M. VITRUVII POLLIONIS

V I T A

Life

A BERNARDINO BALDO URBINATE

By Bernardino Baldi of Urbino

CONSCRIPTA.

Written.

We know that almost all arts are so constituted by nature that they cannot be practiced with sufficient ease if those who engage in them are not exercised equally in talent and in hand. Indeed, contemplation, which the Greeks call theōrian theory/contemplation, is a kind of eye; but praxin practice/action, that is, the operation itself, claims the place and function for the hand. Therefore, in my judgment, he who relies on meditation alone and neglects operation could not unfitly be compared to someone who, while possessed of sight, was crippled and maimed. Conversely, he who excels only in use is like one who, while blind, yet possessed intact hands. Thus, just as we require both eyes and hands in a human for perfect integrity, so in a complete artist we equally desire contemplation and operation. Hence it is that we distinguish Vitruvius from those architects who, unprepared by the best arts and sciences, intrude themselves rashly into the noble studies of architecture, as if they were profane, with unwashed hands and feet, as the saying goes. For he, adorned with every weapon, dedicated his name to this military service; therefore, it happens that we do not unworthily assign him a place among the mathematicians and geometers themselves, even though he is an architect. We undertake to write his life, a task which no one before us has done with the dignity it deserves, although—