The Ten Books on Architecture
to enable you, by observing them, to have personal knowledge of the
quality both of existing buildings and of those which are yet to be
constructed. For in the following books I have disclosed all the
principles of the art.
CHAPTER I
THE EDUCATION OF THE ARCHITECT
1. The architect should be equipped with knowledge of many branches of
study and varied kinds of learning, for it is by his judgement that all
work done by the other arts is put to test. This knowledge is the child
of practice and theory. Practice is the continuous and regular exercise
of employment where manual work is done with any necessary material
according to the design of a drawing. Theory, on the other hand, is the
ability to demonstrate and explain the productions of dexterity on the
principles of proportion.
2. It follows, therefore, that architects who have aimed at acquiring
manual skill without scholarship have never been able to reach a
position of authority to correspond to their pains, while those who
relied only upon theories and scholarship were obviously hunting the
shadow, not the substance. But those who have a thorough knowledge of
both, like men armed at all points, have the sooner attained their
object and carried authority with them.
3. In all matters, but particularly in architecture, there are these two
points:--the thing signified, and that which gives it its significance.
That which is signified is the subject of which we may be speaking; and
that which gives significance is a demonstration on scientific
principles. It appears, then, that one who professes himself an
architect should be well versed in both directions. He ought, therefore,
to be both naturally gifted and amenable to instruction. Neither natural
ability without instruction nor instruction without natural ability can
make the perfect artist. Let him be educated, skilful with the pencil,
instructed in geometry, know much history, have followed the
philosophers with attention, understand music, have some knowledge of
medicine, know the opinions of the jurists, and be acquainted with
astronomy and the theory of the heavens.
4. The reasons for all this are as follows. An architect ought to be an
educated man so as to leave a more lasting remembrance in his treatises.
Secondly, he must have a knowledge of drawing so that he can readily
make sketches to show the appearance of the work which he proposes.
Geometry, also, is of much assistance in architecture, and in particular
it teaches us the use of the rule and compasses, by which especially we
acquire readiness in making plans for buildings in their grounds, and
rightly apply the square, the level, and the plummet. By means of
optics, again, the light in buildings can be drawn from fixed quarters
of the sky. It is true that it is by arithmetic that the total cost of
buildings is calculated and measurements are computed, but difficult
questions involving symmetry are solved by means of geometrical theories
and methods.
5. A wide knowledge of history is requisite because, among the
ornamental parts of an architect's design for a work, there are many the
underlying idea of whose employment he should be able to explain to
inquirers. For instance, suppose him to set up the marble statues of
women in long robes, called Caryatides, to take the place of columns,
with the mutules and coronas placed directly above their heads, he will
give the following explanation to his questioners. Caryae, a state in
Peloponnesus, sided with the Persian enemies against Greece; later the
Greeks, having gloriously won their freedom by victory in the war, made
common cause and declared war against the people of Caryae. They took
the town, killed the men, abandoned the State to desolation, and carried
off their wives into slavery, without permitting them, however, to lay
aside the long robes and other marks of their rank as married women, so
that they might be obliged not only to march in the triumph but to
appear forever after as a type of slavery, burdened with the weight of
their shame and so making atonement for their State. Hence, the
architects of the time designed for public buildings statues of these
women, placed so as to carry a load, in order that the sin and the
punishment of the people of Caryae might be known and handed down even
to posterity.
6. Likewise the Lacedaemonians under the leadership of Pausanias, son of
Agesipolis, after conquering the Persian armies, infinite in number,
with a small force at the battle of Plataea, celebrated a glorious
triumph with the spoils and booty, and with the money obtained from the
sale thereof built the Persian Porch, to be a monument to the renown and
valour of the people and a trophy of victory for posterity. And there
they set effigies of the prisoners arrayed in barbarian costume and
holding up the roof, their pride punished by this deserved affront,
that enemies might tremble for fear of the effects of their courage,
and that their own people, looking upon this ensample of their valour
and encouraged by the glory of it, might be ready to defend their
independence. So from that time on, many have put up statues of Persians
supporting entablatures and their ornaments, and thus from that motive
have greatly enriched the diversity of their works. There are other
stories of the same kind which architects ought to know.
7. As for philosophy, it makes an architect high-minded and not
self-assuming, but rather renders him courteous, just, and honest
without avariciousness. This is very important, for no work can be
rightly done without honesty and incorruptibility. Let him not be
grasping nor have his mind preoccupied with the idea of receiving
perquisites, but let him with dignity keep up his position by cherishing
a good reputation. These are among the precepts of philosophy.
Furthermore philosophy treats of physics (in Greek [Greek: physiologia])
where a more careful knowledge is required because the problems which
come under this head are numerous and of very different kinds; as, for
example, in the case of the conducting of water. For at points of intake
and at curves, and at places where it is raised to a level, currents of
air naturally form in one way or another; and nobody who has not learned
the fundamental principles of physics from philosophy will be able to
provide against the damage which they do. So the reader of Ctesibius or
Archimedes and the other writers of treatises of the same class will not
be able to appreciate them unless he has been trained in these subjects
by the philosophers.
8. Music, also, the architect ought to understand so that he may have
knowledge of the canonical and mathematical theory, and besides be able
to tune ballistae, catapultae, and scorpiones to the proper key. For to
the right and left in the beams are the holes in the frames through
which the strings of twisted sinew are stretched by means of windlasses
and bars, and these strings must not be clamped and made fast until they
give the same correct note to the ear of the skilled workman. For the
arms thrust through those stretched strings must, on being let go,
strike their blow together at the same moment; but if they are not in
unison, they will prevent the course of projectiles from being straight.
9. In theatres, likewise, there are the bronze vessels (in Greek [Greek:
êcheia]) which are placed in niches under the seats in accordance with
the musical intervals on mathematical principles. These vessels are
arranged with a view to musical concords or harmony, and apportioned in
the compass of the fourth, the fifth, and the octave, and so on up to
the double octave, in such a way that when the voice of an actor falls
in unison with any of them its power is increased, and it reaches the
ears of the audience with greater clearness and sweetness. Water
organs, too, and the other instruments which resemble them cannot be
made by one who is without the principles of music.
10. The architect should also have a knowledge of the study of medicine
on account of the questions of climates (in Greek [Greek: klimata]),
air, the healthiness and unhealthiness of sites, and the use of
different waters. For without these considerations, the healthiness of a
dwelling cannot be assured. And as for principles of law, he should know
those which are necessary in the case of buildings having party walls,
with regard to water dripping from the eaves, and also the laws about
drains, windows, and water supply. And other things of this sort should
be known to architects, so that, before they begin upon buildings, they
may be careful not to leave disputed points for the householders to
settle after the works are finished, and so that in drawing up contracts
the interests of both employer and contractor may be wisely
safe-guarded. For if a contract is skilfully drawn, each may obtain a
release from the other without disadvantage. From astronomy we find the
east, west, south, and north, as well as the theory of the heavens, the
equinox, solstice, and courses of the stars. If one has no knowledge of
these matters, he will not be able to have any comprehension of the
theory of sundials.
11. Consequently, since this study is so vast in extent, embellished and
enriched as it is with many different kinds of learning, I think that
men have no right to profess themselves architects hastily, without
having climbed from boyhood the steps of these studies and thus, nursed
by the knowledge of many arts and sciences, having reached the heights
of the holy ground of architecture.
12. But perhaps to the inexperienced it will seem a marvel that human
nature can comprehend such a great number of studies and keep them in
the memory. Still, the observation that all studies have a common bond
of union and intercourse with one another, will lead to the belief that
this can easily be realized. For a liberal education forms, as it were,
a single body made up of these members. Those, therefore, who from
tender years receive instruction in the various forms of learning,
recognize the same stamp on all the arts, and an intercourse between all
studies, and so they more readily comprehend them all. This is what led
one of the ancient architects, Pytheos, the celebrated builder of the
temple of Minerva at Priene, to say in his Commentaries that an
architect ought to be able to accomplish much more in all the arts and
sciences than the men who, by their own particular kinds of work and the
practice of it, have brought each a single subject to the highest
perfection. But this is in point of fact not realized.
13. For an architect ought not to be and cannot be such a philologian as
was Aristarchus, although not illiterate; nor a musician like
Aristoxenus, though not absolutely ignorant of music; nor a painter like
Apelles, though not unskilful in drawing; nor a sculptor such as was
Myron or Polyclitus, though not unacquainted with the plastic art; nor
again a physician like Hippocrates, though not ignorant of medicine; nor
in the other sciences need he excel in each, though he should not be
unskilful in them. For, in the midst of all this great variety of
subjects, an individual cannot attain to perfection in each, because it
is scarcely in his power to take in and comprehend the general theories
of them.
14. Still, it is not architects alone that cannot in all matters reach