Discover

'Marcus Vitruvius Pollio' (born ca. 80/70 BC?; died ca. 25 BC) was a Roman writer, architect and engineer, active in the 1st century BC.

Contents

Biography

De Architectura

Rediscovery

References in Modern Culture

Lists of names given in Book VII Introduction

Notes

References

External links

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, most likely at Formiae in Campania, he served the Roman army under Julius Caesar in Spain and Gaul. As an army engineer he specialized in the construction of war machines for sieges. 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

The author of ''De architectura'', known today as ''The Ten Books of Architecture'', a treatise written of Latin and Greek on architecture, dedicated to the emperor Augustus, 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 ★ class=wikiexternal target=_blank>.html#1.25 (Aq. I.25). The only building, however, that we know Vitruvius to have worked on is, as he himself tells us ★ class=wikiexternal target=_blank>.html#1.6 (de Arch. V.i.6), 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.

Vitruvius is most 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 on 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.

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 ^[1], 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 ^[2]. 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.

References in Modern Culture

★ William McDonough has made reference to Vitruvius in the context of the concept of solar energy relating to architecture in a TED talk^[3].

★ Scott Berkun referenced Vitruvius' innovations in his book called "The Myths of Innovation" and also in his video discussion of the book.^[4]

Lists of names given in Book VII Introduction

'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'
Agatharcus, Aeschylus, Democritus, Anaxagoras
'List of writers on temples'
Silenus, Theodorus, Chersiphron and Metagenes, Pytheos, 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, Pyrrus, Agesistratus
'List of writers on architect'
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

Notes

1. [1]
2. [2]
3. [3]
4. [4]

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

★ (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