Vitruvius: On Architecture, Volume I, Books 1-5 (Loeb Classical Library No. 251) [Hardcover]

Vitruvius (Author), Frank Granger (Translator)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 1, 1931 | ISBN-10: 0674992776 | ISBN-13: 978-0674992771

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 BCE, 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, theatres, colonnades, baths, harbours). 6: Sites and planning, especially of houses. 7: Construction of pavements, roads, mosaic floors, vaults. Decoration (stucco, wall painting, colours). 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.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 368 pages
• Publisher: Loeb Classical Library (January 1, 1931)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0674992776
• ISBN-13: 978-0674992771
• Product Dimensions: 6.4 x 4.1 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #877,531 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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14 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The latest and best translation of Vitruvius., November 16, 1996

By A Customer

This review is from: Vitruvius: On Architecture, Volume I, Books 1-5 (Loeb Classical Library No. 251) (Hardcover)

This book is the latest in a long line of translations of one of the worlds most
important architectural treaties. It is a careful and thorough translation, in comparison
to the former by Hickey Morgen, which misses many points due to the author's minimal knowledge
of architectural parctice in the age of vitruvius, and before. I do recommend this book to all
architects, and students interested in this pivotal book.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Vitruvius: Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow, August 1, 2007

By 

Frank E. Kupper "Eugene Kupper, VitruviusP@ao... (Scottsdale AZ) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Vitruvius: On Architecture, Volume I, Books 1-5 (Loeb Classical Library No. 251) (Hardcover)

Vitruvius was a First century BC architect who wrote the oldest extant book [Decem Libris]on architecture. These 10 Books have been interpreted and studied on a nearly daily basis since [see for example, VITRUVIUS WRITING THE BODY OF ARCHITECTURE, MIT 2003 by Indra McEwin]. The VITRUVIUS PROGRAM was founded in 1988 by my wife and myself as a research curriculum for student Pre-school to Post-Graduate. It is named for a quote from Vitruvius, Book One Chapter One:
"The Architect should be equipped with knowledge of many branches of study and varied kinds of learning, for in the architectural judgment all of the work of other arts is brought to a test. This knowledge is the child of practice and theory. One who professes to be an architect should be well-versed in both directions, being both naturally gifted and amenable to instruction.

Therefore let our architect to be educated, skillful with the pencil, instructed in geometry, knowledgeable in history, follow the philosophers with attention, understand music, have some knowledge of medicine, know the opinions of jurists, and be acquainted with astronomy and the theory of the heavens.

Since this study is so vast in extent, embellished and enriched as it is with many kinds of learning I think that no one has a right to proclaim oneself an architect hastily, without having climbed from childhood the the steps of these studies, and thus, nursed by the knowledge of many arts and sciences, having reached the heights of the sacred ground of architecture.

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 memory. Yet the observation that all studies have a common bond of unification and relationship with one another will lead us to the conviction that this can be realized. For a liberal education forms 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 integration of all fields of study, so that they can more readily comprehend them all."

Teaching preschoolers to diagram and color drawings, learning the stories told by myth and science through design projects, studying how art, architecture and design can descibe new worlds - this is what Vitruvius taught. The 1929 Granger translation (Loeb) is more literal than the more literary 1914 Morgan translation (Dover), which is substantially cheaper.
Eugene Kupper Professor Emeritus of Architecture, UCLA