Our ancestors, both wisely and usefully, instituted the handing down of their thoughts to posterity by the records of commentaries, so that these should not perish, but, growing in the single ages by volumes put forth, they might come step by step, in the antiquities, to the highest subtlety of the disciplines. Therefore not middling but unbounded thanks are to be given them, because they did not, in jealous silence, pass these things over, but took care that the thoughts of all kinds be handed down to memory by their writings. §1
For if they had not done so, we could not have known what was done at Troy, nor what Thales, Democritus, Anaxagoras, Xenophanes, and the rest of the natural philosophers thought concerning the nature of things, and what bounds Socrates, Plato, Aristotle, Zeno, Epicurus, and the other philosophers set for men for the conduct of life, nor what things Croesus, Alexander, Darius, and the rest of the kings did, and by what reasonings they did them, had not our ancestors, by the collections of their precepts, carried forth the memories of all things to posterity in commentaries. §2
Therefore, as thanks are to be given to these, so, on the contrary, those who, stealing the writings of them, put them forth as their own, are to be vituperated; and those who lean not on their own thoughts but, violating those of others by envious manners, boast, are not only to be rebuked, but, because they have lived in an impious manner, are also to be condemned by penalty. Nor are such things reported not to have been more scrupulously avenged by the ancients. What the issues of those judgments were, it is not alien to set out as they have been handed down to us. §3
The Attalid kings, induced by the great sweetness of philology, when they had established an outstanding library at Pergamum for common delight, then likewise Ptolemy, stirred with boundless zeal and zeal of desire, strove to contrive at Alexandria, no less industriously, by the same pattern. When, however, he had perfected it with highest diligence, he did not think that enough unless he took care to have it increased by propagations of seed. So he dedicated games to the Muses and Apollo, and, as for athletes, so for victors in general writings, he established prizes and honors. §4
These things so instituted, as the games were at hand, judges learned in letters were to be chosen to approve them. The king, when he had already selected six from the citizens, and was not able so quickly to find a seventh suitable, referred it to those who had charge of the library, and asked whether they knew of anyone ready for the task. They said there was a certain Aristophanes, who with the greatest zeal and the greatest diligence daily read through all the books in order. And so at the assembly of the games, when seats apart had been distributed for the judges, with the rest Aristophanes, summoned, sat in the place which had been designated for him. §5
When, the poets being led in order to the contest, the writings were being recited, the whole people, by their signs, warned the judges which they approved. So when the sentences were asked of the several judges, six of them said one thing, and gave to him whom they most observed to have pleased the multitude the first prize, to the next the second. Aristophanes, however, when his sentence was asked, ordered that one to be declared first who had pleased the people least. §6
When the king and all indignantly stirred, he arose, and, by asking, got leave to be permitted to speak. So, with silence made, he taught that one of these was the only poet, and the others had recited the works of others; that those who judged ought to approve not thefts but writings. The people marveling and the king doubting, relying on his memory, from certain cabinets he brought out unbounded volumes, and, comparing them with the recited pieces, he compelled the poets themselves to confess the thefts. So the king ordered suit to be brought against them for theft, and dismissed them, condemned, with ignominy; but Aristophanes he adorned with most ample gifts, and set him over the library. §7
In following years Zoilus, from Macedonia, who adopted the cognomen Homeromastix (scourge of Homer), came to Alexandria, and recited to the king writings of his, compared against the Iliad and Odyssey. But Ptolemy, when he noticed that the parent of the poets and chief of all philology was being vexed in his absence, and that he, whose writings are looked up to by all peoples, was being disparaged by this man, indignant, gave him no answer. Zoilus, when he had lingered long in the kingdom, pressed by want, sent to the king, asking that something be bestowed on him. §8
The king is said to have answered that Homer, who had died a thousand years before, nourished many thousands of men for eternal time; so too ought the man who professed himself of better talent to be able to nourish not one but many. And the sum of his death is variously recorded as that of a parricide condemned. For some have written that he was fixed to a cross by Philadelphus; others, that stones were cast at him at Chios; others, that at Smyrna he was flung alive into a pyre. Whichever of these befell him, he, deserving, got a fitting penalty. For it does not seem otherwise to be his deserving, who cites those whose answer, what they thought when writing, cannot be produced in person. §9
I, however, Caesar, neither, with others' titles changed and my name interposed, bring forth that body, nor have I set about to approve myself by disparaging any one's thoughts. But to all writers I give unbounded thanks, because, gathering out of the age the extraordinary industries of talents, with abundance they have prepared supplies, one of one kind, another of another, whence we, as from springs drawing water and bringing it for our own purposes, have more fluent and more ready faculties for writing; and, trusting in such authors, we dare to prepare new institutions. §10
Therefore, since I have noticed their approaches prepared for the reasonings of my own plan, taking from thence, I began to go forward. And first, Agatharchus at Athens, when Aeschylus was teaching tragedy, made a stage, and left a commentary on it. From this Democritus and Anaxagoras were reminded to write on the same matter: how, with the eyes' line of sight and the extension of rays set at a certain point as a center, the lines ought to correspond by natural reasoning, so that from an uncertain object certain images of buildings may, in the paintings of stages, render an appearance, and things figured on straight and flat fronts may seem some receding, others projecting. §11
Afterwards Silenus published a volume on the symmetries of the Doric. Theodorus, on the Doric temple of Juno at Samos. Chersiphron and Metagenes, on the Ionic Diana at Ephesus. Pytheos, on the Ionic shrine of Minerva at Priene. Likewise Ictinus and Carpion, on the Doric temple of Minerva which is on the Acropolis at Athens. Theodorus of Phocaea, on the tholos at Delphi. Philo, on the symmetries of sacred temples, and on the armory which he made at the harbor of Piraeus. Hermogenes, on the Ionic temple of Diana, pseudodipteral, at Magnesia, and of Father Liber, monopteros, at Teos. Likewise Arcesius, on the Corinthian symmetries, and on the Ionic temple of Asclepius at Tralles (which also he is said to have built with his own hand). Of the Mausoleum, Satyrus and Pytheos, to whom good fortune conferred the greatest and highest gift. §12
Their arts are judged to have praises of the noblest, flourishing through all time, and they furnished outstanding works by the schemes they conceived. For to the single sides, single artists took their parts in rivalry, to adorn and to win approval: Leochares, Bryaxis, Scopas, Praxiteles, and some think also Timotheus, whose eminent excellence of art brought it about that the fame of that work reached the seven spectacles. §13
Besides, many less noble wrote precepts of symmetries: as Nexaris, Theocydes, Demophilos, Pollis, Leonidas, Silanion, Melampus, Sarnacus, Euphranor. No less on machines: as Diades, Archytas, Archimedes, Ctesibius, Nymphodorus, Philo of Byzantium, Diphilus, Democles, Charias, Polyidus, Pyrrhus, Agesistratus. Out of their commentaries, what I noticed to be useful for these matters, collected into one body, I have compiled; and the more especially because I noticed that in that matter many volumes have been put forth by the Greeks, by ours extremely few. Fuficius, doubtless, first instituted the publication of a volume on these things; likewise Terentius Varro, in his nine disciplines one on architecture; Publius Septimius, two. §14
In this kind of writing no one seems to have devoted himself further, although there had been even among the ancient citizens great architects who could have written no less elegantly. For at Athens, the architects Antistates, Callaeschros, Antimachides, and Pormus established foundations for a temple of Olympian Jupiter which Pisistratus was making; but after his death, on account of the interruption of the commonwealth, they left what was begun. And so about four hundred years after, king Antiochus promised the outlay on that work; then Cossutius, a Roman citizen, with great dexterity and the highest knowledge, nobly made architecture the magnitude of the cella, the disposition of the columns round about it dipterally, and the distribution of the architraves and the rest of the ornaments to symmetry. But this work is noted not only commonly but also among the few for magnificence. §15
For in four places are arrangements of sacred buildings adorned with marble works, from which, most properly, by their names, the most illustrious fame names them. Of these, the excellences and the prudent preparation of thoughts have their respect in the ceremony of the gods. First, the temple of Diana at Ephesus was instituted in Ionic kind by Chersiphron of Knossos and his son Metagenes, which later Demetrius, a slave of Diana herself, and Paeonius of Ephesus, are said to have finished. At Miletus, of Apollo, likewise in Ionic symmetries, the same Paeonius, and Daphnis of Miletus, established. At Eleusis, the cella of Ceres and Proserpina, of immense magnitude, Ictinus in the Doric manner, without outer columns, wove together for the ease of those attending sacrifices. §16
This cella afterwards, when Demetrius of Phalerum ruled Athens, Philo, placing columns before the temple in front, made prostyle. Thus with the vestibule enlarged, he gave ease to the initiates, and added to the work supreme authority. At Athens, moreover, the Olympieum, of ample preparation of modules in Corinthian symmetries and proportions, as has been written above, Cossutius is remembered to have undertaken to build, of whom no commentary has been found. Nor, however, are writings on these matters to be desired only from Cossutius, but also from G. Mucius, who, trusting in great knowledge, perfected the Marian temple of Honor and Virtue, with the cella's symmetries of columns and architraves, by lawful institutions of art. If that had been of marble, so that it should have, as from art, subtlety, so from magnificence and expense, authority, it would be named among the first and highest works. §17
Therefore since our ancients too are found to have been no less great architects than the Greeks, and in our memory sufficiently many, yet of these few have published precepts, I have not thought one should be silent, but have thought best to set forth the single matters disposed by single volumes. Therefore since in the sixth volume I have written out the reasonings of private buildings, in this, which holds the seventh number, I shall set forth of finishes, by what reasonings they may have both beauty and firmness. §18
And first I shall begin with the foundation (ruderatio), which holds the principles of finishes, so that the reasoning of the consolidation may be observed with care and the greatest foresight. If the pavement is to be laid on level ground, let it be tried whether the ground is entirely solid, and so let it be leveled, and the rubble be laid on with a bedding. But if the place shall have been filled in wholly or in part, let it be solidified with the greatest care by rammers. In framed floors, however, it must diligently be observed that no wall which does not reach to the top be built up under the pavement, but rather slackened so that it have above it the boarding overhanging. For when it goes up solid, as the frame dries or sags, being settled, the wall, abiding in the solidity of its structure, necessarily makes cracks in the pavements on right and left along itself. §19
Likewise care is to be taken that boards of aesculus be not mixed with oak, because oak-boards, as soon as they take up moisture, twist themselves, making cracks in the pavements. But if aesculus shall not be had, and necessity compels, on account of poverty, oak boards may be used, if thus done: let them be cut thinner. For the less they prevail, the more readily, being fastened with nails, they will be held; then in each joist, at the extreme parts, two nails shall fix the boards, so that no side can, by twisting, raise angles. For from cerrus or beech or farnus, none can endure to age. When the boarding is done, if there shall be fern, or if not, straw be laid under, so that the material may be defended from the defects of lime. §20
Then above, let there be laid a bedding of stone not less than fill-the-hand. With the bedding laid on, if the rubble is new, let one part lime be mixed with three; if it is reused, let five to two give the answer of mixture. Then let the rubble be laid on, and, with wooden mallets, a company having been introduced, let it be solidified by frequent ramming; and let it be made not less than nine inches thick when finished. Above, let the nucleus from pounded tile be laid, of a mixture of one part lime to three, not less than six inches thick in the pavement. Above the nucleus, at rule and level, let the pavement be built, whether sectilia or tesserae. §21
When these have been made and have their slopes by their build, let them be so rubbed that if they are sectilia, no steps project in the shield-pattern or triangles or squares or honeycombs, but the composition of the joints have a plane direction among themselves. If the structure be of tesserae, let these all have equal angles. For when the angles are not all equally flat, the rubbing will not be exact, as it ought. Likewise testaceous herring-bone (spicata) Tiburtine must be diligently exacted, so that they have no hollows nor projecting bumps, but be stretched and rubbed to the rule. Above, when the rubbing with levelings and polishings is done, let marble be sprinkled in, and above a coat of lime and sand be laid. §22
Pavements out in the open must above all be made fit, because framings growing with moisture or shrinking with dryness, or settling by sagging, moving, make defects in the pavements; besides, frosts and hoar-frosts do not suffer them to remain entire. So if necessity compels, that they may be made as little faulty as possible, it must thus be done. When the boarding has been laid, above let another boarding be strewn transversely and fixed with nails, and let it furnish to the framing a double protection. Then into new rubble let a third part of pounded tile be mixed, and two parts lime to five of the mixture give the answer. §23
The bedding made, let the rubble be laid, and, pounded, not be less than a foot thick. Then, with the nucleus laid, as written above, let the pavement be built of large tessera, cut about two inches, having a slope of two inches to ten feet; and if it be well tempered and rightly rubbed, it will be safe from all defects. And that the material between the joints may not suffer from frost, let it each year, before winter, be saturated with olive-lees. So it will not suffer the hoar-frost of frost to be received into it. §24
But if it shall seem to need to be done more carefully, let two-foot tiles be joined together above the rubble, material strewn beneath, having, at each of their joints, little channels of a finger's width cut in. When, these being joined, they are filled with lime kneaded with oil, and the pressed joints are rubbed together. So the lime clinging in the channels, by hardening and by setting solid, will not allow water or anything else to pass through the joints. When this has been so spread, above it let the nucleus be laid and beaten by the cutting of rods. And above, let a pavement be built either of large tessera or of spicate testaceous work at the slopes above written; and when they shall have been so made, they will not quickly be spoiled. §25
When we have departed from the care of pavements, then stucco-works (albaria) must be unfolded. That will be right if clods of the best lime will long before the work be slaked, so that if any clod has been little baked in the kiln, in the long slaking it may, by the liquid, be compelled to effervesce by one tenor. For when not thoroughly slaked but fresh is taken, when laid on, having latent raw pebbles, it sends out blisters. The pebbles of the work, when they have been thoroughly slaked, dissolve and break the polishings of the plaster. §26
When the reasoning of slaking has been observed, and it has been prepared with the more care for the work, let an adze be taken, and, as timber is hewn, so let the lime in the slaking pit be chopped. If pebbles strike it, it is not well tempered. When it is withdrawn dry and bare, it will show that lime to be faint and thirsty. But when it is fat, and rightly slaked, about that iron tool, clinging like glue, by every reasoning it will approve itself to be tempered. Then, with machines prepared, the arrangements of the vaults in the rooms shall be unfolded, unless these are to be ornamented with coffers. §27
When therefore the reasoning of vaults is demanded, so must it be done: Straight battens are to be disposed, standing apart from one another not more than two feet; and these chiefly of cypress, because fir is quickly spoiled by rot and by age. And when these battens have been distributed to the shape of the circle, with chains disposed, whether to the framing or to the roofs, let them be closely bound by iron nails, and let those chains be made of that material to which neither rot nor age nor moisture can hurt, that is, of box, juniper, olive, oak, cypress, and other similar, except oak, since by twisting it makes cracks in the works in which it is placed. §28
The battens disposed, then with cord of Spanish broom let Greek reeds be bound to them, as the form demands. Likewise above the vault let material mixed from lime and sand be laid from time to time, that any drops falling from the framings or roofs may be caught. But if there shall not be a supply of Greek reed, let slender ones be gathered from marshes, and, with thongs or cord at equal length and equal thickness, tied by bindings (provided they stand apart by no more than two feet between two knots), let these be bound to the battens by cords, as written above, and little wooden pegs be driven into them. §29
All the rest let be carried out as written above. With the vaults disposed and interwoven, let the underside of their ceiling be trowelled, then sanded, afterwards polished with powdered marble. When the vaults are polished, cornices should be set beneath them, which should be made as fine and subtle as possible; for when they are large, by weight they are drawn down, nor can they sustain themselves. In these no gypsum ought to be mixed, but from powdered marble let them be drawn along in one tenor, so that by setting too quickly it may not impede the work drying uniformly. Also in vaults, the ancients' arrangements are to be avoided, because their cornice-figures, spread in planes, overhanging by heavy weight, are dangerous. §30
Cornices are either plain or carved. In rooms where fire or many lights are to be placed, they ought to be plain, so that they may the more easily be wiped. In summer rooms and exedrae, where smoke is very little and soot cannot harm, carved ones are to be made. For always white work, on account of the pride of its brightness, contracts smoke not only from its own but also from other buildings. §31
The cornices unfolded, let the walls be trowelled as roughly as possible; and afterwards, while the trowelling is drying, let the directions of the sanded coat be shaped, so that the lengths be exacted to rule and line, the heights to perpendicular, the angles to the square. For so the look of the plasters in paintings will be corrected. Drying, let it be laid on again, and a third time. So, the directing of sanded coats being more grounded, the solidity of the stucco will be the firmer to age. §32
When, beside the first trowelling, it has been shaped with no less than three coats of sand, then directions of coarse marble must be worked over, while the material is so tempered that when worked it does not cling to the trowel, but the iron comes out clean from the mortar. With the coarse coat laid on and drying, let a middle coat be worked over. When it has been worked up and well rubbed, let a finer one be laid on. Thus when the walls have been set solid with three coats of sand and likewise of marble, neither cracks nor any other defect can they take into themselves. §33
But also, a solidity grounded by the working of trowels and polished by the firm whiteness of the marble, with colors laid on together with polishings, will express bright splendors. Colors, indeed, when diligently laid on on moist plaster, for that reason do not let go, but are perpetually enduring, because the lime, made in kilns by the liquor driven off, rare by vanishings, compelled by fasting, seizes into itself whatever matters chance to touch it; and, by mixtures of other powers collected as seeds or principles, solidifying together, by whatever members it is formed, when it has become dry, it is brought back so as to seem to have proper qualities of its own kind. §34
Therefore stuccoes which have been rightly made do not become rough with age, nor when wiped do they remit their colors, unless they have been laid too little diligently and on dry. When therefore in walls stuccoes are made as written above, they will be able to have firmness, splendor, and a virtue enduring to antiquity. But when one coat of sand and one of powdered marble has been laid, its thinness, being less strong, is easily broken, nor by reason of its slight thickness will it hold the splendor proper to polishings. §35
For as a silvered mirror of a thin lamina has uncertain and not vigorous remittings of splendor, but that which has been made of a solid tempering, receiving into itself with firm strengths the polishing, renders bright and certain images in sight to the beholders, so stuccoes which are drawn from thin material are not only cracked but also quickly fade; but those which, founded on the solidity of sanded and marble coats, are thick in body, are, when worked up by frequent polishings, not only bright, but also reflect to the beholders images expressed from that work. §36
Greek plasterers, indeed, making firm works not only by these reasonings, but also, mortar set out, with lime and sand fused there, a company of men being introduced, with wooden levers pound the material, and so use it when brought to the contest. So some, cutting crusts from old walls, use them as abaci; and the stuccoes themselves, by the divisions of abaci and of mirrors, have projecting expressions round about themselves. §37
But if stuccoes are to be made on wattled walls, where inevitably cracks are made in the uprights and cross-pieces, because, when they are smeared with mud, they necessarily receive moisture; but when they dry, being thinned out, they make cracks in the stuccoes: in order that this may not happen, this will be the plan. When the whole wall has been smeared with mud, then in that work reeds let be fastened throughout with brass-headed nails; then again with mud laid on, if the first were fixed to the cross-pieces, let the second be fixed to the uprights; and so, as written above, let the sanded coat and marble and all the stucco be laid on. Thus the continuity of the reeds in the walls, a double one with the transverse reeds fixed, will suffer neither segmentations nor any crack to be made. §38
With what reasonings in dry places stuccoes ought to be made, I have said; now how, in moist places, polishings may be unfolded so that they can abide without defect, I will set forth. And first in rooms that are on the level: on the bottom of the pavement, about three feet high, instead of sanded coat, let tile be trowelled on and shaped, so that those parts of the stuccoes may not be injured by moisture. But if any wall has perpetual moisture, let it be recessed a little, and another, thin, be built, standing apart from it as the matter allows; and between the two walls let a drain be led, lower than the level of the room, having nostrils to the open place. Likewise, when it has been built up to height, let spiracles be left. For if moisture has no exits through nostrils at the bottom and at the top, it will no less spread itself in the new structure. With these done, let the wall be trowelled with tile and shaped, and then polished with stucco. §39
But if the place does not suffer a structure to be made, let channels be made, and nostrils go out to an open place. Then two-foot tiles on one side be placed above the margin of the channel, on the other side let piers be built under with bessales (two-thirds-foot bricks), upon which the angles of two tiles can sit, and let them so stand off from the wall as to be no more than a palm apart. Then upon them let erect mammate tiles be fixed from the bottom to the top at the wall, whose inner parts let be pitched more carefully, that they may spurn moisture from themselves. Likewise at the bottom and at the top above the vault, let them have spiracles. §40
Then with lime and water tempered, let them be whitewashed, that the testaceous trowelling may not be repelled by them. For, on account of the fasting which is from the kilns, they cannot take it nor hold it, unless lime beneath glues and compels them to come together. The trowelling laid on, instead of sand let tile be shaped, and all the rest as written above in the reasonings of stuccoes be completed. §41
Polishings themselves ought to have their own reasonings of decor in adornment, that they have dignities both fit for their places and not alien to the distinctions of the kinds. In winter triclinia, not useful are the composition of megalography nor the subtle adornment of cornice-work on vaults, because these are corrupted both by the smoke of the fire and by the frequent soot of lamps. In these, above the podia, black grounds are to be worked and polished, with yellow or red wedges interposed. With the vault made plain and polished, even of pavements it will not be displeasing, if anyone will consider, the apparatus of the Greeks, not at all sumptuous and useful for the use of winter rooms. §42
For below the level of the triclinium, about two feet in depth, it is dug out; and, the ground being rammed, either rubble or testaceous pavement is laid on, so sloped that in a channel it has nostrils. Then, with charcoals heaped on and closely trodden, a material mixed of sand, lime, and ash of a half-foot thickness is laid on. At rule and level, at the topmost level the crust being washed off with a whetstone, it is rendered with the appearance of a black pavement. Thus at their banquets, whatever is spilled from cups and spittings falls and at once dries up; and those who turn about there serving, even if barefoot, do not receive cold from this kind of pavement. §43
For the other rooms, that is, spring, autumn, and summer, and also for atria and peristyles, there have been from the ancients established, from certain things, certain reasonings of pictures. For a picture is an image of that which is or can be, as of a man, a building, a ship, and the other things, from whose finished and definite forms the examples are taken with figured likeness. Therefore the ancients who instituted the beginnings of finishes, imitated first the varieties and placements of marble crusts, then the various distributions of cornices and yellow wedges amongst themselves. §44
Afterwards they proceeded also to imitate the figures of buildings, the eminent projections of columns and of pediments; in the open places, as exedrae, on account of the amplitude of the walls, to designate the fronts of stages in the tragic, comic, or satyric manner; and in walks, on account of the spaces of length, to adorn with varieties of topia, expressing images from certain proprieties of places. For are painted ports, promontories, shores, rivers, springs, channels, shrines, groves, mountains, flocks, shepherds; in some places also are marked out megalographies, having the images of the gods or ordered unfoldings of fables, not less than Trojan battles or the wanderings of Ulysses through the places, and the other things which by similar reasonings are produced from the nature of things. §45
But these things, which were taken as examples from true things, are now by faulty manners disapproved. For there are painted on stuccoes rather monsters than certain images of defined things. For in place of columns are set reeds; in place of pediments, striped ornaments with curly leaves and volutes; likewise candelabra sustaining figures of little shrines; above the pediments of these, from roots, rising, with volutes, little stalks, many, bearing without reason little figures sitting; no less stalks with half-figures, some of human, some of beast heads. §46
These things neither are, nor can be, nor ever were. Therefore new manners have forced evil judges of inertia to despise the virtues of the arts. For how can a reed really hold up a roof, or a candelabrum hold up the ornaments of a pediment, or a stalk so slender and soft hold up a seated little figure, or, from roots and stalks, half-figures and flowers be produced? But men, seeing these false things, do not reproach them but are delighted, nor consider whether any of them can be or not. But minds darkened by infirm judgments are not able to approve what can be with authority and reason of decor. For paintings ought not to be approved which are not like truth; nor if they are made elegant by art, should for that reason right judgment at once be passed on them, unless they have certain reasonings of argument unfolded without offenses. §47
For indeed at Tralles, when Apaturius of Alabanda had fashioned with an elegant hand a scene in a small theater (which among them is called ἐκκλησιαστήριον), and had made in it columns, figures of centaurs sustaining architraves, the round roofs of tholoi, the prominent turnings of pediments, and coronas adorned with lions' heads (which altogether have the reasoning of gutters from roofs), besides above this an episcaenium, in which there were painted the half-pediments of tholoi of pronaoi, and every varied picture of the roof; and so, since the look of that scene, on account of its roughness, enticed the sight of all, and they were now ready to approve this work, then Licymnius the mathematician came forth and said that the Alabandians were reckoned acute enough in all civil affairs, but on account of one small defect of unseemliness they were judged senseless, because in their gymnasium all the statues are of pleaders of causes, in the forum holding discs, or running, or playing ball. §48
Thus an unseemly state of statues among the properties of places added, publicly, a defect of reputation to the city. Let us see now, in like manner, whether Apaturius's scene shall make us too Alabandians or Abderites. For which of you can have homes above the roofs of tiles, or columns, or the unfoldings of pediments? For these things are placed above the framing, not above the roofs of tiles. If then we in paintings approve things which in truth cannot have the reasoning of the done, we shall approach those cities too which for such faults are judged senseless. §49
And so Apaturius did not dare to reply against, but took away the scene, and afterwards, having corrected it to the reasoning of truth, approved it when changed. Would that the immortal gods had brought it about that Licymnius should revive and correct this folly, and the wandering institutions of stuccoes. But why false reasoning should conquer truth it will not be alien to set forth. For what the ancients, spending labor and industry, strove to approve by arts, that now they pursue by colors and by their elegant aspect, and, so that the authority which the workman's subtlety added to works may not be missed, now the owner's expense effects it. §50
For who of the ancients does not appear to have used cinnabar sparingly, as a medicament? But now, commonly, very often, whole walls are covered with it. Chrysocolla, purple, Armenium are added to it. These indeed, when laid on, even if not artfully placed, return gleaming sights of the eyes, and, because they are precious, are excepted by laws that they be furnished by the owner, not by the contractor. §51
What I have been able to advise that one may withdraw from error in stucco-work, I have sufficiently set forth; now on preparations, as I have been able to consider, I will speak. And first, since of lime it has been said at the beginning, now I will put forth of marble. Marble is not produced of the same kind in all regions, but in some places clods are born having transparent flakes like salt, which, pounded and ground, give usefulness to the works. In places where these supplies are not, the concrete of marble, or chips, as they are called, which marble-workers throw off from their works, are pounded and ground; and when it is sifted, are used in works. In other places, as between the boundaries of Magnesia and Ephesus, there are places whence prepared marble is dug, which it is not necessary to grind or sift, but it is as subtle as if it had been pounded by hand and sifted. §52
But of colors, some are by themselves born in certain places and thence are dug; some are perfected from other things by treatments or tempering of mixtures, so that they give in works the same utility. §53
First we shall set forth those which, being born by themselves, are dug, as sil, which the Greeks call ὤχρα. This is found in many places, as also in Italy, but that which was of Attica was best; for which reason now it is not had, because at Athens, when they had slave-families in the silver-mines, then they dug caves under ground for finding silver. When there a vein was chanced upon, they followed after the silver no less; and so the ancients used an extraordinary supply of sil for the polishing of works. §54
Likewise red ochres are taken copiously from many places, but the best from a few, as at Sinope in Pontus, and in Egypt, and in the Balearic islands in Spain, no less also in Lemnos, whose island's revenues the Senate and Roman People granted to the Athenians to enjoy. §55
Paraetonium has its name from the very places whence it is dug. In the same manner melinum, whose mine is said to be in the island Melos of the Cyclades. §56
Green earth likewise is born in several places, but the best at Smyrna. This the Greeks call θεοδότειον, because a man named Theodotus was the first upon whose estate that kind of earth was found. §57
Orpiment, which in Greek is called ἀρσενικόν, is dug in Pontus. Sandarac, likewise, in several places, but the best at Pontus, near the river Hypanis, has its mine. §58
Now I will proceed to unfold the reasonings of cinnabar (minium). It is recorded to have been first found in the fields of the Cilbiani near Ephesus, the matter and the reasoning of which have sufficiently great wonders. For there is dug a clod, as it is called, before treatments bring it to cinnabar, a vein like that of iron, rather reddish in color, having about it a red dust. When it is dug, from the blows of the iron tools it gives forth frequent tears of quicksilver, which are at once gathered by the diggers. §59
When these clods are gathered, in the workshop, because of the fullness of moisture, they are thrown into the furnace that they may dry; and the smoke which from them is raised by the vapor of the fire, when it has settled on the floor of the furnace, is found to be quicksilver. Once the clods are taken out, those drops which remain, on account of their smallness, cannot be gathered, but they are swept into a vessel of water, and there among themselves they come together and coalesce into one. This, when it is of four sextarii in measure, when weighed, will be found to be a hundred pounds. §60
When it is confused in a vessel, if above it be placed a weight of stone of a hundred pounds, it floats on the top, nor can that liquid, by its weight, be pressed down, nor crushed, nor scattered. With the hundred-pound weight taken off, if there be placed a scruple of gold, it will not float, but will be pressed down to the bottom of itself. Thus not by amplitude of weight but by the kind of each thing the gravity is, not to be denied. §61
It is ready for use in many things. For neither silver nor bronze can rightly be gilt without it. And when gold is interwoven in a garment, and that garment is worn out by age and cannot be used for dignity, the scraps are placed in earthen vessels and burnt above a fire. That ash is thrown into water, and quicksilver is added to it. This, however, takes up all the flakes of gold into itself and compels them to come together. With the water poured off, when it is poured into a cloth and there pressed with the hands, the silver slips out, through the rareness of the cloth, because of its liquidity, and the gold, compressed into mass, is found clean within. §62
I will now return to the tempering of cinnabar. For the clods themselves, when they are dry, are pounded in iron mortars, and with frequent washings and bakings, their dregs being left behind, the colors come out. When, therefore, by the loss of the quicksilver, the natural virtues which it had in itself have gone out, its nature is made tender, and weak in strength. §63
And so when it is laid on in the stuccoes of finishing of rooms, it abides without defect in its color. But in open places, that is, in peristyles or exedrae, or the rest of that kind, where the sun and moon can send in their brightness and rays, when a place is touched by them, it is spoiled, and losing the virtue of its color, is blackened. So, among many others, even Faberius the scribe, when on the Aventine he had wished to have a house elegantly finished, covered all the peristyle walls with cinnabar; these, after thirty days, were become of ungraceful and varied color. So for cinnabar he contracted for other colors to be laid on. §64
But if anyone is more refined and wishes the cinnabar finish to retain its color, when the wall is finished and dry, let him lay on Pontic wax melted by the fire and tempered with a little oil by brush, then, with charcoals arranged in an iron vessel, let him by its nearness compel the wax, with the wall, to sweat by heating; and, that it may be uniform, let him then polish it with candle and clean linens, as naked marble statues are treated. §65
This in Greek is called γάνωσις. Thus the protecting rampart of Pontic wax does not suffer either the splendor of the moon or the rays of the sun, by licking, to take away the color from these polishings. The workshops, which had been in the mines of the Ephesians, are now transferred to Rome, because later that kind of vein was found in the regions of Spain, whence clods are carried and are taken care of at Rome through the publicans. These workshops are between the temple of Flora and that of Quirinus. §66
Cinnabar is corrupted by admixed lime. So, if one wishes to try that it is without fault, thus must it be done. Let an iron plate be taken; on it let cinnabar be placed, and let it be put at the fire until the plate is red-hot. When by the heat the color has changed and is black, let the plate be removed from the fire; and, so cooled, if it be restored to its former color, it will be approved as without fault; but if it remain of a black color, it will signify itself to be corrupted. §67
What I could bring to hand about cinnabar I have said. Chrysocolla is brought from Macedonia; it is dug from those places which are nearest the copper mines. Armenium and indicum are indicated by the very names by which they are brought forth. §68
I will now proceed to those which by treatments of other kinds or by temperings of mixtures, being changed, receive the proprieties of colors; and first I shall set forth of the black, the use of which in works has great necessities, so that it may be known how with fixed reasonings of art it may be prepared for tempering. §69
For a tank is built like a laconicum, and subtly polished with marble and leveled. Before it is made a little furnace, having nostrils into the laconicum, and its furnace-mouth is closed with great diligence that no flame may escape. In the furnace resin is placed. The force of fire, by burning, compels it to send through the nostrils into the laconicum soot, which adheres on the walls and the curvature of the vault. This, gathered, is in part composed with gum worked up, for the use of book-ink; the rest the plasterers use on walls, mixing glue. §70
But if these supplies shall not be prepared, thus one must cope with necessity, lest the work be detained by waiting. Let brushwood or splints of torch-wood be burnt; when they are charcoal, let them be extinguished; then let them be ground in a mortar with glue. §71
Thus there shall be ink not ungraceful for plasterers. No less, if wine-lees, dried and baked in a furnace, be ground with glue in work laid on, above the sweetness of ink, shall produce a color; and the better the wine from which it is prepared, the more it will give not only the color of ink but even an imitation of indigo. §72
The temperings of blue were first discovered at Alexandria; afterwards Vestorius at Puteoli instituted the making of it. The reasoning of this, from what it has been invented, has enough of wonder. For sand is so subtly ground with flower of soda that it is made like flour, and Cyprian copper, filed into coarse shavings like dust, sprinkled with the mixture so that it may combine together. Then balls are made by turning with the hands, and so are bound up to dry. Dry, they are placed in an earthen pot; the pots in the furnace. As soon as the copper and that sand, by the vehemence of the fire, boil together and coalesce, by giving and receiving sweats among themselves they depart from their own properties, and, their own matters being consumed by the vehemence of the fire, they are reduced to the color of blue. §73
Usta (burnt sil), which has enough usefulness in stucco-works, is so tempered: a clod of good sil is baked so that it is glowing in the fire. Then quenched with vinegar, it is made into a purple color. §74
About cerussa and aerugo (verdigris), which our people call aeruca, it is not alien to say how it is prepared. For in Rhodes, they put brushwood in jars, and above the brushwood, vinegar having been poured on, they set lumps of lead; then they close these with covers that no breath may escape. After a fixed time, opening, they find cerussa on the lumps of lead. By the same reasoning, placing plates of copper, they produce verdigris, which is called aeruca. §75
Cerussa, however, when it is baked in a furnace, its color changed by the fire, is made into sandarac. This men learned from an accidental fire; and it yields a much better use than what by itself from mines is dug. §76
I will now begin to speak of purple (ostrum), which, besides these colors, has a most precious and excellent sweetness of aspect. This is taken from the sea-shell (conchylium), from which purple is made, whose admirations, to those considering the nature, are no less than of the other things, because it does not have in all places, in which it is born, the color of one kind, but is tempered naturally by the course of the sun. §77
Therefore what is gathered in Pontus and Gaul, because these regions are nearest to the north, is black. In those advancing between north and west, it is found of a livid color. But what is gathered at the equinoctial east and west, is found of a violet color. What is taken in southern regions is produced of a ruddy power, and for this reason it is also created in the island of Rhodes and in the other such regions which are nearest the sun's course. §78
These shells, when they are gathered, are cut around with iron tools; from which blows a purple gore, as a tear flowing out, is prepared by being struck down in mortars and ground; and because it is taken from the shells of sea-cockles, for this reason it is called ostrum. But on account of its saltness it quickly becomes thirsty, unless it have honey poured round. §79
Purple colors also are made from chalk dyed with madder-root and hysginum; no less from flowers, other colors. So plasterers, when they wish to imitate Attic sil, throwing dried violet into a vessel with water, boil it at the fire; then, when it is tempered, they pour it into a linen, and thence, squeezing with the hands, they receive into a mortar the water colored from violets; and pouring chalk into it and grinding it, they make the color of Attic sil. §80
By the same reasoning, tempering whortleberry (vaccinium) and mixing with milk, they make an elegant purple. Likewise those who cannot use chrysocolla on account of its cost, dye the herb which is called luteum with blue, and thus use a most vivid green. This is called infectivum. Likewise on account of the lack of the color of indigo, dyeing with Selinusian or ring-maker's chalk and woad-blue glass (which the Greeks call ἴσατιν), they make an imitation of the color of indigo. §81
By what reasonings and things firmness may be attained in finishings, and by what they ought to be made decorously in paintings, likewise what powers all colors have in themselves, so far as I could bring to hand, in this book I have written. Therefore all the reasoning of the perfection of buildings, what suitability of reasoning they ought to have, have been finished in seven volumes. In the following I shall set forth concerning water: if in any places it be lacking, how it may be found and by what reasoning conducted, and by what marks, if it be healthful and fit, it may be proved. §82