DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.26532#0031
INTRODUCTION.
ix
sorne sorced From the few chronological data found
in his work, he appears to have been at the height
of his reputation between the deatli of J. C as sar and
the battle os Aftium-, that is from the year 44 to
31 besore ChrisL His knowledge of the Grecian
Architecture must have been derived from books j
seeing he has no where intimated his having travelled
in Greece. The treatise he left on that art was firsl
found by Poggio, a Florentine, in the monastery of
St. Gall, as is assirmed by himself, p, 346 of his
r epistles. *
The same obligation to brevity (in an introduc-
tion to the transiation of a piece of but 54 pages in
the original) which forbad any attempt to trace the
progress of improving Architecture, equally excludes
all endeavour to give the less pleasing account of its
decline. It seems to require the comparative expe-
rience of ages to determine what is moll durably sa-
tisfaCtory, to the eye and to the understanding, in the
* What is become of this copy is unknown ; nor is it even
mentioned by the Marquis Poieni in his Exercitationes Vitruvianse
primse, Padua 1739 4to, wherein he has given an elaborate se-
ries of the editions, transsations, commentaries, abridgments of
Vitruvius; together with a list of Manuscripts he had collated,
in preparation for a critical edition of this Author he had
long purposed to give. The first intelligent Editor of Vitruvius
was Fra. Giocondo of Verona; whose pubiication appeared at
Venice 15 11, fol; again with F*- ‘ inus at Florence 1513, 8vo.
The edition generally most es i is that of John de Laet.
Amst. apud L. Elzev. 1649, fo* Of the various translations
<5 Vide note n. p. 22. of his life oi Titruvius, prefixed to his Italian
transiation. r Vide Fabricius’s account oi itruvius in his Biblioth, Lat, by
Jsrnesti. Lipsiae 1773. Vol.I, p.483.
I 2
those
ix
sorne sorced From the few chronological data found
in his work, he appears to have been at the height
of his reputation between the deatli of J. C as sar and
the battle os Aftium-, that is from the year 44 to
31 besore ChrisL His knowledge of the Grecian
Architecture must have been derived from books j
seeing he has no where intimated his having travelled
in Greece. The treatise he left on that art was firsl
found by Poggio, a Florentine, in the monastery of
St. Gall, as is assirmed by himself, p, 346 of his
r epistles. *
The same obligation to brevity (in an introduc-
tion to the transiation of a piece of but 54 pages in
the original) which forbad any attempt to trace the
progress of improving Architecture, equally excludes
all endeavour to give the less pleasing account of its
decline. It seems to require the comparative expe-
rience of ages to determine what is moll durably sa-
tisfaCtory, to the eye and to the understanding, in the
* What is become of this copy is unknown ; nor is it even
mentioned by the Marquis Poieni in his Exercitationes Vitruvianse
primse, Padua 1739 4to, wherein he has given an elaborate se-
ries of the editions, transsations, commentaries, abridgments of
Vitruvius; together with a list of Manuscripts he had collated,
in preparation for a critical edition of this Author he had
long purposed to give. The first intelligent Editor of Vitruvius
was Fra. Giocondo of Verona; whose pubiication appeared at
Venice 15 11, fol; again with F*- ‘ inus at Florence 1513, 8vo.
The edition generally most es i is that of John de Laet.
Amst. apud L. Elzev. 1649, fo* Of the various translations
<5 Vide note n. p. 22. of his life oi Titruvius, prefixed to his Italian
transiation. r Vide Fabricius’s account oi itruvius in his Biblioth, Lat, by
Jsrnesti. Lipsiae 1773. Vol.I, p.483.
I 2
those