Full text: Vitruvius: The civil architecture of Vitruvius

147 
CHAP. VII. 
OF THE PORTICO AND OTHER PARTS OF THE THEATRE. 
THE uppermost range of seats has a portico constructed 
over it; the roof of which ought to range with the highest 
part of the scene; so that the voice, expanding uniformly, 
may be carried to the upper seats, and thence to the roof. 
For if the roof and the scene were of unequal heights, the 
sounds would be broken after passing the lower of the two 
altitudes. 
Whatever be the diameter of the orchestra included 
within the lower range of seats, a sixth part of it should be 
assumed for the height of the approaches' to the stage in 
1 The height of the itinera, or entrances, which is determined by making it this 
portional part of the length of the orchestra, is thought by the commentators to be 
enormous; believing that Vitruvius, by the “ itinera," intended to allude to the 
entrances into the orchestra. Galiani and Perrault, therefore, consider it necessary 
to alter the text from the diameter to the semidiameter, in opposition to the reading 
of all the manuscripts. I have however ventured to translate “ aditus," as alluding 
to two of the approaches to the stage. These are mentioned by our author in the 
preceding chapter, in which they are called " itinera versurarum,' or the approaches 
in the returns of the scene. The returns may be considered as forming part of the 
scene itself ; because, from remains of the scenes of the ancient theatres, we may 
perceive that they were a continuation of the same design. Our author, in the 
passage immediately following, describes the various parts of the front of the scene, 
which are all proportioned by the scale of the orchestra ; hence it would appear 
consistent that the approaches in the returns, or lateral continuations of the scene, 
should likewise be commensurate with the orchestra. The same reasoning will not 
apply to the entrances into the orchestra, of which there appear to have been several:
	        
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