“Ten Books on Architecture”, or “De Architectura”, by Marcus Vitruvius Pollio, is the most complete treatise on the subject of architecture to survive from antiquity and has influenced the construction and design of major buildings since the Renaissance. Vitruvius lived during the first century BC and was an important architect, as well as a civil and military engineer, in the Roman Empire. Vitruvius dedicated this work to his patron, the emperor Caesar Augustus, and included information on both Roman and Greek buildings, detailed directions on how to build military camps, his theories on city planning, and guidance on how to construct large public structures, such as aqueducts, public baths, harbors, and buildings, as well as small, more personal items, such as measuring devices and instruments. “Ten Books on Architecture” is not only an excellent historical reference into ancient construction methods and aesthetics but also a manual providing direction and wisdom that can be applied to architecture today. Students of both classic and modern architecture and engineering will find much of interest in this fully illustrated reproduction of the 1914 edition translated by Morris Hicky Morgan.
