon the stylobates are constructed
of a height equivalent to the diameter taken between the outer edges of
the stylobate walls, and of a thickness equivalent to one tenth of their
height including the capitals and bases. The architrave has the height
of one half of the thickness of a column. The frieze and the other parts
placed above it are such as I have described in the third[5] book, on
the subject of symmetrical proportions.
[Note 5: 1 Codd. _quarto._]
2. But if such a temple is to be constructed in peripteral form, let two
steps and then the stylobate be constructed below. Next, let the cella
wall be set up, recessed within the stylobate about one fifth of the
breadth thereof, and let a place for folding doors be left in the middle
to afford entrance. This cella, excluding its walls and the passage
round the outside, should have a diameter equivalent to the height of a
column above the stylobate. Let the columns round the cella be arranged
in the symmetrical proportions just given.
3. The proportions of the roof in the centre should be such that the
height of the rotunda, excluding the finial, is equivalent to one half
the diameter of the whole work. The finial, excluding its pyramidal
base, should have the dimensions of the capital of a column. All the
rest must be built in the symmetrical proportions described above.
4. There are also other kinds of temples, constructed in the same
symmetrical proportions and yet with a different kind of plan: for
example, the temple of Castor in the district of the Circus Flaminius,
that of Vejovis between the two groves, and still more ingeniously the