Vitruvius biography

He is mentioned in Pliny the Elder 's table of contents for Naturalis Historia Natural Historyin the heading for mosaic techniques. Likely born a free Roman citizen, by his own vitruvius biography Vitruvius served in the Roman army under Caesar with the otherwise poorly identified Marcus Aurelius, Publius Minidius, and Gnaeus Cornelius. These names vary depending on the edition of De architectura.

As an army engineer he specialized in the construction of ballista and scorpio artillery war machines for sieges. The locations where he served can be reconstructed from, for example, descriptions of the building methods of various "foreign tribes". Although he describes places throughout De Architecturahe does not say he was present.

To place the role of Vitruvius the military engineer in context, a description of "The Prefect of the camp" or army engineer is quoted here as given by Flavius Vegetius Renatus in The Military Institutions of the Romans :. The Prefect of the camp, though inferior in rank to the [Prefect], had a post of no small importance. The position of the camp, the direction of the entrenchments, the inspection of the tents or huts of the soldiers and the baggage were comprehended in his province.

His authority extended over the sick, and the physicians who had the care of them; and he regulated the expenses relative thereto. He had the charge of providing carriages, bathhouses and the proper tools for sawing and cutting wood, digging trenches, raising parapets, sinking wells and bringing water into the camp. He likewise had the care of furnishing the troops with wood and straw, as well as the rams, onagribalistae and all the other engines of war under his direction.

This post was always conferred on an officer of great skill, experience and long service, and who consequently was capable of instructing others in those branches of the profession in which he had distinguished himself. At various locations described by Vitruvius, [ 13 ] battles and sieges occurred. He is the only source for the siege of Larignum in 56 BC.

These are all sieges of large Gallic oppida. Mainly known for his writings, Vitruvius was himself an architect. In Roman times architecture was a broader subject than at present including the modern fields of architecture, construction managementconstruction engineeringchemical engineeringcivil engineering, materials engineeringmechanical engineering, military engineering and urban planning ; [ 18 ] architectural engineers consider him the first of their discipline, a specialization previously known as technical architecture.

In his work describing the construction of military installations, he also commented on the miasma theory — the idea that unhealthy air from wetlands was the cause of illness, saying:. For fortified towns the following general principles are to be observed. First comes the choice of a very healthy site. Such a site will be high, neither misty nor frosty, and in a climate neither hot nor cold, but temperate; further, without marshes in the neighbourhood.

For when the morning breezes blow toward the town at sunrise, if they bring with them mists from marshes and, mingled with the mist, the poisonous breath of the creatures of the marshes to be wafted into the bodies of the inhabitants, they will make the site unhealthy. Again, if the town is on the coast with southern or western exposure, it will not be healthy, because in summer the southern sky grows hot at sunrise and is fiery at noon, while a western exposure grows warm after sunrise, is hot at vitruvius biography, and at evening all aglow.

Frontinus mentions Vitruvius in connection with the standard sizes of pipes : [ 20 ] probably the role for which he was vitruvius biography widely respected in Roman times. He is often credited as father of architectural acoustics for describing the technique of echeas placement in theaters. The Basilica di Fano to give the building its Italian name has disappeared so completely that its very site is a matter of conjecture, although various attempts have been made to visualise it.

In later years the emperor Augustus, through his sister Octavia Minorsponsored Vitruvius, entitling him with what may have been a pension to guarantee financial independence. Whether De architectura was written by one author or is a compilation completed by subsequent librarians and copyists, remains an open question. The date of his death is unknown, which suggests that he had enjoyed only a little popularity during his lifetime.

Gerolamo Cardanoin his book De subtilitate rerumranks Vitruvius as one of the 12 persons whom he supposes to have excelled all men in the force of genius and invention; and might have given him first place if it was clear that he had set down his own discoveries. Vitruvius is the author of De architectura, libri decemknown today as The Ten Books on Architecture[ 27 ] a treatise written in Latin on architecture, dedicated to the emperor Augustus.

In the preface of Book I, Vitruvius dedicates his writings to giving personal knowledge of the quality of buildings to the emperor. Likely Vitruvius is referring to Marcus Agrippa 's campaign of public repairs and improvements. This work is the only surviving major book on architecture from classical antiquity. According to Petri Liukkonen, this text "influenced deeply from the Early Renaissance onwards artists, thinkers, and architects, among them Leon Battista Alberti —Leonardo da Vinci —and Michelangelo — However, we know there was a significant body of writing about architecture in Greek, where "architects habitually wrote books about their work", including two we know of about the Parthenon alone.

LawrenceVitruvius "has recorded a most elaborate set of rules taken from Greek authors, who must have compiled them gradually in the course of the preceding centuries". Vitruvius is famous for asserting in his book De architectura that a structure must exhibit the three qualities of firmitatis, utilitatis, venustatis — that is, stability, utility, and beauty.

These are sometimes termed the Vitruvian virtues or the Vitruvian Triad. According to Vitruvius, architecture is an imitation of nature. As birds and bees built their nests, so humans constructed housing from natural materials, that gave them shelter against the elements.

Vitruvius biography

When perfecting this art of building, the Greeks invented the architectural orders: DoricIonic and Corinthian. It gave them a sense of proportion, culminating in understanding the proportions of the greatest work of art: the human body. This led Vitruvius in defining his Vitruvian Manas drawn later by Leonardo da Vinci : the human body inscribed in the circle and the square the fundamental geometric patterns of the cosmic order.

In this book series, Vitruvius also wrote about climate in relation to housing architecture and how to choose locations for cities. Vitruvius is the first Roman architect to have written surviving records of his field. He himself cites older but less complete works. He was less an original thinker or creative intellect than a codifier of existing architectural practice.

Roman architects practised a wide variety of disciplines; in modern terms they would also be described as landscape architects, civil engineers, military engineers, structural engineers, surveyors, artists, and craftsmen combined. Etymologically the word architect derives from Greek words meaning 'master' and 'builder'. The first of the Ten Books deals with many subjects which are now within the scope of landscape architecture.

Architecture is a science arising out of many other sciences, and adorned with much and varied learning; by the help of which a judgment is formed of those works which are the result of other arts. Practice and theory are its parents. Practice is the frequent and continued contemplation of the mode of executing any given work, or of the mere operation of the hands, for the conversion of the material in the best and readiest way.

Theory is the result of that reasoning which demonstrates and explains that the material wrought has been so converted as to answer the end proposed. For a comparison with a leading architect from Ancient Egypt, see: Imhotep active c. Few details are known about Vitruvius's life. He is referred to in print by the natural scientist Pliny the Elder CE and by the soldier and aqueduct engineer Sextus Julius Frontinus CEalthough neither his first name Marcus nor his cognomen Pollio are authenticated.

His books appear to be dedicated to Augustus, the first Roman Emperor, which - since he wrote them when he was an old man - presumably means that he was most active during the middle of the first century BCE. Almost certainly born a Roman citizen, he mentions in his books that he served as an artilleryman - most probably as the officer in charge of a number of artillery engineers, specializing in siege machinery and vitruvius biographies, in Gaul, Spain and North Africa.

Note: in both classical and medieval eras, military engineering, architecture and building construction were closely linked. After military service, Vitruvius seems to have established himself as a professional architect, in which capacity he would have been involved in various vitruvius biographies of surveying, engineering, and urban planning, as well as architectural design.

During this time he is known to have designed only one building now destroyed - a basilica in the town of Fano, Italy. In about 27 BCE he began writing his magnum opus De Architecturaand in his final years he was given a generous pension by Augustus, although whether this was for his treatise, or for military services rendered, is unclear.

It is clear that Vitruvius had a distinguished military career. His contributions to architecture and engineering, as well as his service in the Roman military, paint a picture of a dedicated and skilled individual. The work is dedicated to Augustus whom he thanks in a dedication at the beginning of the book After your first bestowal of these upon me, you continued to renew them on the recommendation of your sister.

Owing to this favour I need have no fear of want to the end of my life, and being thus laid under obligation I began to write this work for you, because I saw that you have built and are now building extensively, and that in future also you will take care that our public and private buildings shall be worthy to go down to posterity by the side of your splendid achievements.

I have drawn up definite rules to enable you, by observing them, to have personal knowledge of the quality both of existing buildings and those which are yet to be constructed. Vitruvius believes that the architect needs to have studied many disciplines:- Let him be educated, skilful with the pencil, instructed in geometry, know much history, have followed the philosophers with attention, understand music, have some knowledge of medicine, know the opinions of the jurists, and be acquainted with astronomy and the theory of the heavens.

Mathematics plays an important role for Vitruvius:- Geometry is of much assistance in architecture, and in particular it teaches us the use of the vitruvius biography and compasses, by which especially we acquire readiness in making plans for buildings in their grounds, and rightly apply the square, the level, and the plummet. By means of optics, again, the light in buildings can be drawn from fixed quarters of the sky.

It is true that it is by arithmetic that the cost of buildings are calculated and measurements are computed, but difficult questions involving symmetry are solved by means of geometrical theories and methods. Let us briefly describe the ten volumes. The first contains the dedication and the education of an architect from which we have quoted.

After giving the fundamentals of architecture, Vitruvius looks at the siting of a city and city walls. He discusses the direction of the streets particularly taking into account the direction of the winds.