Full text: Vitruvius: The architecture of M. Vitruvius Pollio

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ehe oltie, and he oder he stas vithn ehieh nonlehe e e alalig eine 
be understood. 
Taus at, therefore, being lo ertendire, and enriched vith o many, various féenei. l 
think none can on a sudden justly prosels themselves architects, nor unles from theit vouth 
they have gradvall, furmnounted these studis, been nurfed in the knouledge of the maut 
ats and sciences, and thus have arrived at the perfect knowledge of architecture. Perkans 
iliterate men may wonder how so many sciences ean be acquired and retained in the 
memory; but when it is considered that all the sciences have a mutual connerion and 
communicationz it vill be more easly credited; for the whole cirele of arts is às one bodr¬ 
compoled of divers members; and those who from theit youth, ate instrucked in all the 
different arts, observe in them all an analogy and fimilarity of prineiples, and find they ate 
casily acquired. Hence the ancient architeet Pythius, who erected the magnificent temple of 
Minerva, at Priena, says in his Commentaries, that an architect ought to excel in all arts 
and leairning, those who by their industry and practice, have brought things to their greatest 
perfection. But that eannot be necessary; for an architect neither need be, nor can be, so good 
a grammarian as Aristarchus, though he must not be illterate; nor a musician like Aristogenus. 
though not ignorant of music; nor a painter like Apelle, though not unkilful in draving: 
nor a statuary like Miron, or Polyeletus, though not a stranger to sculpture; not as learned 
in physic as Hypocrates, though not unaequainted with that art; nor need he be singularly 
excellent in any of the other sciences, though he fhould not be entirely without their 
knowledge; for in such a number of different things, it is not possible to attain to singular 
perfection in each. It is scarcely in our power to conceive and understand their principles: 
nor is it architects alone who cannot arrive at this pitch of eminence in all literature; for 
even some of those who have professed a single art, have not been able to obtain the hichest 
degree of reputation. I, therefore, of all those artists who practise only one art, very few. 
in an age, become remarkably excellent, how can it be expected that an architect, who 
ought to be stilled in many scienées, fhould exced, or even equal, those artists, who with 
great assiduity and industry have applied themselves to a single art? 
In this, therefore, Pythius seems to have been mistaken; not considering that every art 
consists of two parts, the practice, and the theory; of these, one is peculiar to those who 
exercise each particular art, viz. the practice; the other, which is the theory, is common to 
all the learned. So the pulsation of the veins, and the movement of the feet, are common to 
the professors of both phyfic and mufic; but if a wound is to be healed, or a dangerous 
malady cured, a musician is not employed, for it is the peculiar practice of a physician; and 
on the contrary, the musician, and not the physician, must modulate instruments of 
mulic, lo that our ears may be delighted with their sounds. Between astronomy and music. 
thère is likewise a common reasoning, upon the sympathy and symphony of the stars, in 
quadrate and trine, diatessaron and diapente. In optics, by the Greeks called logos opticos, 
and in all other sciences, there are many things similar, or which have, at least, the same 
common principles. But as to the executive part, in which practice and experience leads to 
perfection, it belongs to those who are devoted to the exercise of one particular art. It is
	        
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