Aldrich, Henry; Smyth, Philip [Transl.]: The Elements Of Civil Architecture: According To Vitruvius And Other Ancients, And The Most Approved Practice Of Modern Authors, Especially Palladio (London, 1789) [Cicognara, 395]

INTRODUCTION.

i/m
tenance, from the alteration in feature occasioned by
age. He appears to have been aware that his style °
required some apology, as deficient in purity and
elegance, if confronted with that of other Roman
writers of his time : but, surely, the novelty and
nature os his subjeff, abounding with terms and
notions hard to latinize, should have mitigated the
censure of Alberti, Mercurialis and others; too
nicely attentive to the manner, to be duly senssble
to the value of his communications. When our
need is urgent, and no choice os help at hand, should
we thanklessly refuse the soie assistant that offers,
because he is not perfectly well dressed ? Every art
has its vocabulary, and its phraseology too ; harsh,
it may be, and strange to the uninitiated, but replete
with convenience to those, who are obliged to equal
dispatch in operation and discourse, amidst the hurry
of increasing employment and the momentary de-
mand for a perplexing variety of direftions. The
mention, made byp himself, of his having been,
for a length os time, host to a C. Julius, son os
Masinissa who served under J. Csesar, has been ad-
duced in proof of the personal consideration in which
Vitruvius was held : but who this C„ Julius, unno-
ticed by any cotemporary writer, was, cannot now
be ascertained. The very ingenious Marquis Galiani,
after refuting some conjeblures on the point, offers
a correddion of the text, reading Masinthas for Ma-
sinisfe, which he supports by historical evidence of
® Pref. to B. VII. sub finem. And Pref. to B, Y. ? B, VIII, c. 4.
some