PREFACE.

method and obscurity may appear in some of his writings are entirely to be attributed to the copyists jfor it cannot be supposed that the divisions of his writings were made by himself, in the irregularmanner they have appeared unto us. All his editors have lamented the blots, mistakes and errors,they have had to contend with: in the extracts we have cited, we have made the transposi-tions. suitable to the regular course necessary to be observed in describing the orders.

We have made use of De Laet’s edition, cum not is Pbilandri , Amjl. 1649, for the quotationswe Jiave given; and whenever we have met with any doubts about the numeral characters, wehave taken the liberty to alter them as other commentators have done, for the extents of thetetrastyle, hexastyle, Doric fronts; the heights of the Doric and Ionic entire columns, the Ioniccapital and base, &c. For our justification we can say, that we have only hazarded to rectify thesemodulary divisions from the edifices themselves, which Vitruvius would have acknowledged ofprior and more certain authority: and the essential and characteristick members in each order,as we have traced them, will be found conformable to his written prescriptions.

The words of Grecian origin, can never ’ admit of being translated, such as peripteral, pros-tyle, pycnostyle, &c. and must be adopted as invariable proper names, like column, capital,cyma and others, heretofore used by modern authors j

It may be acceptable to many of our readers, to lay before them the several M. S. S. copiesand Latin editions of Vitruvius, and the translations from the fame author, into some of themodern languages.

There are several manuscripts in the Vatican; two of these are prefered above all the others fortheir antiquity and correctness, one marked No. 1504, the other No. 2079, both of the Alex-andrine library. They were recommended to the Marquis GALIANI, by M. M. ASSEMANNIand BOTTARI, who were the keepers of that valuable collection : the Marquis only confronted theabove two M. S. S. tho’ he confesses it might have been better to have compared them all, had

he not been straitened for time.

In the Catalog! Librorum, M. S. S. Anglire & IJibernia in unum collecli. Oxoniœ MDCXCVILthe following manuscripts of Vitruvius are set down.

I. Lib. M, S. S. Coil, Si Joannis. B. Qxonice.

II. —-— —Coll, Etom

III. Cod. Lat. Is. Vqfsii Can. Windesor .

V. Lib. Lat. cum M.S.S. Collati Ejusdenii

VI. Bibliotb. Norsolc. in Coll. Grejh. Londini.

VII. Lib. M. S.S. Ed. Langley Eq. Comit Salop.

VIII. ——■- Edvardi Bernardi.

IX. Bibliotb. Jacobœce.

X. Bibliotb. Cottonianœ. Cleopatra.

No. 94 Vitruvius de architecturaiNo. 125 Idem sol.

No. 83 Idem & No. 95 idem.

*No. 20 Vitruvius Pbilandri.

No. 121 Vitruvii libri architechira, libri 12 .

No. 49 Vitruvius de architeffura, sol.

No. 195 Vitruviii

No. 896 Excerpta ex Vitruvio.

D. I. Vitruviide ar chit e Bur a, Lib. X. &c.

At the end. Julius Jolinus explicit feliciter Jludio & dihgentia domini Lbcodoji mviSlisJimi principis,Phis M. S. S. is said to be very correct, and written in a very antient hand; at present this book

should be in the British Museum.

Ten several Latin impressions are reckoned.

I. One of Sulpitius about the year 1486.

II. One at Florence, 1496.

III. One at Venice, 1497.

IV. One by Jocondus at Venice, 131 r.

V. One corrected by the fame in Florence, in 1513. Another edition by the fame, in 1522.And a third in 1523.

VI. One at Strasburgh, in l343. And a second in 1330.

VII. One by Gul, Philander at Lions, in 1552. And again at Geneva, in 1586.

VIII. One by Daniel Barbaro at Venice, in 1567.

IX. One by Johannes de Laet at Amsterdam, in 1649.

X. One by the Marquis Galiani in opposite pages to the Italian translation, at Naples, in 1758.The Translations of this author are,

I. One French, by Jean Martin, Paris 1347. The same again in 1572. And the same atCologne in 1618.

II. One by Claude Perrault, in 1673. and with emendations, in 1684.

III. One German by D. Walters and H. Rivius, Nurembergh in 1548, the same at Basil,in 1575. and again, 1614.

IV. One in Spanish, not of the entire work, but a compendium, by Don Didaco Sagreda, en-titled, Medidas del Romano, b Vitruvio. in Madrid, 1542. and in Toledo , 1349. and again in 1564.

V.