Vitruvius

Vitruvius (Marcus Vitruvius Pollio) (vĭtr`vēəs), fl. late 1st cent. B.C. and early 1st cent. A.D., Roman writer, engineer, and architect for the Emperor Augustus. In his one extant work, De architectura (c.40 B.C., tr. 1914), he discussed in 10 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 fueled 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).

Bibliography

See M. H. Morgan, Vitruvius: The Ten Books on Architecture (1914, repr. 1960).

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Vitruvius

 in full Marcus Vitruvius Pollio

(flourished 1st century BC) Roman architect, engineer, and author of the celebrated treatise De architectura, a handbook for Roman architects. Little is known of his life except what can be gathered from his writings. The treatise is divided into 10 books covering almost every aspect of architecture and city planning. His wish was to preserve the Classical Greek tradition in the design of temples and public buildings, and his prefaces contain many pessimistic remarks about the architecture of the time. His work was the chief authority on ancient Classical architecture throughout the antique revival of the Renaissance, the Classical phase of the Baroque, and the Neoclassical period.