BOOK FOUR

B ii

The page features two large architectural woodcuts flanking the central text block. On the left is a full-length depiction of a Tuscan column, showing a simple base, a plain shaft, and a simple capital supporting an entablature with a plain frieze. On the right, the lower portion of a similar column is shown resting on a substantial, square-proportioned pedestal ("piedestalo"), illustrating the geometric principles discussed in the text. The decorative initial 'B' at the start of the text contains a small cherub or putto figure.

Although I have stated above that the Tuscan column, according to the text of Vitruvius, should be seven parts high including its base and capital—a proportion and form that is certainly good and approved—nonetheless, because the first columns were made of six parts (taking this measure from the human foot, which is the sixth part of a man's height), and because the Doric columns will also be seven parts high (the ancients having added a part to those to give them more height), it seems to me, by such authorities and because this column is of a more robust style, that it should be made shorter than the Doric. Therefore, in my opinion, it shall be made of six parts including its base and its capital. Let this be a general rule, while observing the rest of the measurements we mentioned for the previous column and its ornaments.

And because neither Vitruvius nor any other architect, as far as I have seen, has ever given any rule for stylobates original: "stilobati," the continuous masonry platform or individual pedestals supporting columns, called pedestals—because in antiquity, as it appears, these things were made by architects according to their circumstances and needs, either to elevate the columns, or to reach porticos with steps, or for other arrangements—I would judge that, while we are not constrained by necessity, each style of column should be given its own appropriate pedestal, based on some probable reasoning.

It is a manifest thing that the pedestal should be at least square—I mean the die original: "netto," the central, plain block of the pedestal without its top or bottom moldings, excluding the base and the cap. Since the Tuscan column is the sturdiest of all others, its pedestal shall be a perfect square, the front of which should be as wide as the plinth original: "zocco," the square block at the very bottom of the column's base of the column’s base. Its height [of the die] shall be divided into four parts: one part shall be added for the lower plinth, and just as much shall be given to the cap. These members should be without any carving. Thus, since the column consists of six parts, the pedestal will itself be made of six parts referring to the ratio of the four parts of the die plus two for the base and cap, proportioned to the column.