DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.4324#0008
iv PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION.
name; for though the temple of Juno at Argos suggested the general idea of
what was after called the Doric, its proportions were first established here. As
to the other Arts, which also depend upon Design, they have flourished no
where more than in Ionia; nor has any spot of the same extent produced more
painters and sculptors of distinguished talents.
Among the remains of antiquity which have hitherto escaped the injuries of
time, there are none in which our curiosity is more interested, than the ruins
of those buildings which were distinguished by Vitruvius, and other ancient
writers, for their elegance and magnificence. Such are the temple of Bacchus
at Teos, the country of Anacreon; the temple dedicated to Minerva, at Priene,
by Alexander of Macedon; and the famous temple of Apollo Didymaeus, near
Miletus. However mutilated and decayed these buildings now are, yet surely
every fragment is valuable, which preserves, in some degree, the ideas of sym-
metry and proportion which prevailed at that happy period of taste.
Thus far the Society have thought proper, both in justice to the public, and
to the authors of the following work, to give a short account of the original oc-
casion of the undertaking, and of the manner in which it has been hitherto con-
ducted. They have directed the plates of this specimen to be engraved at their
expense, in hopes that it may encourage the Editors to proceed upon the re-
maining materials of their voyage, which will be put into their hands with that
view.
name; for though the temple of Juno at Argos suggested the general idea of
what was after called the Doric, its proportions were first established here. As
to the other Arts, which also depend upon Design, they have flourished no
where more than in Ionia; nor has any spot of the same extent produced more
painters and sculptors of distinguished talents.
Among the remains of antiquity which have hitherto escaped the injuries of
time, there are none in which our curiosity is more interested, than the ruins
of those buildings which were distinguished by Vitruvius, and other ancient
writers, for their elegance and magnificence. Such are the temple of Bacchus
at Teos, the country of Anacreon; the temple dedicated to Minerva, at Priene,
by Alexander of Macedon; and the famous temple of Apollo Didymaeus, near
Miletus. However mutilated and decayed these buildings now are, yet surely
every fragment is valuable, which preserves, in some degree, the ideas of sym-
metry and proportion which prevailed at that happy period of taste.
Thus far the Society have thought proper, both in justice to the public, and
to the authors of the following work, to give a short account of the original oc-
casion of the undertaking, and of the manner in which it has been hitherto con-
ducted. They have directed the plates of this specimen to be engraved at their
expense, in hopes that it may encourage the Editors to proceed upon the re-
maining materials of their voyage, which will be put into their hands with that
view.