On Architecture by Vitruvius, Paperback, 9780141441689 | Buy online at The Nile
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On Architecture

Author: Vitruvius, Richard Schofield and Robert Tavernor   Series: Penguin Classics

Paperback

The writings of the architect and engineer Vitruvius (c. 90-c. 20 BC) provide a fascinating picture of how the Romans planned and built their great structures and cities.

In "De architectura" (c.40 BC), Vitruvius discusses in ten encyclopedic chapters aspects of Roman architecture, engineering and city planning. Vitruvius also included a section on human proportions. Because it is the only antique treatise on architecture to have survived, "De architectura" has been an invaluable source of information for scholars.

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Summary

The writings of the architect and engineer Vitruvius (c. 90-c. 20 BC) provide a fascinating picture of how the Romans planned and built their great structures and cities.

In "De architectura" (c.40 BC), Vitruvius discusses in ten encyclopedic chapters aspects of Roman architecture, engineering and city planning. Vitruvius also included a section on human proportions. Because it is the only antique treatise on architecture to have survived, "De architectura" has been an invaluable source of information for scholars.

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Description

This foundational work on architecture is brought to Penguin Classics for the first time in a new illustrated editionIn De architectura (c.40 BC), Vitruvius discusses in ten encyclopedic chapters aspects of Roman architecture, engineering and city planning. Vitruvius also included a section on human proportions. Because it is the only antique treatise on architecture to have survived, De architectura has been an invaluable source of information for scholars. The rediscovery of Vitruvius during the Renaissance greatly fuelled the revival of classicism during that and subsequent periods. Numerous architectural treatises were based in part or inspired by Vitruvius, beginning with Leon Battista Alberti's De re aedificatoria (1485).

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About the Author

Marcus Vitruvius Pollio (late 1st century B.C.), was a Roman military architect and engineer, and an expert in ballistic machines in particular.Robert Tavernor studied architecture in London, Rome and Cambridge and practices as a consultant architect. He was professor of Architecture at the universities of Edinburgh and Bath, and is currently Professor of Architecture and Urban Design at the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE).Richard Schofield read Classics at Oxford in the late 1960s, then architectural history at the Courtauld Institute of Art, London. After working at the University of Nottingham for many years, he moved to the Istituto universitario di architettura di Venezia in 1997, where he is the Professor of the History of Architecture.

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Back Cover

'Architecture consists of planning, projection, harmony, modularity, appropriateness and distribution' The writings of the architect and engineer Vitruvius (c. 90-c. 20 BC) provide a fascinating picture of how the Romans planned and built their great structures and cities. His treatise, dedicated to Augustus, sets out all the information an architect of his day needed - from plans for temples, public baths, government buildings and private homes to the best materials and techniques for building - and no detail escapes his attention, whether the number of flutes in a column or the details of the construction of water clocks, sundials and catapults. His theories have remained influential for two millennia, especially those on the use of nature's harmonies in design and the ideal modular proportions of the human body, which later inspired Leonardo da Vinci. Richard Schofield's new translation captures the clear, pragmatic tone of Vitruvius' writings. In his introduction, Robert Tavernor discusses Vitruvius' enduring legacy, his ideas about nature and proportion, and the wide range of subjects on which he wrote. This edition also includes further reading, illustrations, indexes and notes. Translated by RICHARD SCHOFIELD with an introduction by ROBERT TAVERNOR

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Product Details

Publisher
Penguin Books Ltd | Penguin Classics
Published
24th September 2009
Pages
496
ISBN
9780141441689

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