“The ideal architect should be a man of letters, a skillful draftsman, a mathematician, familiar with historical studies, a diligent student of philosophy, acquainted with music, not ignorant of medicine, learned in the responses of jurisconsults, familiar with astronomy and astronomical calculations.”
— Marcus Vitruvius Pollio (c. 90 - c. 20 BCE)
“If nature has composed the human body so that in its proportions the seperate individual elements answer to the total form, then the Ancients seem to have had reason to decide that bringing their creations to full completion likewise required a correspondence bewteen the measure of individual elements and the appearance of the work as a whole.”
— Marcus Vitruvius Pollio (c. 90 - c. 20 BCE)
“I think that men have no right to profess themselves architects hastily, without having climbed from boyhood the steps of these studies and thus, nursed by the knowledge of many arts and sciences, having reached the heights of the holy ground of architecture.”
— Marcus Vitruvius Pollio (c. 90 - c. 20 BCE)
“Nothing requires the architect's care more than the due proportions of buildings”
— Marcus Vitruvius Pollio (c. 90 - c. 20 BCE)
"Architects should be educated, skillful with the pencil, instructed in geometry, know much history, have followed the philosophers with attention, understand music, have some knowledge of medicine, know the opinions of the jurists, and be acquainted with astronomy and the theory of the heavens."
— Marcus Vitruvius Pollio (c. 90 - c. 20 BCE)
"The architect must not only understand drawing, but music."
— Marcus Vitruvius Pollio (c. 90 - c. 20 BCE)
"If our designs for private houses are to be correct, we must at the outset take note of the countries and climates in which they are built."
— Marcus Vitruvius Pollio (c. 90 - c. 20 BCE)
"A harmonious design requires that nothing be added or taken away."
— Marcus Vitruvius Pollio (c. 90 - c. 20 BCE)
"The [engineer] should be equipped with knowledge of many branches of study and varied kinds of learning, for it is by his judgement that all work done by the other arts is put to test. This knowledge is the child of practice and theory."
— Marcus Vitruvius Pollio (c. 90 - c. 20 BCE)
"Harmony is an obscure and difficult musical science, but most difficult to those who are not acquainted with the Greek language; because it is necessary to use many Greek words to which there are none corresponding in Latin."
— Marcus Vitruvius Pollio (c. 90 - c. 20 BCE)
"As for philosophy, it makes an architect high-minded and not self-assuming, but rather renders him courteous, just, and honest without avariciousness. This is very important, for no work can be rightly done without honesty and incorruptibility."
— Marcus Vitruvius Pollio (c. 90 - c. 20 BCE)
"Architecture is a science arising out of many other sciences, and adorned with much and varied learning; by the help of which a judgment is formed of those works which are the result of other arts."
— Marcus Vitruvius Pollio (c. 90 - c. 20 BCE)
"Economy denotes the the proper management of materials and of site, as well as a thrifty balancing of cost and common sense in the construction of works. ...the architect does not demand things which cannot be found or made ready without great expense. For example: it is not everywhere that there is plenty of pitsand, rubble, fir, clear fir, and marble... Where there is no pitsand, we must use the kinds washed up by rivers or by the sea... and other problems we must solve in similar ways."
— Marcus Vitruvius Pollio (c. 90 - c. 20 BCE)
"Cold winds are disagreeable, hot winds enervating, moist winds unhealthy."
— Marcus Vitruvius Pollio (c. 90 - c. 20 BCE)
"The lanes and streets of the city being set out, the choice of sites for the convenience and use of the state remains to be decided on; for sacred edifices, for the forum, and for other public buildings."
— Marcus Vitruvius Pollio (c. 90 - c. 20 BCE)
"Beauty is produced by the pleasing appearance and good taste of the whole, and by the dimensions of all the parts being duly proportioned to each other."
— Marcus Vitruvius Pollio (c. 90 - c. 20 BCE)
"Economy consists in a due and proper application of the means afforded according to the ability of the employer and the situation chosen; care being taken that the expenditure is prudently conducted."
— Marcus Vitruvius Pollio (c. 90 - c. 20 BCE)
"The thickness of the walls should be sufficient for two armed men to pass each other with ease."
— Marcus Vitruvius Pollio (c. 90 - c. 20 BCE)
"Wherefore the mere practical architect is not able to assign sufficient reasons for the forms he adopts; and the theoretic architect also fails, grasping the shadow instead of the substance."
— Marcus Vitruvius Pollio (c. 90 - c. 20 BCE)
“Architecti est scientia pluribus disciplinis et variis eruditionibus ornata, cuius iudicio probantur omnia quae ab ceteris artibus perficiuntur opera.”
("Architecture is the knowledge of many disciplines, and various trainings decorated his judgment proved to all that the other arts.")
— Marcus Vitruvius Pollio (c. 90 - c. 20 BCE)