Artikelen

• Vitruvius Neerlandice. Een nieuwe vertaling van het Romeinse 'handboek bouwkunde'

  The significance of Vitruvius's manual for the later periods of art history is unmistakable. The Latin text - often elaborate and quite lapidary in style - poses translation problems for even the most expert classicist or archaeologist. The more welcome is the new, easily readable translation of Ton Peters (l 997), thus opening up Vitruvius' work to the professional, the student or the interested layman.

  In the accompanying article the person of Vitruvius and his work are clarified on the basis of fragments translated by Peters. The subjects discussed here are the building materials and wall work, Greek and Etruscan temple construction, the basilica of Fano, aspects of the atrium house, wall decoration and some passages from the last two books.

  The significance of Vitruvius's manual for the later periods of art history is unmistakable. The Latin text - often elaborate and quite lapidary in style - poses translation problems for even the most expert classicist or archaeologist. The more welcome is the new, easily readable translation of Ton Peters (l 997), thus opening up Vitruvius' work to the professional, the student or the interested layman.

  In the accompanying article the person of Vitruvius and his work are clarified on the basis of fragments translated by Peters. The subjects discussed here are the building materials and wall work, Greek and Etruscan temple construction, the basilica of Fano, aspects of the atrium house, wall decoration and some passages from the last two books.

  The significance of Vitruvius's manual for the later periods of art history is unmistakable. The Latin text - often elaborate and quite lapidary in style - poses translation problems for even the most expert classicist or archaeologist. The more welcome is the new, easily readable translation...

  J.A.K.E. de Waele

  41-50

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• Vitruvius in de middeleeuwen: een verkenning

  Although no less than 78 Medieval manuscripts of Vitruvius's De Architectura Libri X (25 B.C.) have been preserved, very little is known of the needs felt in copying the text. Contemporary comments are scarce and generally do not show much more than a philological curiosity, the ars architecturae in itself being held in a rather ambivalent esteem, either as a 'free' or 'liberal' discipline, or, perhaps more often, as a modest, 'mechanical' one.

  In addition, and in a Vitruvian tradition, we have some typical Early Medieval 'recipes' for constructional problems, partly being copied from Late Roman sources; it is unclear whether these prescriptions were really being put into practice. On the other hand, some ten German manuals in a Late Gothic tradition present us with a coherent set of rules and guidelines for building and design. Representing the actual procedures, they may well be characterised as sound theory, reflecting at least the days from Villard to Dürer (XIII-XVI c.).

  Probably due to the fundamental formal differences between Classical and Medieval architecture, no attempt has as yet been made at thoroughly comparing Vitruvian design theory with the more modestly formulated 'recipes' by the Gothic architects. In doing so, the familiarity in drawing to scale, in applying a so-called 'practical' geometry, and in choosing design measurements becomes surprisingly obvious.

  So, if one cannot prove an actual influence of De Architectura because textual sources referring to it are failing, we may well knit the eyebrows at the ostentatiously declared 'rediscovery' of Vitruvius by the Florentine humanist - and writer of farces - Poggio Bracciolini in the year 1416. The least we may assume is, that a limited but growing group of Medieval church founders, intellectuals and architects were left with enough insight - and practice - in their own days to be able to grasp not all of Vitruvius' technical vocabulary, but certainly the foremost principles of building he once cared so much to offer us in writing.

  Although no less than 78 Medieval manuscripts of Vitruvius's De Architectura Libri X (25 B.C.) have been preserved, very little is known of the needs felt in copying the text. Contemporary comments are scarce and generally do not show much more than a philological curiosity, the ars architecturae in itself being held in a rather ambivalent esteem, either as a 'free' or 'liberal' discipline, or, perhaps more often, as a modest, 'mechanical' one.

  In addition, and in a Vitruvian tradition, we have some typical Early Medieval 'recipes' for constructional problems, partly being copied from Late Roman sources; it is unclear whether these prescriptions were really being put into practice. On the other hand, some ten German manuals in a Late Gothic tradition present us with a coherent set of rules and guidelines for building and design. Representing the actual procedures, they may well be characterised as sound theory, reflecting at least the days from Villard...

  Although no less than 78 Medieval manuscripts of Vitruvius's De Architectura Libri X (25 B.C.) have been preserved, very little is known of the needs felt in copying the text. Contemporary comments are scarce and generally do not show much more than a philological curiosity, the...

  Steven Surdèl

  51-68

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• De Vitruvius-uitgave van Johannes De Laet (1649)

  Johannes De Laet was a Leiden merchant and one of the directors of the Dutch West India Company. He also moved in the learned circles of Leiden University and was a good friend and assistant of professor Claude Saumaise. Apart from his business activities De Laet was also successful as a compiler of geographical descriptions and some works on the ancient classics.

  In 1649 the first complete edition of Vitruvius was published in Holland by the Amsterdam publisher Louis Elzevier, arranged by Johannes De Laet, M. Vitruvii Pollionis De Architectura Libri Decem. In this publication the treatise was accompanied by innumerable footnotes and all sorts of handwritings from Antiquity, from the Italian Renaissance and from contemporary Holland, in explanation of various aspects in the work of Vitruvius. The whole publication was in Latin, even the supplementary syllabus, and thus De Laet's edition became the pre-eminent Vitrivius edition for later use.

  De Laet's strength lay in collecting all the available, frequently scattered material on his subject. He presents it in a clear structure, but he does not formulate any theory or views of his own. In stead, he quotes amply from other works. The famous Vitruvius commentary of Guillaume Philander (1544) has been included almost in full in the footnotes, next to remarks by Daniele Barbaro from the latter's Vitruvius commentary (1556) and by contemporaries such as Vossius and Claude Saumaise.

  In line with Philander, De Laet did not so much look for direct applicabilities of the rules of Vitruvius, but rather for an understanding of Antiquity itself, from a scientific interest in the mathematical-philosophical foundations of classical architecture and art. Consequently, as a supplement to Vitruvius, De Laet provides writings which pursue this subject in particular, starting with the measurements and weights in Antiquity itself (Agricola 1551) and followed by the musical harmony principles (Meibomius 1649) and the mathematical rules in painting and sculpture (among others, Alberti's De Pictura.) In that sense Henry Wotton's The Elements of Architecture (1624) was an excellent choice as an introduction to this entire compilation of classical and more contemporary treatises.

  De Laet's work shows many resemblances with earlier attempts by Constantijn Huygens in 1642 to have Vitruvius translated into Dutch. Wotton's Elements had been intended as an introduction to Vitruvius himself in this project, which the architect Jacob van Campen would also participate in. Other aspects of De Laet's edition, too, coincide with Huygens's plan, such as the stress on the coherence between musical harmony and the architectural proportion theory. Possibly Huygens gave advice from a distance through Saumaise, who was a friend of his, after his own Vitruvius edition had been called off. However, there is no concrete evidence for Huygens's direct involvement in the edition of 1649.

  Johannes De Laet was a Leiden merchant and one of the directors of the Dutch West India Company. He also moved in the learned circles of Leiden University and was a good friend and assistant of professor Claude Saumaise. Apart from his business activities De Laet was also successful as a compiler of geographical descriptions and some works on the ancient classics.

  In 1649 the first complete edition of Vitruvius was published in Holland by the Amsterdam publisher Louis Elzevier, arranged by Johannes De Laet, M. Vitruvii Pollionis De Architectura Libri Decem. In this publication the treatise was accompanied by innumerable footnotes and all sorts of handwritings from Antiquity, from the Italian Renaissance and from contemporary Holland, in explanation of various aspects in the work of Vitruvius. The whole publication was in Latin, even the supplementary syllabus, and thus De Laet's edition became the pre-eminent Vitrivius edition for later use.

  ...

  Johannes De Laet was a Leiden merchant and one of the directors of the Dutch West India Company. He also moved in the learned circles of Leiden University and was a good friend and assistant of professor Claude Saumaise. Apart from his business activities De Laet was also successful as a...

  Koen A. Ottenheym

  69-76

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