Part I. five Kinds of Columns.

V LL

M! 1 re

Wm.

CHAP. XIII.

Of the Trofortion which the Astragal and Qnrfure of theSbaft of Qolttmns ought to have.

N all the Orders, the Columns have cer-tain Members that terminate their Bodyor Shaft, which commonly are the fame:namely, at the Top, an Astragal withits Fillet, and a pretty large List orCincture at the Bottom. These Partshave no certain determined Proportionin the Antique, where we find they aresometimes greater, sometimes less, with-out any visible Reason for this Diversity. The Moderns have donethe same Thing: but my Opinion is, we may give these Membersthe same Proportions in all the Orders, on the same account thatthe Height of Entablatures was made alike in the different Orders,because, as the Column lengthens in the more delicate Ordets, theseParts though the same in Size, become, or at least appear, moredelicate in proportion to the Height of the Column.

As to the Cincture, at the Foot of the Column, I allow its Heightthe twentieth Part of the Diameter there. In the Pantheon , it comesvery near this Bigness, which Vignola , Serlio and Alherti have fol-lowed ; and in other Antique Buildings, this Member is sometimeshigher, as in the Temple of Antoninus and Faustina, in that of <Bac~chus , in the Arch of Septimius , and in the Baths of Diocletian ; some-times it is lower, as in the Temple of Vesta at Pome, in that ofManly Fortune , and in the Arch of Titus. But in my Judgment,

we