DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.5009#0025
MORTAR. '
large quantity of mortar: and the reticulalum, composed of stones,
put and squared, but joined so that, the line of the joining formed a
diagonal, which gave to the walls the appearance of net-work.
Vitruvius says, that this mode of building was the most common in
his time; several examples of it still remain : one may be.seen in
that part of the walls of Borne called the Muro Torto. The Greeks
gave it, the name of dictijotheton, synonymous with net; they also
communicated to the Romans their emplecton. Another structure of
which the Romans made great use, and which was one of the most
durable of all, was that composed of flat tiles. Canina distinguishes
five species of Roman masonry: (1) when the blocks of stone are
laid in alternate courses, lengthwise in one course and crosswise in
the next; this is the most common. (2) When the stones in each
course are laid alternately along and across; this construction was
usual when the walls were to be faced with slabs of marble.
(3) When they were laid entirely lengthwise; (4), entirely cross-
wise. (5) When the courses are alternately higher and lower than
each other, as in the temjjle of Vesta, over the Tiber. The earliest
instances of Roman masonry are to be found in the Career Mamer-
tinus, the Cloaca Maxima, and the Servian walls. They are con-
structed of massive quadrangular hewn stones, placed together
without cement.
Mortar.—The perfection of that of the ancients has jtassed into a
proverb. The Egyptians never emplo3'od it in their great construc-
tions; but other monuments preserve traces of it: the pyramids
were formerly covered with a coating which supposes its use. That
plaster, lime, bitumen were erupted in the arts, is attested by
numerous examples. The Greeks and Etruscans were also acquainted
with it, evidences of which are to be seen in a reservoir at Sparta,
built of stones, cemented together; and in the sepulchral vaults of
Tarquinii, which are plastered with stucco, covered with paintings.
Necessity must have made the use of mortar familiar to every people.
Time, which has hardened it, has caused it to be considered more
perfect than the modern. Its extreme hardness may probably bo
accounted for by merely referring to the circumstance that the long
exposure which it has undergone, in considerable masses, has given
it the opportunity of slowly acquiring the carbonic acid from the
air, upon which its hardness and din-ability depend. The chief
excellence of the mortar of the ancients lay in their knowledge of
the art of mixing lime with sand, more or les> earthy. So scrupulous
were the ancient masons in the mixing and blendiii"; of mortal-, that
the Greeks kept ten men constant!}- employed for a long space of
large quantity of mortar: and the reticulalum, composed of stones,
put and squared, but joined so that, the line of the joining formed a
diagonal, which gave to the walls the appearance of net-work.
Vitruvius says, that this mode of building was the most common in
his time; several examples of it still remain : one may be.seen in
that part of the walls of Borne called the Muro Torto. The Greeks
gave it, the name of dictijotheton, synonymous with net; they also
communicated to the Romans their emplecton. Another structure of
which the Romans made great use, and which was one of the most
durable of all, was that composed of flat tiles. Canina distinguishes
five species of Roman masonry: (1) when the blocks of stone are
laid in alternate courses, lengthwise in one course and crosswise in
the next; this is the most common. (2) When the stones in each
course are laid alternately along and across; this construction was
usual when the walls were to be faced with slabs of marble.
(3) When they were laid entirely lengthwise; (4), entirely cross-
wise. (5) When the courses are alternately higher and lower than
each other, as in the temjjle of Vesta, over the Tiber. The earliest
instances of Roman masonry are to be found in the Career Mamer-
tinus, the Cloaca Maxima, and the Servian walls. They are con-
structed of massive quadrangular hewn stones, placed together
without cement.
Mortar.—The perfection of that of the ancients has jtassed into a
proverb. The Egyptians never emplo3'od it in their great construc-
tions; but other monuments preserve traces of it: the pyramids
were formerly covered with a coating which supposes its use. That
plaster, lime, bitumen were erupted in the arts, is attested by
numerous examples. The Greeks and Etruscans were also acquainted
with it, evidences of which are to be seen in a reservoir at Sparta,
built of stones, cemented together; and in the sepulchral vaults of
Tarquinii, which are plastered with stucco, covered with paintings.
Necessity must have made the use of mortar familiar to every people.
Time, which has hardened it, has caused it to be considered more
perfect than the modern. Its extreme hardness may probably bo
accounted for by merely referring to the circumstance that the long
exposure which it has undergone, in considerable masses, has given
it the opportunity of slowly acquiring the carbonic acid from the
air, upon which its hardness and din-ability depend. The chief
excellence of the mortar of the ancients lay in their knowledge of
the art of mixing lime with sand, more or les> earthy. So scrupulous
were the ancient masons in the mixing and blendiii"; of mortal-, that
the Greeks kept ten men constant!}- employed for a long space of