DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.8#0174
ί 173 }
were finished, from the ground to the bases of the co-
lumns, in the manner our workmen conceive a continued
pedestal; and between the columns, above it, are a kind
of parapet ballustrades to which Vitruvius gives the
name of podium, and the Italians, pozuolum. And here
lie says, " Sin autem circa aedem ex tribus lateribus
podium faciendum erit, ad id constituatur, uti quadra•,
spirae, trunci, corona?, lysis, ad ipsum stylobatam, qui
erit sub columnas spiris convenient Stylobatam ita
oportet exaequari, uti habeat per medium adjectionem
per scamillos impares, si enim ad libellam dirigetur, al-
veolatus oculo videbitur ; hoc autem uti scannili ad id
convenientes fiant, item in extremo libro forma et de-
monstratio erit descripta-" In English thus,
" But if there is to be a podium on the three sides
of the Temple, the rule is to be, that the plinths, bases,
dadoes, cornices, parting, shall be in the same symmetry
as the stylobate itself (pedestal) under the base of the
column. The stylobate must be so got out, as to have
an addition, by unequal scamilli, in the middle, for if
wrought by a level, it will look like a trench. Now
this shall again be explained with a figure at the end
of the last book, that the scamilli may be adapted to
this purpose."
As this promised figure, with all his other drawings,
is lost, commentators have exerted themselves to disco-
ver what these scamilli impares really are: not so much,
it should seem, on account of the importance and utility
of such a discovery,as the desire of out-doing each other,
like the Greek mathematicians, striving to double the
«rube ; and all, except Baldus, with no better success.
And even Baldus himself, though he hit upon the real
•ievice, as to situation and figure, could not trace out the
Y 2 etymon
were finished, from the ground to the bases of the co-
lumns, in the manner our workmen conceive a continued
pedestal; and between the columns, above it, are a kind
of parapet ballustrades to which Vitruvius gives the
name of podium, and the Italians, pozuolum. And here
lie says, " Sin autem circa aedem ex tribus lateribus
podium faciendum erit, ad id constituatur, uti quadra•,
spirae, trunci, corona?, lysis, ad ipsum stylobatam, qui
erit sub columnas spiris convenient Stylobatam ita
oportet exaequari, uti habeat per medium adjectionem
per scamillos impares, si enim ad libellam dirigetur, al-
veolatus oculo videbitur ; hoc autem uti scannili ad id
convenientes fiant, item in extremo libro forma et de-
monstratio erit descripta-" In English thus,
" But if there is to be a podium on the three sides
of the Temple, the rule is to be, that the plinths, bases,
dadoes, cornices, parting, shall be in the same symmetry
as the stylobate itself (pedestal) under the base of the
column. The stylobate must be so got out, as to have
an addition, by unequal scamilli, in the middle, for if
wrought by a level, it will look like a trench. Now
this shall again be explained with a figure at the end
of the last book, that the scamilli may be adapted to
this purpose."
As this promised figure, with all his other drawings,
is lost, commentators have exerted themselves to disco-
ver what these scamilli impares really are: not so much,
it should seem, on account of the importance and utility
of such a discovery,as the desire of out-doing each other,
like the Greek mathematicians, striving to double the
«rube ; and all, except Baldus, with no better success.
And even Baldus himself, though he hit upon the real
•ievice, as to situation and figure, could not trace out the
Y 2 etymon