Ten Books on Architecture | Page 6

intervals on mathematical principles. These vessels are
arranged with a view to musical concords or harmony, and apportioned
in the compass of the fourth, the fifth, and the octave, and so on up to
the double octave, in such a way that when the voice of an actor falls in
unison with any of them its power is increased, and it reaches the ears
of the audience with greater clearness and sweetness. Water organs, too,
and the other instruments which resemble them cannot be made by one
who is without the principles of music.
10. The architect should also have a knowledge of the study of
medicine on account of the questions of climates (in Greek [Greek:
klimata]), air, the healthiness and unhealthiness of sites, and the use of
different waters. For without these considerations, the healthiness of a
dwelling cannot be assured. And as for principles of law, he should
know those which are necessary in the case of buildings having party
walls, with regard to water dripping from the eaves, and also the laws
about drains, windows, and water supply. And other things of this sort
should be known to architects, so that, before they begin upon
buildings, they may be careful not to leave disputed points for the
householders to settle after the works are finished, and so that in
drawing up contracts the interests of both employer and contractor may
be wisely safe-guarded. For if a contract is skilfully drawn, each may
obtain a release from the other without disadvantage. From astronomy

we find the east, west, south, and north, as well as the theory of the
heavens, the equinox, solstice, and courses of the stars. If one has no
knowledge of these matters, he will not be able to have any
comprehension of the theory of sundials.
11. Consequently, since this study is so vast in extent, embellished and
enriched as it is with many different kinds of learning, I think that men
have no right to profess themselves architects hastily, without having
climbed from boyhood the steps of these studies and thus, nursed by
the knowledge of many arts and sciences, having reached the heights of
the holy ground of architecture.
12. But perhaps to the inexperienced it will seem a marvel that human
nature can comprehend such a great number of studies and keep them
in the memory. Still, the observation that all studies have a common
bond of union and intercourse with one another, will lead to the belief
that this can easily be realized. For a liberal education forms, as it were,
a single body made up of these members. Those, therefore, who from
tender years receive instruction in the various forms of learning,
recognize the same stamp on all the arts, and an intercourse between all
studies, and so they more readily comprehend them all. This is what led
one of the ancient architects, Pytheos, the celebrated builder of the
temple of Minerva at Priene, to say in his Commentaries that an
architect ought to be able to accomplish much more in all the arts and
sciences than the men who, by their own particular kinds of work and
the practice of it, have brought each a single subject to the highest
perfection. But this is in point of fact not realized.
13. For an architect ought not to be and cannot be such a philologian as
was Aristarchus, although not illiterate; nor a musician like Aristoxenus,
though not absolutely ignorant of music; nor a painter like Apelles,
though not unskilful in drawing; nor a sculptor such as was Myron or
Polyclitus, though not unacquainted with the plastic art; nor again a
physician like Hippocrates, though not ignorant of medicine; nor in the
other sciences need he excel in each, though he should not be unskilful
in them. For, in the midst of all this great variety of subjects, an
individual cannot attain to perfection in each, because it is scarcely in

his power to take in and comprehend the general theories of them.
14. Still, it is not architects alone that cannot in all matters reach
perfection, but even men who individually practise specialties in the
arts do not all attain to the highest point of merit. Therefore, if among
artists working each in a single field not all, but only a few in an entire
generation acquire fame, and that with difficulty, how can an architect,
who has to be skilful in many arts, accomplish not merely the feat--in
itself a great marvel--of being deficient in none of them, but also that of
surpassing all those artists who have devoted themselves with
unremitting industry to single fields?
15. It appears, then, that Pytheos made a mistake by not observing that
the arts are each composed of two things, the actual