Vitruvius
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Marcus Vitruvius Pollio was a Roman writer, architect and engineer, active in the 1st century BC. He was the author of De Architectura, known today as The Ten Books of Architecture, a treatise in Latin on architecture, and perhaps the first work about this discipline. He is believed to have served in the Roman army, probably under his sponsor, the emperor Caesar Augustus.
Mainly known for his writings, Vitruvius was himself an architect; Frontinus mentions him in connection with the standard sizes of pipes (Aq. I.25) (http://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/L/Roman/Texts/Frontinus/De_Aquis/text*.html#1.25); the only building, however, that we know Vitruvius to have worked on is, as he himself tells us (de Arch. V.i.6) (http://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/L/Roman/Texts/Vitruvius/5*.html#1.6), a basilica at Fanum Fortunae, now the modern town of Fano. The basilica has disappeared so completely that its very site is a matter of conjecture.
Vitruvius is sometimes loosely referred to as the first architect: it is more accurate, of course, to say that he is the first Roman architect to have written on his field; and we find him to be much more of codifier than an original thinker or creative intellect. We must not make the mistake, at any rate, of equating Roman architects with their modern counterparts; it is safer to think of them as engineers, architects, artists, and craftsmen combined.
See also
External links
- The "Ten Books of Architecture" online: cross-linked Latin text and English translation (http://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Vitruvius/home.html)
- Latin text, version 2 (http://www.fh-augsburg.de/~harsch/Chronologia/Lsante01/Vitruvius/vit_ar01.html)
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