General Rules of Architecture

The Tuscan order, in my opinion, is best suited for fortresses: such as city gates, strongholds, castles, and places for storing treasures, or where munitions and artillery are kept; it is also appropriate for prisons, seaports, and other similar structures used in war. It is true that rustic work opera rustica: masonry made of large, roughly textured blocks with deep joints, intended to look "natural" or "unrefined"—that is, various joints of roughly sketched stones—has sometimes been mixed by the ancients into the Doric, and occasionally even into the Ionic and Corinthian orders (some of which were even made with a certain delicacy to please the sculptors). Nevertheless, because the Tuscan order is truly the coarsest and least adorned of them all, it seems to me that rustic work is more appropriate and more in keeping with the Tuscan than with any other style.

This principle was clearly observed by the Tuscans themselves, both within their greatest and principal city, Florence original: "Fiorenza", and outside it in country villas. These contain as many beautiful buildings and rich structures made of rustic work as can be seen in the rest of Christendom, yet they are mixed with that balance of ruggedness and delicacy that pleased the architects. For this reason, I say such works are more suited to the Tuscan order than to any other species. Therefore, by gathering some examples from the ancients and others from our own time, I will demonstrate various ways these works can be used to make gates for cities and fortresses, as well as for public and private places, facades, loggias, porticos, windows, niches, bridges, aqueducts, and other various ornaments that a good architect might need to create. One could also—without departing from what the ancients did—mix and combine that rustic work with the Doric, and even with the Ionic, and sometimes with the Corinthian, according to the whim of someone who wants to satisfy a personal caprice. This, however, should be called a matter of license rather than reason In Renaissance theory, "reason" refers to the strict mathematical rules of the ancients, while "license" refers to creative departures from those rules.; for the architect must proceed with great modesty and restraint, especially in public and serious works, where it is praiseworthy to maintain proper decorum.

I wanted to imitate the ancient Comedians at the beginning of this book: some of whom, when wanting to perform a comedy, sent a messenger ahead to give the spectators a brief summary of everything the comedy would treat. Because I must treat the five styles of buildings in this volume—namely the Tuscan, Doric, Ionic, Corinthian, and Composite—it seemed right to me that the figures of every species be seen at the beginning. And although not all proportions and measurements are noted on the columns and their ornaments, but only the principal ones as a general rule, the details will not be missing in their proper places, where everything will be noted more minutely. This is only (as I have said) to demonstrate a general rule at a single glance. To be better understood by everyone, I will use the vocabulary of Vitruvius Vitruvius (c. 80–15 BC) was the author of "De architectura," the only surviving major architectural treatise from antiquity. at the start of each order, accompanied by the modern terms used commonly throughout Italy.

First, regarding the Tuscan pedestal, I say the die il netto: the central, flat block of a pedestal between the base and the cap shall be a perfect square. The Doric pedestal shall be taller than a square by the length of a line drawn from corner to corner of a perfect square and stood upright This describes a proportion of 1 to the square root of 2 (roughly 1:1.41).. The Ionic pedestal shall be a square and a half. The Corinthian pedestal shall be one square and two-thirds of that square. The Composite pedestal shall be made of two perfect squares; all of this refers to the "die" without its bases and caps. Do not be surprised if the following chapter is labeled as the fifth, even though others might expect it to be the first: this is because the first book on Geometry will occupy one chapter; the second on Perspective will occupy two; and the third on Antiquities will occupy one—making four in total. Therefore, for this reason, the following chapter will be the fifth.

Tuscan, Doric, Ionic, Corinthian, Composite, Vitruvius, Florence, Geometry, Perspective, Antiquities, pedestal, Architect, rustic work