VITRUVIOUS TEN BOOKS OF ARCHITECTURE

Book V• The forum and basilica• The treasury, prison, and senate house• The theatre: its site, foundations, and acoustics• Harmonics• Sounding vessels in the theatre• Plan of the theatre• Greek theatres• Acoustics of the site of a theatre• Colonnades and walks• Baths• The palaestra• Harbours, breakwaters, and shipyards

THE FORUM AND BASILICA

•Outdoor public space•Square plan•Surrounded by double colonnades•1st floor is a walking space •Proportionate scale•1st floor height will be ¼ times less than the ground floor height

Forum

•In the colonnades put the bankers' offices; and have balconies on the upper floor properly arranged so as to be convenient, and to bring in some public revenue.•The size of a forum should be proportionate to the number of inhabitants, so that it may not be too small a space to be useful, nor look like a desert waste for lack of population. •B = 2/3 L

•Indoor meeting place•Adjacent to forum (on the warmest side because of winter).•1/3 L < B < 1/2 L•Height of basilica = breadth of side aisle .•Breadth of aisle = 1/3 times breadth of middle open space.•1st floor height will be ¼ times less than the ground floor height.•Symmetrical plan.

Basilica

•Basilicas of the greatest dignity and beauty may also be constructed in the style of Fano.•In the middle, the main roof between the columns is 120 feet long and 60 feet wide.•The columns, of unbroken height, measuring with their capitals fifty feet, and being each five feet thick.•The spaces remaining between the beams supported by the pilasters and the columns, are left for windows .

20 ft

120

ft

60 ft 20 ft

THE TREASURY, PRISON, AND SENATE HOUSE•The treasury, prison, and senate house ought to adjoin the forum, but in such a way that their dimensions may be proportionate to those of the forum. •The senate house should be constructed with special regard to the importance of the town or city.•If L=B, then H = 1.5 B.•If L≠ B, then H = (L+B)/2.•The inside walls should be girdled, with coronae made of woodwork or of stucco.

THE THEATRE

SITE, FOUNDATIONS, AND ACOUSTICS•a site as healthy as possible should be selected for the theatre.•If winds come from marshy districts or from other unwholesome quarters, they will introduce deadly exhalations into the system.•It should not have a southern exposure. When the sun shines full upon the rounded part of it, the air, being shut up in the curved enclosure and unable to circulate, stays there and becomes heated.•The foundation walls will be an easier matter if they are on a hillside, but if they have to be laid on a plain or in a marshy place, solidity must be assured and substructures are needed.

•It should be so contrived that a line drawn from the lowest to the highest seat will touch the top edges and angles of all the seats. Thus the voice will meet with no obstruction.•There should be various entrances and exits. So that the people may not be crowded together when let out from shows.• To avoid the problems due to echo the site should contain greatest clearness.

PLAN OF THE THEATRE• fixed upon the principal centre.• in it inscribe four equilateral triangles, at equal distances apart and touching the

boundary line of the circle.• The platform has to be made deeper because all our artists perform on the

stage, while the orchestra contains the places reserved for the seats of senators.

• The height of this platform must be not more than five feet, in order that those who sit in the orchestra may be able to see the performances of all the actors.

• The sections for spectators in the theatre should be so divided, that the angles of the triangles which run about the circumference of the circle may give the direction for the flights of steps between the sections, as far as up to the first curved cross-aisle.

• The angles at the bottom, which give the directions for the flights of steps, will be seven in number (C, E, F, G, H, I, D).

• The other five angles will determine the arrangement of the scene: thus, the angle in the middle ought to have the "royal door" (K) opposite to it the angles to the right and left (L, M) will designate the position of the doors for guest chambers; and the two outermost angles (A, B) will point to the passages in the wings.

• The steps for the spectators' places, where the seats are arranged, should be not less than a foot and a palm in height, nor more than a foot and six fingers; their depth should be fixed at not more than two and a half feet, nor less than two feet.

•The length of the “stage” ought to be double the diameter of the orchestra.•The height of the podium starting from the level of the stage should be one twelfth of the diameter of the orchestra.•Above the podium the columns should have height of one quarter of the same diameter.

THE ROMAN THEATRE ACCORDING TO VITRUVIUS

THEATRE OF DIONYSUS AT ATHENS

•There are three kind of scenes-TragicComicSatiric•Their decorations are different and unlike each other in scheme.•Tragic scenes are delineated with columns, pediments, statues, and objects suited to kings.•Comic scenes exhibit private dwellings with balconies and views representing rows of windows.•Satiric scenes are decorated with trees, caverns, mountains, and other rustic objects delineated in landscape style.

GREEK THEATRES

•In the theatres of the Greeks, these same rules of construction are not to be followed in all respects. •First, in the circle at the bottom where the Roman has four triangles, the Greek has three squares with their angles touching the line of circumference. •The square whose side is nearest to the "scaena," and cuts off a segment of the circle, determines by this line the limits of the "proscaenium" (A, B). •Parallel to this line and tangent to the outer circumference of the segment, a line is drawn which fixes the front of the "scaena" (C-D).

FE

BAC D

H G

•Through the centre of the orchestra and parallel to the direction of the "proscaenium," a line is laid off, and centres are marked where it cuts the circumference to the right and left (E, F) at the ends of the half-circle.•Then, with the compasses fixed at the right, an arc is described from the horizontal distance at the left to the left hand side of the "proscaenium" (F, G); again with the centre at the left end, an arc is described from the horizontal distance at the right to the right hand side of the "proscaenium" (E, H).•As a result of this plan with three centres, the Greeks have a roomier orchestra, and a "scaena" set further back, as well as a stage of less depth

FE

BAC D

H G

THE PALAESTRA•It is a public place in ancient Greece or Roman devoted to the training of wrestlers and other athletes.•The PALAESTRA consisted of a rectangular court surrounded by colonnades with adjoining rooms.•These rooms in Palaestra had different functions: Bathings, Ball playing, Dressing area and storage for clothes, seating area for socializing, observation, or instruction, and storage of athletic equipment.

THE GREEK PALAESTRA

A- room with seat.B- young men’s hall.C- bag room.D- dust room.E- cold washing room.F- anointing room.G- cold bath room.H- passage into the furnace room .I- vaulted sweating bath .K- Laconicum (a room for ancient roman baths used for steam bath).L- warm washing room .

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