THE TEN BOOKS

OF ARCHITECTURE

BY VITRUVIUS.

BOOK ONE.

P R E F A C E.

A decorative drop cap 'L' containing a profile portrait of a Roman man, likely Augustus, within a laurel wreath medallion accompanied by the text 'AVG' (an abbreviation for Augustus).
WHEN I consider, Lord original: "Seigneur." In the 17th century, this was the standard formal address for a monarch, here translating the Latin "Imperator.", that by the power of your divine genius you have made yourself master of the Universe; that your invincible valor in crushing your enemies, and covering with glory those who are under your Empire, causes you to receive the homage of all the nations of the earth; and that the Roman people and the Senate base the assurance of the tranquility they enjoy upon the wisdom of your government alone, I doubt whether I should present this work on Architecture to you. For although I have completed it with great labor, striving through long meditations to
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make this matter intelligible, I fear that with such a gift I may nonetheless be troublesome to you, by inappropriately interrupting you in your great occupations.

However, when I reflect upon the great extent of your mind, whose cares are not limited to those regarding the most important affairs of the State, but which descend even to the smallest benefits the public may receive from the proper manner of building; and when I observe that, not content with making the city of Rome mistress of so many Provinces that you have submitted to her, you make her further admirable through the excellent structure of her great Buildings, and that you wish their magnificence to equal the majesty of your Empire; I believe that I must no longer delay in showing you what I have written on this subject, hoping that this profession, which once placed me in some regard with the Emperor your father Vitruvius refers to Julius Caesar, who had adopted Augustus., will obtain from you a similar favor;
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just as I feel that the extreme passion I had for his service is renewed in me for your august person, since you have succeeded him in the Empire, and he has been received among the Immortals. But above all, when I see that at the recommendation of the

1. LORD, There is

1. LORD, There is Imperator Caesar original: "Emperor Caesar" in the text: Some doubt which Emperor it is to whom Vitruvius dedicates his Book, because there is no address in the ancient copies that names Augustus, Philander Guillaume Philandrier (1505–1565), a prominent French Renaissance commentator on Vitruvius. being the first who titled this work M. Vitruvii Pollionis de Architectura lib. X. ad Caesarem Augustum original: "The Ten Books on Architecture by Marcus Vitruvius Pollio, dedicated to Caesar Augustus.". It is not, however, without foundation that one believes Augustus is the Emperor to whom this Preface is addressed, as well as those of all the other books. For there are conjectures for this which one can draw from several particulars found in this work; such as, among other places, in the 3rd

chapter of the 3rd book, where Vitruvius speaks of the most celebrated Roman authors, and in numbering the great Poets, he mentions only Ennius, Pacuvius, and Lucretius. But there is a passage that marks more precisely the time in which Vitruvius lived; it is in the 4th chapter of the 2nd book, where he speaks of a conversation he had with C. Julius, son of Masinissa: for it is known that Masinissa lived long before Augustus, and that Vitruvius must have been already quite old when he wrote this book to have seen the son of Masinissa, even if this son had been the one born when his father was 82 years old, according to the report of Florus Lucius Annaeus Florus, a Roman historian..