Vitruve ( Marcus Vitruvius Polio ) is a Roman architect which lived at first century BC (one does not know with precision at which time he would have lived, one evaluates his birth in the neighborhoods of 90 before Jesus-Christ and that of his death in the neighborhoods of 20 before Jesus-Christ).
After having been soldier in Gaulle, Spain and Greece, manufacturer of machines of war, it becomes architect in Rome. He says itself to us which he is not large, and complains about the pangs of the age. Its prose, at the same time technical and picturesque, comprises primarily short sentences, and its vocabulary appears to have been that of the craftsmen. Vitruve was at the same time popularizer and compiler so that one allots to him the invention of the quinary module in the construction of the Aqueduc S; however he is only the agent of an already old tradition.
Of Structured
He is the author of a famous treaty of architecture, Of Structured (in French About Architecture ), probably written at the end of his life, and which he dedicates to the emperor Auguste. This book is presented in the form of an encyclopedia of the techniques of Roman Antiquity, and speaks in praise with its dedicatee of the function of architectus , intermediary between that of the Greek architect and the Roman military engineer; praise extremely necessary, since it seems that in Rome, this trade was not considered much better than that of simple craftsman. However, according to Vitruve, architecture is science which is acquired by the practice and the theory . The architect must have many knowledge in geometry, drawing, history, mathematics, optics.
It is the only writing of architecture which reached us of the Antiquité, and the architects of the Renaissance like the Italians Sebastiano Serlio and Palladio were inspired much by it, until the classical architecture and baroque, where Claude Perrault (1613-1688) starts to call in question the interpetation of its principles.
The Middle Ages knew Vitruve, but, in spite of the existence of some manuscripts, often in an indirect way: thus the episode of Archimedes and crowns it of king Hiéron it is known to us by Vitruve. It is with the scholar Leone Battista Alberti that one owes the renewal of favor of the Of Structured , in the years 1420. To establish the text of the first edition printed (Rome, 1486, impr. G. Herolt, 2 folio volumes), Sulpizio da Veroli had to collate several manuscripts since none comprised the complete text, but was pressed primarily on the manuscript of Escurial (dated from XIe century).
In France, G. Philandrier is the author of the first critical edition of the text Latin (Lyon, 1552, impr. Jean de Tournes).
Synopsis
- Book 1: urban organization, architecture in general, competences of the architect.
- Book 2: construction materials.
- Book 3: temples and architectural orders.
- Book 4: continuation of book 3.
- Book 5: civil buildings.
- Book 6: domestic architecture.
- Book 7: facings and decoration.
- Book 8: water conveyance.
- Book 9: sciences influencing architecture - geometry, astronomy, etc
- Book 10: use and construction of machines.
Vitruve is the author of the only complete treaty of architecture which has escaped with the shipwreck of the Greek and Latin technical literature. This circumstance explains contrast between the extraordinary importance attached to its work, since the time of Charlemagne until that of Purple-the-Duke, and the modesty of its real historical situation. One could not thus take for a sign of excellence an insulation which is not due, mainly, that with the gaps of the tradition. But one should not yield for as much with temptation to refuse any credibility with an expert who, certainly, did not play the part of initiator and codifier that of aucuns wanted to recognize to him, but which had the merit to join together in a coherent whole the vast treasure of experiments and knowledge, accumulated before him by the builders hellenistic. It is to say that the analysis of the contents of structured is inseparable from an exact localization of its author in the cultural and technical universe of its time, and of a methodological reflection on the rules of a “kind”, the theoretical treaty, more constraining than one often believed it.
Translations
The text is initially translated into Italian: editions of Mauro and Cesariano (Like, 1521), of F.L. Durantino (Venice, 1524), of G.B. Caporali (Perugia, 1535).
There exist several translations in French:
- in 1547 by Jean Martin (illustrations of Jean Pin)
- in 1673, by Claude Perrault “Translation of the ten books of architecture of Vitruve”, ED. J. - B. Coignard, Paris
- in 1847, by CH. - L. of Maufras “the Architecture of Vitruve” (1847), ED. Panckoucke, 2 vol. in-8°, Paris.
The edition of the Universities of France (coll Budé) has been in hand for only a few years, but books VIII and X are available.
See too
External bonds
- '' the ten books of architecture '' in the translation of Jean Martin
- Vitruve and his ten books of architecture
- the BNF put in line three translations of the of structured of Vitruve: that of Jean Martin (1547), at Jean Coignard Baptist, with notes; that of Perrault (1673), and finally that of CH. L. Maufras, with Latin text (1847)
- Base STRUCTURED of the Center of Higher learning of the Rebirth
- Exemplaire digitized of the fourth edition printed of the '' Of Structured '', on the site of the humanistic Virtual libraries
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