XX

The PREFACE.

stould haVe no Bases 5 if the Ionic, the great Torus ought to he on the us*permost part of the Base, and if the Corinthian he employed, the Capitalought to he squat, the Ahacus sharp at the Horns, and the Cornice withoutModillions. But when we design an Order for a Building, now to he er eft ~ed, 1 do not thinkjo scrupulous an Imitation of the Antique to he necessary,and as we could not approve the T>efign of an Artist, who, in writing theWords of a Medal of the IQng, or an Inscription dated in sixteen hundredeighty three, should use the fame Characters we fee on the Antique RomanMedals, which are different, and hate nothing of the Beauty of the RomanCharacters, now so much improv’d and in use 5 so I thinks we ought not toblame an ArchiteCl who curious y ohferVes and follows the Changes which themost skilful in his Art have introducd with Reason and Judgment, and evenwith Approbation.

There an none of those who have wrote of the Orders of Architecture,that have not added and corrected something in what they pretend the An-cients eftablist’d, as tuples and Laws inviolable: and these Writers, who fexcept Vitruvius, are all Moderns, have followed the Examples of theAncients thmfelves, who, instead of Books, have left us Works of Archi-tecture, in which every one has put somewhat of his own Invention: Howthese HoVelties have been always constderd as the EffeCl of that Bains andStudy, which Berfons of an inventive Genius haVe taken for completingthose things which the Ancients left with some ImperfeCtion: for thoughsome of these Innovations have not met with Approbation $ there are, never-theless, so great a number receiv’d and follow 1 d, even in things Very confide-table, as plainly stew, that Alterations of this kind , are, in themselves,not only no rast Undertaking, but even, that a Change for the better, is nosuch difficult thing, as the paffionate Admirers of Antiquity would make usbelieve.

The Bases we call Ionic, which were the only ones in use, amongst theAncients, for all the Orders that had Bases, were so generally distikid bythe ArchiteCls that came after Vitruvius, that they scarcely ever made useof them . The Ionic Capital has been found inconvenient and disagreeableby a Change of Tast so universal, that there is no Bpom to doubt but theDistkg of it has some Foundation in £ Reason. T he Ionic Capital , whichScamozzi has substituted of his own Invention, instead of the Antique,

has