Ancient Science · Part 18 · Maps · B2
Vitruvius and Pliny the Elder: An Architect’s Advice and an Encyclopedia of Everything
Part 18 of Ancient Science: Vitruvius, writing in Philo’s lifetime, left the only ancient book on architecture, full of advice from testing springs to avoiding lead pipes; Pliny the Elder tried to fit all of nature into one encyclopedia, and died sailing towards Vesuvius. Sophia shows what they got right, what they copied without checking, and how they shaped the future. You should, I recommend using, I suggest that, with Philo, Sophia, Marcos and Demetria.
Tonight, two Romans who wrote down what they knew. The first, Vitruvius, is an architect who has just finished a book for the Emperor Augustus, in your own lifetime, Philo.
A Roman writing about building? I thought the Greeks wrote all the books.
Not any more. And the second, Pliny, is not even born yet. He will try to put the whole of nature into one book, and die trying to see a volcano.
Vitruvius was a Roman architect and military engineer who had worked for Julius Caesar. Around 25 BCE he dedicated to the Emperor Augustus a work in ten books, On Architecture. It is the only book on architecture to survive from the ancient world.
Vitruvius says that a building must be strong, useful and beautiful. He covers everything an architect needs: materials, temples, theatres, baths, houses, water supply, sundials and machines. He says that an architect should know drawing, geometry, history, philosophy, music, medicine, law and astronomy. Much of what we know about Ctesibius comes from him.
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