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Julian of Ascalon's Treatise of Construction and Design Rules from Sixth-Century Palestine

2001; University of California Press; Volume: 60; Issue: 1 Linguagem: Inglês

10.2307/991676

2150-5926

Besim S. Hakim,

Byzantine Studies and History

This is a study of a treatise by Julian of Ascalon, an architect and a native of the Byzantine Palestinian coastal city of Ascalon and a contemporary of the Byzantine emperor Justinian I (A. D. 483-565; reigned 527-565). There is some consensus that the treatise was written during the years 531-533, when the codification of Roman law that resulted in the influential Corpus Juris Civilis was undertaken upon Justinian's order. Julian's treatise is a compilation of construction and design rules that address the prevention of nuisances and potential damages to proximate neighbors resulting from building activities associated with change and growth in the built environment. The influence of the treatise endured intermittently for almost 1,400 years, first in Constantinople, then in the eastern territories of the Byzantine empire, and later in some Slavic countries; in Greece it survived well into the twentieth century. This is the first study to analyze the rationale and technical aspects of the prescriptions and design rules in Julian's important work.