VITRUVIUS. 
lbescoe lifient or n achitd to hare a moderntekouledg of the pat and pinepies 
c hefereralats vlich ue aditant o thepadice of achiecture, that, i he houd hare 
ceasion to judge of thole at, or to cramine a performance, hemay not be sound igporant 
ot defeient. Some there are to whom nature has given lo muoch lagaciy, penetation, and 
memory, that they are able to acquire a complete knowledge of geometry, astronony, 
muse, and many ocher seiences; these exced the department of architedts, and become 
mathematicians. Being therelore furnished with so much knowledge, they can wich faciliy 
dicourse on many subjedts; but even among these there rarely happens to be such men as 
Aristarchus of Samos; Philolaus, and Architas, the Tarentines; Apollonius of Pergeus; 
Eratosthenes of Cyreneus; Archimedes and Scopinas of Syracuse; who have left to posterity 
many mechanical and gnomonical inventions, which, by their knowledge of numbers, and 
the laws of nature, they have discovered and explained. 
As therefore such talents and natural abilities are not granted to all men, but to very few, 
and as the profession of an architect requires that he should be acquainted with all erudition, 
though, on account of the extensiveness of science, it is admitted that a perfect knowledge 
of all is not to be expected, and that a moderate degree is sufficient, I request indulgence 
from thee, O Cæsar, and those who read my books, if any thing should not be herè described 
according to the strict rules of grammar, for I pretend not to write like an eminent 
philosopher, an eloquent rhetorician, or excellent grammarian practised in the principles of 
the art; but as an architect, moderately acquainted with letters. So far, therefore, as the 
art and the rules thereof will admit, I promise, (as I hope) that these books will be 
written to the satisfaction, not only of professors, but of the learned in general. 
CHAP.