The Ten Books on Architecture
thirds, and in the case of larger one half the width of the tablinum.
Let the busts of ancestors with their ornaments be set up at a height
corresponding to the width of the alae. The proportionate width and
height of doors may be settled, if they are Doric, in the Doric manner,
and if Ionic, in the Ionic manner, according to the rules of symmetry
which have been given about portals in the fourth book. In the
roof-opening let an aperture be left with a breadth of not less than
one fourth nor more than one third the width of the atrium, and with a
length proportionate to that of the atrium.
7. Peristyles, lying athwart, should be one third longer than they are
deep, and their columns as high as the colonnades are wide.
Intercolumniations of peristyles should be not less than three nor more
than four times the thickness of the columns. If the columns of the
peristyle are to be made in the Doric style, take the modules which I
have given in the fourth book, on the Doric order, and arrange the
columns with reference to these modules and to the scheme of the
triglyphs.
8. Dining rooms ought to be twice as long as they are wide. The height
of all oblong rooms should be calculated by adding together their
measured length and width, taking one half of this total, and using the
result for the height. But in the case of exedrae or square oeci, let
the height be brought up to one and one half times the width. Picture
galleries, like exedrae, should be constructed of generous dimensions.
Corinthian and tetrastyle oeci, as well as those termed Egyptian, should
have the same symmetrical proportions in width and length as the dining
rooms described above, but, since they have columns in them, their
dimensions should be ampler.
9. The following will be the distinction between Corinthian and Egyptian
oeci: the Corinthian have single tiers of columns, set either on a
podium or on the ground, with architraves over them and coronae either
of woodwork or of stucco, and carved vaulted ceilings above the coronae.
In the Egyptian there are architraves over the columns, and joists laid
thereon from the architraves to the surrounding walls, with a floor in
the upper story to allow of walking round under the open sky. Then,
above the architrave and perpendicularly over the lower tier of columns,
columns one fourth smaller should be imposed. Above their architraves
and ornaments are decorated ceilings, and the upper columns have windows
set in between them. Thus the Egyptian are not like Corinthian dining
rooms, but obviously resemble basilicas.
10. There are also, though not customary in Italy, the oeci which the
Greeks call Cyzicene. These are built with a northern exposure and
generally command a view of gardens, and have folding doors in the
middle. They are also so long and so wide that two sets of dining
couches, facing each other, with room to pass round them, can be placed
therein. On the right and left they have windows which open like folding
doors, so that views of the garden may be had from the dining couches
through the opened windows. The height of such rooms is one and one half
times their width.
11. All the above-mentioned symmetrical relations should be observed, in
these kinds of buildings, that can be observed without embarrassment
caused by the situation. The windows will be an easy matter to arrange
if they are not darkened by high walls; but in cases of confined space,
or when there are other unavoidable obstructions, it will be permissible
to make diminutions or additions in the symmetrical relations,--with
ingenuity and acuteness, however, so that the result may be not unlike
the beauty which is due to true symmetry.
CHAPTER IV
THE PROPER EXPOSURES OF THE DIFFERENT ROOMS
1. We shall next explain how the special purposes of different rooms
require different exposures, suited to convenience and to the quarters
of the sky. Winter dining rooms and bathrooms should have a southwestern
exposure, for the reason that they need the evening light, and also
because the setting sun, facing them in all its splendour but with
abated heat, lends a gentler warmth to that quarter in the evening.
Bedrooms and libraries ought to have an eastern exposure, because their
purposes require the morning light, and also because books in such
libraries will not decay. In libraries with southern exposures the books
are ruined by worms and dampness, because damp winds come up, which
breed and nourish the worms, and destroy the books with mould, by
spreading their damp breath over them.
2. Dining rooms for Spring and Autumn to the east; for when the windows
face that quarter, the sun, as he goes on his career from over against
them to the west, leaves such rooms at the proper temperature at the
time when it is customary to use them. Summer dining rooms to the north,
because that quarter is not, like the others, burning with heat during
the solstice, for the reason that it is unexposed to the sun's course,
and hence it always keeps cool, and makes the use of the rooms both
healthy and agreeable. Similarly with picture galleries, embroiderers'
work rooms, and painters' studios, in order that the fixed light may
permit the colours used in their work to last with qualities unchanged.
CHAPTER V
HOW THE ROOMS SHOULD BE SUITED TO THE STATION OF THE OWNER
1. After settling the positions of the rooms with regard to the quarters
of the sky, we must next consider the principles on which should be
constructed those apartments in private houses which are meant for the
householders themselves, and those which are to be shared in common with
outsiders. The private rooms are those into which nobody has the right
to enter without an invitation, such as bedrooms, dining rooms,
bathrooms, and all others used for the like purposes. The common are
those which any of the people have a perfect right to enter, even
without an invitation: that is, entrance courts, cavaedia, peristyles,
and all intended for the like purpose. Hence, men of everyday fortune do
not need entrance courts, tablina, or atriums built in grand style,
because such men are more apt to discharge their social obligations by
going round to others than to have others come to them.
2. Those who do business in country produce must have stalls and shops
in their entrance courts, with crypts, granaries, store-rooms, and so
forth in their houses, constructed more for the purpose of keeping the
produce in good condition than for ornamental beauty.
For capitalists and farmers of the revenue, somewhat comfortable and
showy apartments must be constructed, secure against robbery; for
advocates and public speakers, handsomer and more roomy, to accommodate
meetings; for men of rank who, from holding offices and magistracies,
have social obligations to their fellow-citizens, lofty entrance courts
in regal style, and most spacious atriums and peristyles, with
plantations and walks of some extent in them, appropriate to their
dignity. They need also libraries, picture galleries, and basilicas,
finished in a style similar to that of great public buildings, since
public councils as well as private law suits and hearings before
arbitrators are very often held in the houses of such men.
3. If, therefore, houses are planned on these principles to suit
different classes of persons, as prescribed in my first book, under the
subject of Propriety, there will be no room for criticism; for they will
be arranged with convenience and perfection to suit every purpose. The
rules on these points will hold not only for houses in town, but also
for those in the country, except that in town atriums are usually next
to the front door, while in country seats peristyles come first, and
then atriums surrounded by paved colonnades opening upon palaestrae and
walks.
I have now set forth the rules for houses in town so far as I could
describe them in a summary way. Next I shall state how farmhouses may be
arranged with a view to convenience in use, and shall give the rules for
their construction.
CHAPTER VI
THE FARMHOUSE
1. In the first place, inspect the country from the point of view of
health, in accordance with what is written in my first book, on the
building of cities, and let your farmhouses be situated accordingly.
Their dimensions should depend upon the size of the farm and the amount
of produce. Their courtyards and the dimensions thereof should be
determined by the number of cattle and the number of yokes of oxen that
will need to be kept therein. Let the kitchen be placed on the warmest
side of the courtyard, with the stalls for the oxen adjoining, and their
cribs facing the kitchen fire and the eastern quarter of the sky, for
the reason that oxen facing the light and the fire do not get
rough-coated. Even peasants wholly without knowledge of the quarters of
the sky believe that oxen ought to face only in the direction of the
sunrise.
2. Their stalls ought to be not less than ten nor more than fifteen feet
wide, and long enough to allow not less than seven feet for each yoke.
Bathrooms, also, should adjoin the kitchen; for in this situation it
will not take long to get ready a bath in the country.
Let the pressing room, also, be next to the kitchen; for in this
situation it will be easy to deal with the fruit of the olive. Adjoining
it should be the wine room with its windows lighted from the north. In a
room with windows on any other quarter so that the sun can heat it, the
heat will get into the wine and make it weak.
3. The oil room must be situated so as to get its light from the south
and from warm quarters; for oil ought not to be chilled, but should be
kept thin by gentle heat. In dimensions, oil rooms should be built to
accommodate the crop and the proper number of jars, each of which,
holding about one hundred and twenty gallons, must take up a space four
feet in diameter. The pressing room itself, if the pressure is exerted
by means of levers and a beam, and not worked by turning screws, should
be not less than forty feet long, which will give the lever man a
convenient amount of space. It should be not less than sixteen feet
wide, which will give the men who are at work plenty of free space to do
the turning conveniently. If two presses are required in the place,
allow twenty-four feet for the width.
4. Folds for sheep and goats must be made large enough to allow each
animal a space of not less than four and a half, nor more than six feet.
Rooms for grain should be set in an elevated position and with a
northern or north-eastern exposure. Thus the grain will not be able to
heat quickly, but, being cooled by the wind, keeps a long time. Other
exposures produce the corn weevil and the other little creatures that
are wont to spoil the grain. To the stable should be assigned the very
warmest place in the farmhouse, provided that it is not exposed to the
kitchen fire; for when draught animals are stabled very near a fire,
their coats get rough.
5. Furthermore, there are advantages in building cribs apart from the
kitchen and in the open, facing the east; for when the oxen are taken
over to them on early winter mornings in clear weather, their coats get