THE

ARCHITECTURE

OF

MARCUS VITRUVIUS POLLIO.

BOOK THE EOUKTH.

INTRODUCTION.

Finding, O Emperor, that many persons have left nsprecepts in Architecture, and volumes of commentariesthereon, not systematically arranged, hut mere generalprinciples, little more indeed than scattered hints, I con-sidered it a worthy and useful task, first, to give a generalview of the whole subject, and then to dilate in eachbook on the detail. Thus, Csesar, I treated in the firstbook on the duties of an architect, and the sciences inwhich he should be skilled. In the second, I taught theknowledge of the different materials used in building.The third contained instructions on the arrangement ofsacred buildings, their different forms and species, andthe distributions appropriate to each sort; confiningmyself, however, to the use of the Ionic order, which, ofthe three, from the great delicacy of its proportions,requires the most attention in its use. I shall now, inthis book, point out the difference and properties of theDoric and Corinthian Orders.