Vitruvius on Architecture

Approximately 2,025 years ago, an aged Roman architect named Vitruvius wrote down on ten scrolls everything he knew about architecture. He presented this work, known today as "Ten Books on Architecture," to Emperor Augustus in the hope of changing what he perceived as a rampant lack of professionalism and educational rigor in the practice of architecture. The "Ten Books," the most comprehensive architectural book written in antiquity and the only such work to survive, is a seminal volume in Western culture and continues to be an important resource. "Viturvius on Architecture" presents not only a new translation of the five books most relevant to contemporary architecture but also new drawings and watercolors that illustrate, for the first time since ancient days, Vitruvis's methods of proportion and composition. Architect and educator Thomas Gordon Smith re-created these finely detailed illustrations directly from the text. Also included are many photographs of historic architecture from Greece, Italy, Turkey, and throughout the Mediterranean region. This new edition of an ancient tome is intended for practical application, as an indispensable reference for classical studies, and as an incontrovertible example of the enduring value of the architecture of antiquity for contemporary education and practice.

Thomas Gordon Smith is a professor at the School of Architecture at the University of Notre Dame and principal of his own classical architectural firm, Thomas Gordon Smith Architects. He is the author of Classical Architecture: Rule and Invention.


From the Hardcover edition.