Riou, Stephen: The Grecian orders of architecture: delineated and explained from the antiquities of Athens ; also the parallels of the orders of Palladio, Scamozzi and Vignola (London, 1768)

os Archit&Bure, 13
It has been imagined, that the sirst architects conceived their ideas of the different characters of
the columns by contemplating the (</) human figure j From a slrong muscular man of athletic sorm
they adopted the solidity (<.*) of the Doric. The gracesul Ionic was suggested by the elegant figure of
a decent (/) matron, and the delicate Corinthian, by the gay person of a chearful (g) virgin. The
different capitals and bases have been thought, in somc mca.si.ire, to represent the dreiles of their heads
and seet, agreeably to their notion who first struck out these allusions.
The three orders delineated under equal heights, but of unequal diameters, will at first sight exhi-
bit, by the different diameters of the columns, the different degrees of solidity that may be allowed
to buildings os equal given heights; these do not readily occur, when, as hath been done by most
authors, the orders are traced out of unequal heights but of equal diameters.
It may often happen that columns of unequal altitudes, without comparing their characters,
are employed in the same front; for example, the greater order may be Corinthian, or any other, and
the dressings for doors and windows, with columns of another mode; sotne modem authors have
objected to this use of different sized columns in the same front, but it is justifiable from the nature
of things, (the companions ceasing) and from examples in the antique; trees of the larger growth
may be supposed to prop up the roof, and others of lesser size may be interposed to sustain the diffe-
rent floors or contignations of an edifice, while the smallest may be used about the windows and
doors: when all these several divisions are finely proportioned, the columns assigned to each will like-
wise bear a just relation, in their several distributions, to the whole. If the height of a column with
its entablature, was to be considercd as the intended height of a wall, the diameter of the column
would give the most suitable thicUnefs according to the order chosen for this purpose ; the thickness
of the wall might be taken, as the nature of the case required, os the greater, the mean, or the less soli-
dity. The height and tbickness of a wall having been sixed by the altitude and diameter of an order,
the same altitude may be taken to give one side of a cube, wherein height, length and breadth, the
three requisite dimensions of an edifice, will be found : thus will an order asiist us to determine the
first and most simple design of apian and its elevation. How these dimensions may afterwards
be diversified, diminished or enlarged, still under the inssuence of the orders, will be readily
comprehended by those who have made these matters the subjest of their careful disquisitions.
P L A T E I.
{i>) Represents the plans, elevations and profiles of the three modes or orders of (/) columns
A, B, C, of unequal diameters included under equal heights, for the consederations as abovemeit-
tioned, to compare at one view, the strong, the mean and the delicate; but sor this purpose it is
also further necessary to give a method of finding the respeftive modulary divisions, by which ex
ratione modulationis, the orders are traced and compared, of whatsoever magnitude may be required.

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(d) Et quserentes quibus rationibus efficcre polTent uti et ad onus serendum estent idonea-, & in aspectu probatam haberent ve-
nustatem: ditncnsi sunt virilis pedis vestigium, St cum invenissent pedem sextam partem elle altitudinis in homine ica in columnam
transtulerunt-

(<■) Ita dorica columns virilis corporis proportioned! &: firmitatem i

venullat

i In asdisiciis prajstare ciepit. Lib. IV. c,

{s) Ita duobusdiscriminibus columnarum inventioncm, unam sine ornatu nudam specie, alteram muliebri sublilirate et ornatu
fvmmeiriaque sunl imitati. Id autem genus quod lones, primo Ionicum est nominatum. Lib. IV. c. [■
(i) Tertlum veroquod Corintbium dicitur, virginalis habet gracilitatis imitationcm; quod virgincs propter itatis teneriiatem
gracilioribus membris sigurata:; effectus recipiunt in ornatu venustiores- Lib, lV. c. i-
{!/) Dispositio autem est rcrum apta collocatio, eleganrque in compositionibus effec"tus operis cum qualitate. Species dispositionis
qux Gticed'icuntur ideai, ha: sunt,. Ichnographia, Orthographia et Scenographia. Ichuographia est circini reguliquc mo-
dice continens usus ex qua capiuntur sormarum in solisarearum descriptiones. Orthograpbia est autejn ere£la front is imago, rno-
diceque piila rationibus operis suturi sigure. Item Scenographia est, srontis et laterurn abseedentium adumbratio, ad circinique
centrum omnium linearum responsu3. Lib. I. c. 2.
(ij E Columnarum enim sormationibus, trium gencrutn safl^ sunt nominat'iones, D01 ica, Ionica, Corinchia. Lib. IV*. c- 1 ■
D The