Fréart, Roland; Evelyn, John; Alberti, Leon Battista; Wotton, Henry [Hrsg.]: A parallel of the ancient architecture with the modern: in a collection of ten principal authors who have written upon the five orders viz. Palladio and Scamozzi, Serlio and Vignola, D. Barbaro and Cataneo, L. B. Alberti and Viola, Bullant and De Lorme, compared with one another ; the three Greek orders, Doric, Ionic, and Corinthian, comprise the first part of this treatise ; and the two Latin, Tuscan and Composita, the latter (London, 1733)

with the Modern*


PART 1

Chap. L
Of the Orders in General
T is sussiciently difsicult to determine precisely what the
Name of Order may fignisy amongft our Architects, though it
be indeed very neceflary to underftand it well. Of ali the
Moderns who have written upon the Five Orders, there is none,
save Scamozgi, who has once remembered to give us the Defi-^
nition 5 and it is in the 1 ft Chapter of his Jecond Tart, Line 42.
where he saith, That it is a kind os Excellency which infinitely adds to
the Shape and Beauty os Buildings, /acred or prophane. But in my Opinion,
he had even as good have held his Peace, as the reft have done, as to have
fpoken in fuch wandring Terms, and with fo little Solidity. The Father
VirtruYms in C. 2. L. 1. calls it Ordonance, and the Term is at present in huge
Vogue amongst our (painters: When they would express the elegant Com-
pofition os a (piece, or the Distribution of Figures in a Hi/tory, they fay,
that the Ordonance is good : Notwithstanding, this is not yet exactly the
Intention of Architects 5 and VitruVms, in Pain to express it to us, adds, That
it is an apt, and regular Difpofition of the Members os a Work^/eparately $ and a Com"
parison os the uniVersal Proportion with Symmetry,. Perault tranflates it, An apt
and regular Di/pofition of the Members of a Work^/eparately, with re/peB to the <Propor~
tion or Symmetry os the whole. Another, peradventure more fubtile and penetrant
than I am, might find out the Myftery of thefe Words, which I con-
fess I comprehend not 5 and therefore it is, that I have transsated them
purely srom the Latin Text Word for Word, that I may the more naturally
propose them to those who {hall defire to profit by them. Daniel Barbara,
who hath given us two excellent Commentaries upon this Author, has been
very industrious to clear this Passage, which yet is not without some
Difficulty. Philander, on the same Chapter, sound out a fliorter Way, to say
nothing at all, and amuses himfelf upon other Matters sar more unneces-
fary : So that to get out of this Labyrinth, we muft even take it in Pieces, and
consider the Things apart 5 that so it may, as ic were, touch our Imaginati-
on, and distindtly form its Ideas in us, which is the Bufinefs we are to en-
quire aster: For the Art of Architecture does not confift in Words 5 the
Vemonftration ought to be fenfible and ocular. 1c is very perfpicuous to all
* thok