Notting Hill Living
Marcus Vitruvius Pollio (active 46 – 30 BC)
Vitruvius was an architect of the late Republican period in ancient Rome. He served under Julius Caesar in the African part of the Civil War in 46 BC. He built a basilica at Fano which has not survived. In his old age he wrote De Architectura, an architectural a treatise, which he dedicated to the emperor Augustus. He was evidently not a man of any importance in his own time, but his work was almost the only work on ancient classical architecture to survive, so he and his book became immensely important to the Italians of the Renaissance. It became essential reading for any “modern” architect.
The first printed text was published in Rome in about 1486, and the first illustrated edition in 1511. Raphael supervised an Italian translation in 1520, and another translation was printed in 1521 with an extensive commentary by Cesare Cesariano and numerous illustrations.
Various versions were translated into other European languages. The first in English was in 1692.
Vitruvius’s text is obscure and semi-mystical which, if anything, increased its appeal. It also meant that architects who read it had considerable scope to treat it as authority for a variety of styles.
