I 2

Chap.IV

The Ordonance of the Parti.

observ’d the Proportion os the Orders, since the more massive, suchas the Tuscan and Doric , which on that account, ought to have theirEntablatures greater, have them less, in proportion, than the Co-rinthian and Composite.

I shall not pretend to make my self Judge os a Difference be-tween so great Persons, and if I deliver my Opinion upon thisHead, and on the rest of the Proportions, which we find to havebeen practis’d 5 I desire my Judgment may pass for no other thanwhat the Lawyers call Judicium %uflictt77i, which is given, wherethe Cause is so perplex d, that the most discerning Judges cannotpenetrate into the Merits of it, but decide the Business by dividingthe Thing contended for into Halves. For I think, since there isnothing that declares the Reason os this great Diversity, we can noother way establish a certain Rule with any Probability, than bykeeping a Medium, taking a Measure that has some Relation tothat of the Column, such as is the Double of its Diameter, whichis also equally distant from the Extremes we find in the Works ofthe Antique.

Fort is any one should object: to me, that there are Authors andWorks, where the Measures are less than what I propose, I wouldoppose other Authors and Works as Authentic, where they arelarger. Let it, therefore, be remembred for the suture, that "tisfor this Reason, I always take for the Rule and Measure os theParts, that which is the Mean, and as near as may be equally di-stant from the Extremes, which we find in the Authentic ExamplesI produce; not thinking my self oblig’d to the Preciseness of a fewMinutes, when I am endeavouring to reduce the Measures to theirjust Proportions, and to whole and unbroken Numbers.

The following Table has five Columns, for the five Orders, ineach of which I set down the Number os Minutes, that the Enta-blatures, whose Examples I bring, have more or less than the six-score Minutes, which contains the two Diameters, or six little Mo-dules, which I give to all the Entablatures. For this makes it evi-dent that if there are some Entablatures less than what I propose,as are that of the Temple of the Sybil, which is less by twenty-oneMinutes, that of Vignola , which is less by thirty, and that or Bul-lant , which is less by thirty-seven; there are, also, others larger,as that of the three Columns of the Forum ^omanum , which hasthirty-six Minutes more, and that of the Coliseum, which has twen-six.

TabU