P R E F A C E.

One can say that the fate of Architecture in France has been similar to its fate among the Romans. For just as that warlike nation, which in its beginnings seemed only to have an inclination for Arms and the great Art of governing Peoples, finally became sensitive to the charms of all other Arts; so too France, which for so many centuries was possessed only by its warrior spirit, has shown in our days that the noble inclinations of war are not incompatible with the fine dispositions that lead to success in the sciences.

While the French were convinced that military virtues were the only talents they could value, and that other peoples had the sciences as their share, it is no surprise if their minds, though capable of the most excellent productions, remained infertile. These people, accustomed to conquering, found it difficult to apply themselves to things in which they were led to believe that foreigners would always surpass them.

This opinion was all the more easily instilled in their minds because they are naturally inclined to presume everything to the advantage of foreigners, through that principle of humanity, hospitality, and courtesy which once caused them to be called Xenomanes original: "Xenomanes"; from the Greek xenos (stranger/foreigner) and mania (madness), meaning "passionate admirers of the merit and works of other nations.". But this lack of confidence in succeeding in the fine Arts was not the only reason that has prevented us from devoting ourselves to them until now: the low esteem in which they have always been held in France turned almost everyone away, and even those with the least elevated courage could not resolve to embrace a profession so little regarded; and those whom birth or a powerful inclination had engaged in it spent their lives outside the company of respectable people original: "honnêtes gens"; in the 17th century, this referred to cultured, socially refined individuals of the upper classes., in the obscurity where the shame of the lowliness of their condition kept them.

Now, it is not only honor that nourishes the Arts; conversation with respectable people is also something they cannot do without. The refined sense original: "sens exquis" required to govern beautiful knowledge is rarely formed among the common people, and there are a thousand things that one does not learn in the condition of a simple Artisan, nor even in the Schools, which are nevertheless absolutely necessary to reach the final degree of excellence that the fine Arts can achieve.

That pride which nature has placed in minds that feel capable of something excellent, and which makes them disdain employments that are not highly esteemed, once reached such an excess among the Romans that many of them preferred to die rather than work on Buildings whose structure had nothing beautiful enough to make their name commendable. On the other hand, when fine Architecture began to be honored among them, they applied themselves to it with such fervor that in less than forty years it reached its highest perfection.

For this, there was no need to go looking for Masters in Greece; several were found in Rome capable of the greatest designs and the boldest executions. A great number of learned figures such as Fufsitius An early Roman architect mentioned by Vitruvius as the first to write on the subject, Varro Marcus Terentius Varro (116–27 BC), a Roman scholar who wrote on the "liberal arts," including architecture, Septimius Publius Septimius, a writer on architectural theory, and Celsus Aulus Cornelius Celsus, an encyclopedist whose work covered medicine, agriculture, and military arts wrote several excellent volumes on Architecture. The Greeks themselves used Roman Architects at that time; and when King Antiochus Antiochus IV Epiphanes, King of the Seleucid Empire, who famously employed the Roman architect Cossutius to work on the temple in Athens had the Temple of Olympian Jupiter completed in the City of Athens—