Vitruvius





Marcus Vitruvius Pollio was a Roman writer, architect and engineer, active
in the 1st century BC. He is the author of De Architectura, the Ten Books of
Architecture, an ancient Roman treatise on architecture and perhaps the
first work about this discipline.

Mainly known for his writings, Vitruvius was himself an architect; Frontinus
says he was in charge of the aqueducts of Rome.

Among notable concepts contained in De Architectura (probably written
between 23 and 27 B.C.), Vitruvius declares that fame depends on social
relevance of the artist's work, not on the work by itself.

Vitruvius' work is one of many examples of Latin texts that owe their
survival to the palace scriptorium of Charlemagne in the early ninth
century. (This activity of finding and recopying classical manuscripts is
called the Carolingian Renaissance.) Many of the surviving manuscripts of
Vitruvius' work derive from an existing manuscript that was written there,
British Library manuscript Harley 2767.

Vitruvius studied human proportions (third book) and his canones were later
resumed in a very famous drawing by Leonardo da Vinci (Homo Vitruvianus).
The 16th century architect Palladio considered him his master and guide, and
made some drawings based on Vitruvius's rules for architecture before
conceiving his own ones.

Though De architectura had been known throughout the middle ages, the work
was popularized in 16th century. Inigo Jones, English architect, was perhaps
the first together with French Salomon De Caus to reconsider those
disciplines that Vitruvius considered a necessary element of architecture:
arts and sciences based upon the number and the proportions, music,
perspective, painting.

Among his sources Vitruvius recalls Ctebisius of Alexandria and Archimedes
for their inventions, Aristossenes (Aristotle's apprentice) for music,
Agatarch for theatre, and Terentius Varro for architecture.