Vitruvius: De Architectura (Illustrated)

De Architectura, also known as “On Architecture” or “Ten Books on Architecture”, is considered the first book on architectural theory and a major source on the canon of classical architecture as it is the only treatise on architecture to survive from antiquity. It was written by the Roman architect and military engineer Marcus Vitruvius Pollio and dedicated to the emperor Caesar Augustus, as a guide for building projects. It contains a variety of information on Greek and Roman buildings, as well as prescriptions for the planning and design of military camps, cities, and structures both large (aqueducts, buildings, baths, harbours) and small (machines, measuring devices, instruments). Vitruvius: De Architectura (Ten Books on Architecture) is organised in 10 books: Town planning, architecture or civil engineering in general, and the qualifications required of an architect or the civil engineer Building materials Temples and the orders of architecture (includes the section on body proportions that led to da Vinci’s drawing) continuation of book III Civil buildings Domestic buildings Pavements and decorative plasterwork Water supplies and aqueducts Sciences influencing architecture – geometry, measurement, astronomy, sundial Use and construction of machines – Roman siege engines, water mills, drainage machines, Roman technology, hoisting, pneumatics The books are completed with magnificient illustrations by Andrea Palladio and Sebastien Leclerc.