DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.18826#0342
LECT. II.] PRACTICAL BUILDING. 91
For the Foundation, Vitruvius orders the ground
to be dug up to examine its firmness; and its ap-
parent solidity not to be trusted to, unless the
Whale mould cut through be found solid. The
depth of the digging, Palladio limits to a sixth
part of the height of the building, for structures of
£reat magnitude and weight.
This Sir H. Wotton calls the natural foundation ;
whereon are to stand the walls, which he calls the
artificial foundation: this then is to be the level;
its lowest ledge, or row, being of stone, close laid
with mortar, and the broader the better; at least
twice as broad as the wall. Some add, that the
materials below should be laid just as they grow in
the quarry, supposing them to have the greatest
strength in their natural position. De Lorme en-
forces this, by observing, that the breaking of a
stone in this part of the fabric, though but the
breadth of the back of a knife, will make a cleft
of above half a foot in the superstructure.
The great laws of walling: are, that all walls
stand perpendicular to the ground-work % the right
angle being the cause of stability: that the massiest
and heaviest materials be lowest, as fitter to bear than
to be borne : that the work diminish in thickness as
it rises: that certain courses of superior strength be
occasionally inserted to sustain the fabric, if the
under parts chance to decay : and lastly, that the
angles be firmly ,bound, and united 5 these being
the nerves of the whole, and commonly fortified,
by the Italians, at the corners, (coins, or quoins)
even in brick buildings, with squared stones ; which
add both beauty and strength.
N 2 The
For the Foundation, Vitruvius orders the ground
to be dug up to examine its firmness; and its ap-
parent solidity not to be trusted to, unless the
Whale mould cut through be found solid. The
depth of the digging, Palladio limits to a sixth
part of the height of the building, for structures of
£reat magnitude and weight.
This Sir H. Wotton calls the natural foundation ;
whereon are to stand the walls, which he calls the
artificial foundation: this then is to be the level;
its lowest ledge, or row, being of stone, close laid
with mortar, and the broader the better; at least
twice as broad as the wall. Some add, that the
materials below should be laid just as they grow in
the quarry, supposing them to have the greatest
strength in their natural position. De Lorme en-
forces this, by observing, that the breaking of a
stone in this part of the fabric, though but the
breadth of the back of a knife, will make a cleft
of above half a foot in the superstructure.
The great laws of walling: are, that all walls
stand perpendicular to the ground-work % the right
angle being the cause of stability: that the massiest
and heaviest materials be lowest, as fitter to bear than
to be borne : that the work diminish in thickness as
it rises: that certain courses of superior strength be
occasionally inserted to sustain the fabric, if the
under parts chance to decay : and lastly, that the
angles be firmly ,bound, and united 5 these being
the nerves of the whole, and commonly fortified,
by the Italians, at the corners, (coins, or quoins)
even in brick buildings, with squared stones ; which
add both beauty and strength.
N 2 The