Vitruvius on Architecture Books 1 - X in Two volumes

Vitruvius (Marcus V Pollio) - Translated by Frank Granger

ISBN 10: 0674992776 / ISBN 13: 9780674992771

Published by Harvard University Press, 1996

About this Item

Books 1 - X in two volumes. Books 1 - v, i-xxxvi, 322 pp, 8 plates, Books vi - x, i-xxxix, 384 pp, 12 plates. Red cloth, previous owner's book plate in each volume, light scuff on the dust wrapper of volume 2 but excellent clean copies. 1996 reprints of the first printings of 1931 -34. Loeb Classical Library no's 251 and 280.

Seller Inventory # 1000964

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Vitruvius on Architecture Books 1 - X in Two volumes
• Publisher: Harvard University Press
• Publication Date: 1996
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0674992776
• ISBN 13: 9780674992771
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition: 1st Edition
• Condition: Fine
• Dust Jacket Condition: Near Fine
• Weight: 1 kilogram
• Seller catalogs:
  • Archaeology

About this title

Synopsis

The Renaissance man avant la lettre.

Vitruvius (Marcus V. Pollio), Roman architect and engineer, studied Greek philosophy and science and gained experience in the course of professional work. He was one of those appointed to be overseers of imperial artillery or military engines, and was architect of at least one unit of buildings for Augustus in the reconstruction of Rome. Late in life and in ill health he completed, sometime before 27 BC, De Architectura which, after its rediscovery in the fifteenth century, was influential enough to be studied by architects from the early Renaissance to recent times.

In On Architecture Vitruvius adds to the tradition of Greek theory and practice the results of his own experience. The contents of this treatise in ten books are as follows. Book 1: Requirements for an architect; town planning; design, cities, aspects; temples. 2: Materials and their treatment. Greek systems. 3: Styles. Forms of Greek temples. Ionic. 4: Styles. Corinthian, Ionic, Doric; Tuscan; altars. 5: Other public buildings (fora, basilicae, theaters, colonnades, baths, harbors). 6: Sites and planning, especially of houses. 7: Construction of pavements, roads, mosaic floors, vaults. Decoration (stucco, wall painting, colors). 8: Hydraulic engineering; water supply; aqueducts. 9: Astronomy. Greek and Roman discoveries; signs of the zodiac, planets, moon phases, constellations, astrology, gnomon, sundials. 10: Machines for war and other purposes.

About the Author

Frank Stephen Granger (1864–1936) was Professor of Classics and Philosophy at the University of Nottingham.