HERE are five distinct kinds of cavædiums, which from their forms are named thus,
Tuscan, Corinthian, Tetrastyle, Displuviated, and Testudinated.
The Tuscan kind are those in which the beams (a a) that cross the breadth of
Fig. LIII.
the atrium, have interpensivae (bb); and gutters (cc) proceeding from the angles
of the walls to the angles of the joists; also from the assers (e) the eaves water is discharged
into the middle compluvium (dd).
(1*) The term cavaedium is derived from the words
cava-aedium, and means courts or other void spaces
within the body of a house.
(2*) Perrault has represented the interpensivae as
diagonal props or braces, their lower ends resting in the
wall, and their upper ends supporting the eaves projected
forward: but this is not reconcileable to the words of the
text, in the description of the tetrastyle cavaedium;
ee utilitatem trabibus & firmitatem praestant, quod neque
et ipsae magnum impetum coguntur habere, neque ab
et interpensivis onerantur;' which imply that the inter-
bensivae were things supported, not supports; and allo
that they were not situated under the beams, but rested
upon them. Perrault would interpolate the text in orden
to make it bear his construction, by adding parietibus after
trabibus, and thus transferring the allusion of the passag
from the beams to the walls.
Galiani is of opinion that the interpensivae were two
beams that laid lengthways of the cavaedium over the two
beams that laid breadthways; and has translated the text
accordingly. But as in such a case the beams on two
sides of the cavæedium would lie higher than those on the
other two sides, the columns that supported those beams
in the Corinthian cavæediums (which are described to be
the same as the Tuscan, with only the addition of columns
around) would also be of different heights; which is an
irregularity so unusual that it cannot be admitted. Besides,
Vitruvius has in other places described the beams by the
term trabes, and it is not likely that in this place only he
should have called them interpenlivae.
B00 K. VI.
CHAPTER III.
Of Cavædiums.
Philander supposes the interpensivae to be the joists or
timbers (b b) that were laid from the wall to the beams
(a a) Fig. LIII. and LIV. which is also my opinion, ex¬
cepting that I believe the word was confined in its appli-
cation to those cases where the faid joists projected beyond
the beams, forming what we now call consoles, or canti-
livers, as in the Tuscan order according to the description
of Vitruvius. But Perrault alleges, in opposition to the
opinion of Philander, that the interpensivae are described
to proceed from the angles of the walls to the angles of
the joists (tignae): that I think is not the case, as the
words of the text may, and I believe do, allude to the
gutters (colliquias), and not to the interpensivae.
Perrault also differs from all the other translators in his
acceptation of the word colliquias, which he has rendered
the coyers, i. e. the rafters that are placed at the angles of
roofs; but it is highly probable that it signifies some
kind of gutters or channels, as it is generally understood.
Columella, 2. 8. uses it in that sense, and Pliny, 18. 19.
writes collicias (as it is also written in some manuscripts
of Vitruvius) in the same signification.
(3*) Barbaro and Galiani suppose the compluvium to
be a reservoir made in the middle of the pavement of the
cavaedium, but in the displuviated cavaedium it is said
the compluviums being erect intercept not the light from
the apartments. Which words forbid such a supposition,
and shew that the compluvium must be above the win¬
dows. Perrault judges it to be the gutter (dd) at the
eaves where the rain water from the whole roof is col-
lected; and this opinion seems to me to be just, and is