Ten Books on Architecture

Ten Books on Architecture, by
Vitruvius

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Title: Ten Books on Architecture
Author: Vitruvius
Release Date: December 31, 2006 [EBook #29239]
Language: English
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VITRUVIUS
THE TEN BOOKS ON ARCHITECTURE

TRANSLATED BY MORRIS HICKY MORGAN, PH.D., LL.D.
LATE PROFESSOR OF CLASSICAL PHILOLOGY IN HARVARD
UNIVERSITY
WITH ILLUSTRATIONS AND ORIGINAL DESIGNS PREPARED
UNDER THE DIRECTION OF HERBERT LANGFORD WARREN,
A.M. NELSON ROBINSON JR. PROFESSOR OF ARCHITECTURE
IN HARVARD UNIVERSITY CAMBRIDGE HARVARD
UNIVERSITY PRESS LONDON: HUMPHREY MILFORD
OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS 1914 COPYRIGHT, HARVARD
UNIVERSITY PRESS
* * * * *

PREFACE
During the last years of his life, Professor Morgan had devoted much
time and energy to the preparation of a translation of Vitruvius, which
he proposed to supplement with a revised text, illustrations, and notes.
He had completed the translation, with the exception of the last four
chapters of the tenth book, and had discussed, with Professor Warren,
the illustrations intended for the first six books of the work; the notes
had not been arranged or completed, though many of them were
outlined in the manuscript, or the intention to insert them indicated.
The several books of the translation, so far as it was completed, had
been read to a little group of friends, consisting of Professors Sheldon
and Kittredge, and myself, and had received our criticism, which had,
at times, been utilized in the revision of the work.
After the death of Professor Morgan, in spite of my obvious
incompetency from a technical point of view, I undertook, at the
request of his family, to complete the translation, and to see the book
through the press. I must, therefore, assume entire responsibility for the
translation of the tenth book, beginning with chapter thirteen, and
further responsibility for necessary changes made by me in the earlier
part of the translation, changes which, in no case, affect any theory held

by Professor Morgan, but which involve mainly the adoption of simpler
forms of statement, or the correction of obvious oversights.
The text followed is that of Valentine Rose in his second edition
(Leipzig, 1899), and the variations from this text are, with a few
exceptions which are indicated in the footnotes, in the nature of a return
to the consensus of the manuscript readings.
The illustrations in the first six books are believed to be substantially in
accord with the wishes of Professor Morgan. The suggestions for
illustrations in the later books were incomplete, and did not indicate, in
all cases, with sufficient definiteness to allow them to be executed, the
changes from conventional plans and designs intended by the translator.
It has, therefore, been decided to include in this part of the work only
those illustrations which are known to have had the full approval of
Professor Morgan. The one exception to this principle is the
reproduction of a rough model of the Ram of Hegetor, constructed by
me on the basis of the measurements given by Vitruvius and
Athenaeus.
It does not seem to me necessary or even advisable to enter into a long
discussion as to the date of Vitruvius, which has been assigned to
various periods from the time of Augustus to the early centuries of our
era. Professor Morgan, in several articles in the Harvard Studies in
Classical Philology, and in the Proceedings of the American Academy,
all of which have been reprinted in a volume of Addresses and Essays
(New York, 1909), upheld the now generally accepted view that
Vitruvius wrote in the time of Augustus, and furnished conclusive
evidence that nothing in his language is inconsistent with this view. In
revising the translation, I met with one bit of evidence for a date before
the end of the reign of Nero which I have never seen adduced. In viii, 3,
21, the kingdom of Cottius is mentioned, the name depending, it is true,
on an emendation, but one which has been universally accepted since it
was first proposed in 1513. The kingdom of Cottius was made into a
Roman province by Nero (cf. Suetonius, Nero, 18), and it is
inconceivable that any Roman writer subsequently referred to it as a
kingdom.

It does seem necessary to add a few words about the literary merits of
Vitruvius in this treatise, and about Professor Morgan's views as to the
general principles