Tracing the Ebb and Flow of de Architectura 8
2016; Johns Hopkins University Press; Volume: 49; Issue: 2 Linguagem: Inglês
10.1353/are.2016.0019
ISSN1080-6504
Autores Tópico(s)Architecture and Computational Design
ResumoTracing the ebb and flow of De Architectura 8 1 'Later, a measure (called the quinaria) that was based neither on the inch nor on either of the digits came into use in the City, supplanting earlier measures, either through Agrippa or through the plumbers working under the direction of Vitruvius the architect.'(Frontinus, Aq. 25) 'Vitruvius' eighth book, on water, is not one of his best.It is bitty and discursive… a sloppy compilation of borrowings, largely from Greek writers [which] shows little originality, clear-mindedness or intelligence on Vitruvius' part.His excuse must be that he was old and tired…' (Lewis 1999.145 and 171-2) When it is discussed at all (which is not often), the eighth book of Vitruvius' De Architectura is frequently approached as something of an anomaly, an interruption almost to the rest of the treatise.Not only does it revolve around the provision of a city's water supply (not one of 'the three parts of architecture' outlined by Vitruvius at DA 1.3.1 2 ); it digresses beyond what even an ancient reader might expect an account of civic hydraulics to cover, ranging into philosophy, natural history, geography and paradoxography as it discusses different water types and their weird and wonderful properties.It is a book that surprises both disciplinary and generic expectations in other words, even more than Vitruvius' other books.In addition, it has had the misfortune to disappoint many an archaeologist and historian of technology, 1 I am grateful to
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