Arcscholar

Fullness Of John's Scripture Found?

2011-03-30T12:53:00.000-07:00

"And John saw and bore record of the fulness of my glory, and the fulness of John's record is hereafter to be revealed...

And it shall come to pass, that if you are faithful you shall receive the fulness of the record of John." (D&C 93:6,8)

LDS have long awaited this full record of John the Revelator, which is "sealed up to come forth in their purity."

Archeologists announced that this day may have come. Scholars have unearthed metal codices that date to the first century AD. Just after the death of Jesus. The pages in these 70 books have writings from the Book of Revelation and include a sealed section:

"Academics are divided as to their authenticity but say that if verified, they could prove as pivotal as the discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls in 1947....

Adding to the intrigue, many of the books are sealed, prompting academics to speculate they are actually the lost collection of codices mentioned in the Bible’s Book Of Revelation." (www.dailymail.co.uk)

Details of what scholars have translated so far point to John the Revelator:

"It's talking about the coming of the messiah," he says.

"In the upper square [of one of the book covers] we have the seven-branch menorah, which Jews were utterly forbidden to represent because it resided in the holiest place in the Temple in the presence of God.

"So we have the coming of the messiah to approach the holy of holies, in other words to get legitimacy from God."...

Another potential link with the Bible is contained in one of the few fragments of text from the collection to have been translated.

It appears with the image of the menorah and reads "I shall walk uprightly", a sentence that also appears in the Book of Revelation. (www.bbc.co.uk)

How To Design For Tsunamis

2011-03-14T14:04:00.000-07:00

How tsunamis work
How to stop tsunamis

How Tsunamis Work?

Wave height- Ocean waves caused by wind are shallow when they are out in the ocean. Water deep down moves very little, so they aren't very strong when they hit shore. Their height and width are random, preventing the wave from gaining strength. Deep-sea waves caused by earthquakes, on the other hand, are incredibly deep and have uniform height and width. This gives them great strength when they hit shore, though the wave doesn't rise very high at all in the deep ocean. The energy of a wave is proportional to the wave height squared, so a deeper wave has much more power.

Ocean waves are both longitudinal and transitional, which means they push objects in the water up and down as well as back and forward. The deeper you go, the less the water needs to move in order to transmit energy. This is why objects deep in water aren't pushed around as much by the wave. But otherwise ocean waves act much like a simple sine wave so I will represent them as such here.

^Kraaiennest - wikipedia/cc license

Velocity= frequency x wavelength. Tsunamis have a frequency of up to once every two hours and a wavelength of up to 250 kilometers. These large numbers give them an incredible velocity, up to 500 mph. As they approach the shore the wave height is forced to become much shallower. This decreases the velocity to only about 50 mph. The wavelength then must drastically decrease as well, and the wave height as it appears from above water becomes much larger.

Shore steepness

Ocean waves topple over themselves as they approach shore because of the friction of the water against the beach floor. They become a mass of water pouring toward the shore, eventually slowing because of gravity and friction. This wave break occurs far from shore with tsunamis because of their much larger wave height. The resulting mass of water may not be very tall when it reaches land, maybe a couple meters, but the overall energy of the wave turns it into a veritable river of water.

Steep coasts like the kind sometimes seen in Hawaii are different. The wave breaks close to shore with a very violent impact on the shore, though the water doesn't move inland very far.

How to stop Tsunamis?

Stop the tsunami by: blocking, bouncing, deflecting, and canceling.

Troughs and Barriers

Digging troughs and walls both on shore and in the ocean will help absorb the force of the wave, and bounce part of that wave back. The wave will pound against the wall with great friction. Islands with barrier reefs are comparatively safe from tsunamis for this reason.

When it meets the underwater wall the wave decreases velocity, decreases wavelength, and increases height when seen from above water. The wave could even break at the water surface. The wave then moves to deeper water with a weaker force, a shorter wave height.

Tough walls suspended from cables and floating near the surface of the ocean are much more effective because they also push the wave down toward the floor where it will lose more power from friction. Such devices could be employed from underwater containers immediately after detected earthquakes, though it would be pretty expensive.

Troughs and barriers on the shore act much like a sandcastle against oncoming ocean waves. They can slow down the water and redirect its flow, though not act as effectively as ocean barriers would.

Onshore troughs and barriers are more effective when combined with offshore barriers. These offshore barriers can also deflect the wave sideways so it runs into itself and cancels part of itself away. The area down-shore of that barrier will have a weaker wave hit it.

Underwater explosion

Waves that approach each other from opposite directions in phase eliminate each others forces. An underwater explosion or some kind of other movement away from shore would create waves that pound into the tsunami wave and cancel some of its force. Unfortunately, it would have to be a large explosion or shifting object to make a significant difference.

After the water reaches shore there is little to be done against a charging river of water. Most importantly, get high ground!

Channel the water

The water can be wedged into channels that keep it out of the way of occupied areas. Drainage creeks in a city provide a good opportunity for this strategy. Parks and nature areas should be placed with this strategy in mind, and with concrete barriers. The water will increase pressure as it is redirected, increasing its velocity and pushing it higher onshore, but gravity will slow it eventually.

The edges of these channels can be shaped to push water toward the center of the channel. Concrete curved edges can push the water away and back toward the channel.

Protect escape routes

Escape roads should be located around barrier that slow down water and away from water channels. These roads should not be straight lines that the water can use as a channel. My illustration here is not the best because if water reaches these roads it will flow straight up them.

This example directs the water into channels, drainage creeks, where it flows safely inland. Tough barriers at the tips of the wedges, or maybe just berms, help divert water. Off-shore barriers help direct water away before it even reaches these wedges. Evacuation routes are safely protected inside.

Raise buildings

^john_worsley_uk - flickr/cc license

Traditional houses in many Asian countries are lifted up on stilts, though the intention has more to do with regional flooding and preventing animal infestations. Areas that rarely are flooded have little reason for stilt buildings unless it answers other design considerations. California apartments, for example, are sometimes placed above car garages. This conveniently keeps occupants safe from possible floods.

Debris between the coastline and the building will likely hit the structure with great force. Even heavy objects like cars and small houses can be carried by the water and turned into formidable battering rams. The stilts must therefore be very robust and tied down, and the water must somehow be diverted from the building with barriers. Liquefaction should also be considered for a robust foundation.

Raised buildings should provide a path for the water to go. Apartments above car garages, for example, should have collapsable garage doors and back openings for the water to flow through.

Sanctuary structures

Some California towns are constructing civic buildings that can act as gathering places for people who don't have time to evacuate to high ground. These structures have large gathering spaces high up and are designed with a robust stilt structure. Residents must be well informed on where these locations are and given an evacuation route on how to quickly get there. Private office buildings and hotels can also serve this purpose. Coastal towns should keep an updated and well organized community plan for each resident and business.

Evacuees need know if they have time to seek higher ground or if they should flee to a sanctuary structure. A variety of sirens and a good plan of informing all residents is necessary for this. Each person should know their risk hazard and disaster relief plan.

So you survived, now what?

Stores of food and disaster supplies must be kept in sanctuary structures. Good designs and building codes could prevent damage, but there isn't too much practically to be done against an enormous surge of water. Early notification and a good evacuation strategy will prevent loss of life, but evacuees need shelter and basic supplies.

What could Japan have done to prevent nuclear meltdowns? Every city has hazardous materials that could cause longterm damage if hit by water. Fire could sweep the city. Liquefaction could devastate neighborhoods that aren't even touched by the wave. Historic landmarks and transit methods could have a profound social impact if destroyed. Perceived indifference for suffering, as was the case with Katrina, could have long-lasting social effects.

Inform the public
The sheer ignorance in the media during the 2011 Japan catastrophe illustrated how far we have to go. These important design steps will not be implemented until the public demands it, and right now the public isn't even aware. News anchors didn't even attempt to explain what a tsunami is and defered to experts. Yet these "experts" didn't even know what they were talking about. One government expert on CNN claimed tsunamis sweep across the land at 500 mph, unaware of the decrease in velocity that occurs as it approaches land.

The physics behind tsunamis isn't really that hard, and the methods for dealing with it should be easy for anyone that has played in sand at the beach.

More design for tsunamis , More design

Everything You Must Know Before Getting A Mortgage !

2011-01-29T00:25:00.001-08:00

The Basics
Escrow

What is escrow?
How to get rid of it? Get it?

Modifications
Your Rights
Foreclosure/Short Sale

How does delinquency lead to foreclosure?
Should I declare bankruptcy?
Should I short sale?

Tips
Conclusion: The Architect's stronger role!

***No part of this article should be considered legal advice and it creates no kind of counselor/client relationship to the reader. The author is not a licensed lawyer. Each mortgage involves different laws and regulations, and so the reader should consult a real estate attorney before making any kind of financial or legal decision. Information here may not be correct for a specific mortgage's circumstances or due to changing rules, and is not necessarily correct. The author intends no disclosure of proprietary information or any company's policies/procedures; all information is general and not specific to any person or company.***

It is the most important financial decision anyone will ever make. Yet people are incredibly ignorant of the most basic rules. They have no clue how the mortgage industry really works. Architects must take a stronger role in securing the financial backing for their projects. Every building must be paid for. Reliance on the client based on good faith has ruined the construction industry.

What is a Mortgage?

A mortgage company gives out funds in exchange for a promise to pay back installments of money. The mortgage company secures the property by receiving a contract for certain penalties if the money does not get paid back as promised; this could include seizing the property. This is less risky for a mortgage company than unsecured loans (such as credit cards) because there is collateral (the house) for it to seize. Therefore, it can afford to demand less money be paid back- a lower interest rate. Mortgage loans usually have the homeowner making monthly payments for 10,15 or 30 years. This monthly payment includes a portion of the total amount borrowed (principal) and an amount determined by the interest rate on that principal amount. Once the full amount borrowed (principal) gets paid back the mortgage is fulfilled.

Who is involved? The lender (aka mortgagee) owns the loan and agrees the terms. They have an investor who helps provide the funds that get handed out. They use an underwriter to determine if the arrangement will earn them a profit, based on the property and the credit of the mortgager. Usually the lender authorizes a servicer to deal with everything about the mortgage. The servicer collects payments, secures the property, negotiates modifications, and handles all other issues. The servicer could authorize additional parties to get involved, such as property inspectors. The trustee on the securing document conveys the title when the loan is paid off or holds the power of sale in the case of a foreclosure.

Documents involved The process begins with the application, which upon approval offers a tentative agreement- this origination agreement can vary in form by state. Most places require a disclosure of terms of the agreement so the mortgager knows what to expect. But the terms can still change. The promissory note sets the final terms. In order to better secure the loan, the lender will establish a lien on the property with a security instrument, known as a mortgage or deed of trust. The security instrument pretty much sets the rules for what the lender can do if the money doesn't get paid back as promised (aka defaults).

Make sure to check the grace period (length of time you can pay late without getting charged a late fee) which should be 15 days, and how much is the late fee. Sometimes it could be ridiculously large, and sometimes it could even be zero. The late fee is usually proportionate to the principal balance still owed, so it will be a small amount near the end of the loan. Also read the contract's stipulations for reporting to the credit reporting bureaus. Check your servicer for their policy on credit reporting. Read each document very carefully with a legal counselor present! The buyer should also research state and federal lending laws.

What type of loan to get?

Adjustable- Do not get an adjustable rate mortgage unless you are sure you will refinance, sell, or modify soon. This kind of loan starts with a teaser interest rate that will probably rise toward the ceiling (highest allowed) rate. The note determines how quickly the interest rate can change, usually by 2 or so percent each month. Many people get ARM loans and end up defaulting because the cost rises very high. The amortization schedule determines at the beginning of the loan how much principal due will get paid each payment. But the interest rate could rise to any amount within the ceiling. The interest rate is determined a month in advance because mortgages are paid in arrears- the interest you pay is actually for the portion of principal due the previous month.

Fixed-rate traditional mortgages (aka conventional mortgages) amortize at the beginning of the loan how much principal and how much interest will get paid each month until the very end. Your payment will not change unless escrow gets involved or unless the loan gets modified. Loans could mix a traditional and ARM loan, with some years fixed and some years changeable interest rates- though this never really makes sense to do.

Balloon loans amortize very briefly so that all the principal you pay over the months doesn't add up to amount borrowed. As a result there is still a large amount left over due at the end, and must be paid all at once. Don't get this loan unless you are sure you can refinance at that point or receive a large amount of money before then.

Daily Simple Interest usually applies to car loans rather than mortgages. This loan is good if you expect to be able to make large payments at random times. Extra money paid will pay down the principal quicker and decrease the amount of interest you will have to pay. With other loans if you pay more than what is due for principal and interest, the servicer may apply that toward your next month payment, or hold it in suspense, or use it to pay down more principal. With DSI loans the amount of interest due changes every day. Each day, the principal balance still due at the end of the proceeding day is multiplied by the interest rate divided by 365. This type of loan will save you interest payments and get you paid off quicker if you can pay early or pay extra, but if you fall behind it will cost you more- because the day you go late there is more principal left to be paid back than what was expected and the next day's payment will therefore be higher than expected. Even if you are one day late and within your grace period you will have more to pay. Principal doesn't get paid until all the interest due gets paid, so people often get so behind that the interest due builds up and principal doesn't even get paid anymore. That is really bad news. Often people will have a chunk of money to pay back at the end of this loan because of those months when they paid a couple days after the 1st.

Interest Only mortgages are pretty much the same as renting the property. The homeowner only pays for the monthly interest due, and all that principal borrowed sits there still due. At some point the homeowner will start paying for principal as well, and then the principal will get paid off month by month as another type of loan until the mortgage is finished. This type of mortgage should only be used if you are confident you will refinance, modify, significantly increase your income, or sell soon. It makes no sense to pay money each month if what you owe for buying the property never goes down. Some loans make it an option to pay principal as well as interest.

Option ARM loans give the mortgager the option to either: pay everything due each month, pay interest only, or pay a small minimum amount. The minimum amount doesn't pay all the interest due that month (negative amortized) so it builds up next month and quickly becomes a large amount due later on. This type of loan is never a good idea and never should have been created in the first place. If the homeowner receives a large income every couple months they should either get a DSI loan or save a portion of those funds for each monthly payment. It is an unnecessary risk to sacrifice home equity.

Piggy-back mortgages are also never a good idea. This is a combination of two loans to avoid a down payment over 20% of the borrowed amount. But paying for two loans instead of one doesn't do any good.

Graduated Payment mortgages are amortized past their maturity date. In order to avoid a balloon payment at the end, the payment amount increases month by month. This is intended for younger people who expect larger paychecks over the years. But it is hardly used any more. Young people don't have the credit for it anyway.

Government loans are just too complicated these days... so I won't begin trying to explain it all. Government loans often have extra protections and lower rates that make them preferred. But good luck getting good service!

Reverse mortgage- Use only if you are desperate. A person who has been paying their mortgage for many years has a good fraction of their principal paid off. With this mortgage, the amount of this principal owed increases each month rather than decreases in order to make past-due monthly payments.

How does my payment apply?

Each loan is set up differently and each servicer has a different hierarchy for how payments apply. Principal and interest could end up not getting paid if the payment only covers what is due for fees first. Your top priority is to pay off principal because that is what interest gets charged from, and once it's paid off the mortgage is finished (unless fees and escrow are left over due). DSI loans pay interest before principal. Again, check with your documents and servicer's policy to see how it actually applies because everyone is different.

Depending on your loan type any extra money paid (after interest accrued and fees) should pay down the principal. Your note will list under fees if there is a penalty for paying a certain amount extra early (aka prepayment penalty). In order to pay off the loan you will need to pay (at least) all principal left, interest accrued, escrow advanced, DSI interest short, fees due, and lien release fee. The servicer totals this up in the payoff quote.

What about divorces, transfer of ownerships, death of owner, etc?

Divorce only effects the mortgage if both persons are listed as mortgager or co-mortgager (not just an authorized party). Otherwise they never had any liability with the mortgage in the first place (including credit reporting). Some states require the spouse to be authorized as a third party in order to handle the account if they aren't on the mortgage. Other states allow the servicer to handle the mortgage through the spouse without the mortgager's authorization. Even if you are separated from the spouse in these states, they can still possibly handle the account until the divorce is completed. Check with your servicer for their policy as each servicer varies. It is entirely up to the court to decide who gets ownership of the house and mortgage, and the servicer may require court papers to take the ex-spouse off the mortgage. It could work out so that a transfer of ownership takes place through a quitclaim deed. Transferring the mortgage requires a refinance.

Transfer of ownership- Unless the mortgage is finished (aka discharged) or refinanced at the time of the sale, the lender will probably want the the house sale to be "subject to lien", which means the original owner retains the mortgage. The note should clearly state such terms in the case of a property sale. Most people pay off the mortgage with the amount earned by the sale (which may cause a penalty, see fees listed your note). Consult a real estate attorney to make sure you don't commit an unauthorized transfer of ownership that could amount to a strawman buyer or other such fraud.

Death of Owner- The co-owner/owner retains interest in the property and holds the mortgage if the owner/co-owner dies; authorized third parties do not. Family members or friends need to provide an Executor of Estate to become authorized to handle the account unless they were already an authorized third party (and that authorization didn't expire). Some states allow the servicer to handle the account through the spouse. This does not give the spouse, executor of estate, or third party ownership or liability unless they get a refinance or court order. Check your servicer's policies regarding this as each servicer varies.

What is Escrow

A mortgagor will pay a certain amount extra each month that goes into a separate escrow account, a lump of funds from which the servicer pays the mortgagor's house taxes or insurance. The servicer will often pay a mortgager's delinquent taxes or insurance, because it is in the servicer's interest to secure the property. The servicer will then open an escrow account with an advanced balance that needs to get paid back by the mortgagor. They should not charge interest on an advanced escrow balance.

The servicer almost certainly requires the mortgagor to have insurance, as stated in the note, and keeps careful track of the mortgagor's insurance and tax status. It is up to the mortgagor to provide proof of insurance. The servicer should attempt to notify the mortgagor before they open an escrow account, but the note and law probably allows them open an escrow account without the mortgagor's authorization.

Escrow is good because it saves the mortgagor the burden of paying a huge tax bill all at once. Although, some people pay it with a lump income like a tax return; it depends on your circumstances. Check with your servicer if they pay interest on the funds sitting in your escrow account. It also saves the mortgagor the stress of paying those bills. It is in the servicer's interest to pay escrow because it makes the property more secure; it won't go to tax lien or be without insurance.

It is good to keep track of the funds paid into the escrow account and disbursements made to taxes and insurance, but it often becomes quite complicated. There is no reason the servicer should pay a fee for this service.

The servicer may accidentally charge too little each month, and the account is drained prematurely. They will then simply raise the amount due each month with a little extra for that past amount. Very often the taxes and insurance payments will be different from what the mortgager expects, so the monthly payment turns out to be off. They will either refund or credit the mortgagor the left-over amount, or raise the monthly amount if it was short. But check with your servicer as each policy is different.

How do I get it? Get rid of it?

The note and law probably allows the servicer to keep the mortgagor on escrow; check your origination documents and the laws. Each servicer's policy is different regarding if they will drop an escrow account. The mortgagor may have the escrow account for the rest of the loan. Some subprime loans require at signing for the mortgagor to be on mortgage insurance as extra protection for the lender.

The servicer should be thrilled to get a request for an escrow account, as it provides them better security. Simply request it if that works best for your circumstances.

Federal law indicates: "Within 45 days of establishing the account, the servicer must give you a statement that clearly itemizes the estimated taxes, insurance premiums and other anticipated amounts to be paid over the next 12 months, and the expected dates and totals of those payments", and an annual statement. The servicer can apply forced place insurance if the customer fails to keep current insurance on the property. If force placed insurance was applied in error, provide proof and they should refund you.

What is a Modification? Refinance?

Foreclosure is very costly for a lender. One report says the typical cost to mortgage companies is $60,000. A modification is an agreement by both the mortgagor and the lender to change the mortgage contract. Anything can be changed. Lenders could extend the length of the loan with a more spread out payment in order to lower the monthly amount, eliminate principal owed, move past-due payments to the end of the loan, or lower the interest rate (per about.com).

It is foolish for mortgage companies to grant a large amount of modifications with lower interest rates, because lower interest rates create a false impression that these loans are less risky than they really are. The lender is unable to lend out funds unless they receive more compensation with higher interest from loans that are riskier, and loans that default are most risky. For this reason the number of modifications granted should be kept very small. In order to help lenders grant more modifications the government created programs like HAMP that provide extra incentive.

A refinance is where another lender pays the amount of money required to remit the mortgage in full, and then sets up a fresh new loan with the mortgagor. It is hard to imagine this ever saving the mortgagor money in the long run, but they may offer a mortgage with a lower interest rate and longer term. No lender is likely to offer a refinance for a severely defaulted loan because the mortgagor's credit score needs to be good.

Do not pay anything up-front for a modification. Many companies claim in commercials that they can get you a modification, but it is unnecessary for another company to get involved. Only seek this kind of help if you are at wits end, and only pay anything after the modification is completed; even if they give you a guarantee. There are non-profit organizations that help people with modifications, like HOPE, NACA, and HUD. The homeowner should be able to navigate through the modification process on their own- if it is feasible at all! The servicer itself should not charge anything for a modification, but check with your servicer on its policies.

How to get a modification?
Forclosure is what the servicer wants to avoid, some say, and you need to "convince the loan owner that a modification is in HIS best interest." I can't comment on specific policies of servicing companies, but many people pay late to give this impression.

This is a gamble. Paying late could hurt your credit, add up late charges, and start down a slippery slope that racks up a huge bill (the note probably makes the mortgagor responsible for the costs of the servicer securing a property in default). If the modification ends up being unsuccessful the mortgagor is then stuck with an enormous bill and poor credit.

Ask yourself this objectively: How will they be convinced that a modification is necessary- and yet convinced that the mortgagor will not default even if it is modified? Many people get spectacular modifications and then fail to pay even that, and the property goes to foreclosure. It makes sense for the servicer to be keen with loans that can't be saved even by a modification, to determine if the mortgagor is in a position to afford the new modified amount. If not, why shoud the servicer to modify the loan? Keep this in mind and check with your servicer for how they determine eligibility, as each servicer is different.

Some people lose a sustainable income and dip into their savings to pay the bill until their savings run out, and then seek immediate help. My advice is to plan long-term if it becomes apparent that your income is not sustainable to pay the mortgage. Make it apparent to the servicer that the modification is necessary for their interest, and that you can pay a lower amount with a modified interest rate. Do the math yourself, laying out your income versus the present and modified monthly payment. And always keep trying again if you are turned down the first time.

Be prompt with providing information and making payments. Check with your servicer for their policy on timetables.

What information do I give for a modification?

Each servicer has different rules, and again I can't comment on any specific policies. You should just be honest with your explanation of your hardship and get clear instructions from your servicer. But the government puts certain rules on their modifications:

Documentation required for HAMP: The new government programs stipulate requirements for participating servicers/lenders in these stimulus programs, though each servicer has different policies and your servicer could have additional requirements. If servicers/lenders participate, HAMP rules require the applying mortgagor to provide at least:

(a) Snapshot of monthly budget, (b) 2 recent pay stubs for each wage-earner on the note, (c) a 4506 T form filled out with signature of each borrower/coborrower, (d) federal Tax Returns, (e) and each signature on an Affidavit.

For other kinds of income: Self-employed people need a year-to-date profit and loss statement. Social security, disability, etc. need receipts of payment and documented evidence of the amount and frequency. Income from unemployment must continue for the next 9 months. For rental income, provide a Schedule E form and if it is your primary residence state an income of 75% of your gross. Alimony and child support don't have to be stated, but require documentation if included. Part-time or rental income does not have to be included unless it is at least 20% of a person's total income. Income from members of the household who are not listed on the mortgage (such as a spouse) are not required as part of the total gross income, but may give given.

HAMP Unemployment Program info here!

HAMP eligibility requirements include:

(a) Existing monthly payment on the mortgage must be more than 31% of the homeowner's gross income for the month. Add up your gross income for the month (including the voluntarily given income if you want). If that is less than 31% of your monthly mortgage bill (excluding escrow and fees) you are eligable.

(b) Demonstrate imminent default by providing some kind of financial hardship.

(c) Principal owed must be less than $729,750.

(d) The mortgage must have began before January 1, 2009.

(e) The property must be the mortgagor's primary residence (not a rental).

After HAMP passes, the homeowner gets set up on a 3-month trial plan. If the homeowner fails to pay these 3 payments on time the whole thing falls through. This trial payment could actually be larger than the existing payment if the loan wasn't already escrowed for taxes and insurance. Pay careful attention to the promised new amount and consider that escrow increases it. After the 3 months is up (NOT ONE DAY earlier or one day later) the homeowner begins the new modified payment. The servicer may not modify the loan at all without the mortgagor's and co-mortgagor's consent. They could offer a modification even without anyone applying, but read the new contract carefully to see if it is in your best interest. More on HAMP....

HAMP requires escrowed taxes and insurance, so if your circumstances are hurt by taxes and insurance getting paid that way, consider that applying for HAMP could mess you up worse. Check with your servicer to see if this is their policy. Each servicer has different policies for modificatoins.

You rights as a morgtagor

Debt collectors- FDCPA guidelines restrict what the servicer can do to collect from a delinquent mortgagor. The servicer is considered a debt collector when a loan in delinquent and they attempt to collect on the debt. In such cases they must provide certain debt collecting disclosures and follow guidelines. Each servicer has their own policies, but federal law states they must: (a) Only call 8am-9pm unless requested. (b) Not call at place of employment, if told not to by the mortgagor/comortgager. (c) Not contact by phone, if such a request is received in writing from the mortgagoer/comortgager. (d) Not discuss the mortgage except with the mortgager/co-mortgager, a person they have authorized to the servicer (or non-obligar spouse in states that allow this), or representative lawyer (e) Not harass people (threaten violence, blacklist, use foul language, make false accusations of criminality, make false claims of legal authority, make false threats of foreclosure or other legal action, misrepresent amount owed, misrepresent their company name, etc). (f) Call repeatedly back-to-back (it's still fuzzy how often is too often for phone calls)

State laws may have different restrictions and each servicer has its own policies within federal guidelines. Consult an attorney for specific federal and state laws, as this is only general.

Validation of debt letters must be sent within five days of the very initial contact, and the mortgagor then has a window of 30 days to dispute the amount owed or the creditor. The mortgagor can request a VOD letter to be sent so they can dispute the loan.

Misapplied funds: The servicer could misapply funds if the customer has multiple loans with them or the customer requests the funds to apply differently than the servicer's application policy. This could indicate a delinquency status and poor credit reporting. The servicer will determine if the customer failed to communicate their intention properly, if they requested to apply the funds outside of what their policy allows, or if it was indeed the servicer's fault. If it was the servicer's fault they should reverse the damages and apply the funds correctly.

Fees are based on what the note/securing document allow, and state/federal law allows. The servicer must post the payment when it is received (not when sent, it could be delayed in the mail). The servicer is allowed to take certain steps to secure the property as the loan reaches a certain delinquency level. Federal guidelines indicate: "These services may include property inspections to make sure you are still living in the home and maintaining the property. If the property is not being properly maintained, the servicer may order “property preservation services,” like lawn mowing, landscaping and repairing or boarding up broken windows and doors. The costs for these services, which can add up to hundreds or thousands of dollars, are charged to your loan account. If the servicer starts to foreclose on your property, additional costs like attorneys fees, property title search fees, and other charges for mailing and posting foreclosure notices will be charged to your loan account."

The servicer is not responsible for a bill pay error by the bank, or mail that is late/lost. It is in the servicer's interest to let a customer know when they become delinquent, but they may fail to do so and the customer may mistakingly keep paying too little or too late. Perhaps the payment went up for some reason. It is the customer responsibility to keep track of how much the payment is and when it is due. The note specifies when the servicer must send a delinquency notice.

Inquiries and Disputes must be responded to, if submitted correctly. They have 20 days to acknowledge receiving the inquiry, and 60 days to make a determination.

Each servicer has a different policy about disclosing who the lender is. The lender might not want to hear from you directly but have the servicer handle everything.

Fair Housing- Federal regulations prevent any company from refusing to purchase a loan, from setting different terms or conditions, or from refusing to provide information regarding loans based on: race, color, national origin, religion, sex, familial status or handicap. The company can not "make any statement that indicates a limitation or preference" in this regard.

Transfers- The loan can be sold or transferred to a new servicer. "In most cases, your current servicer must notify you at least 15 days before the effective date of the transfer, unless you received a written transfer notice at settlement. The effective date is when the first mortgage payment is due at the new servicer’s address. The new servicer must notify you within 15 days after the effective date of the transfer." A new lender has 30 days from attaining the loan to notify the customer.

The mortgagor gets a 60 day grace period the first month after the transfer and certain states require the late fee after that to be influenced the date of that first payment. Check an attorney, state laws, and your note to determine your policy in this regard.

Why don't I have more rights?- Keep careful written records of all your communications and dealings with the mortgage company, and then retain an attorney if you feel you have really been wronged. Laws already bend over backwards for homeowner's rights. Back in the day people were imprisoned and killed for failing to pay a debt. Personally, I think Americans feel way too entitled about receiving a huge amount of cash on a loan and then failing to pay it back as agreed. Read what you sign and expect the worst to happen in the future. Each state has different laws about recording phone conversations, and each servicer has different policies about it.

How does a loan go to foreclosure?

Late charges and other fees snowball as late monthly payments pile up over-due. Each servicer has different policies about which fees are accrued and when, and if some fees can get waived. As soon as the payment is late the foreclosure process could begin and the servicer can notify the mortgagor of this, although they can't foreclose on the property right away. Your note and applicable laws determine the foreclosure process.

Typically the servicer can send a notice to accelerate at 60 days past due, depending on the state and previous delinquency history. A demand letter is also sent with a date when the payment needs to be made by to avoid foreclosure. After this, the servicer sends a notice of default that gives about 20 days for response before the notice of sale. Each state has different timelines for how long the court gives before the sale (judicial vs. nonjudicial foreclosure), and it could be a considerable length of time. The notice of sale sets the auction date. The mortgagor will likely be responsible to pay attorney fees for each step in this process. Check with your servicer for their policy as each is different.

The servicer can no longer accept less than the entire total amount once it reaches the notice to accelerate. Loss-mitigation could still reinstate from foreclosure for a workout solution: modifying the loan, negotiating a short sale, or with a deed in lieu. Each servicer has different polices about loss mitigation.

Deed in Lieu is when the mortgagor gives over the collateral property in order to be released from all obligations of the mortgage. Second mortgages complicate this process.

Bankruptcy is a declaration of a person's inability to pay his creditors. Chapter 7 is the most common type of bankruptcy for homeowners, though Chapter 13 is considered by many a good alternative if there is more than nominal non-exempt equity on the property. A discharged bankruptcy eliminates the mortgagor's personal liability for the mortgage but the lender still can foreclose on the property if it doesn't get paid as promised. The mortgagor may reaffirm the debt after the bankruptcy is discharged. There are special regulations that must be followed for debt collectors in the case of a bankruptcy. Make sure to consult a bankruptcy attorney to determine how to retain your home as you declare bankruptcy. My advice is to consider bankruptcy if other debts besides the mortgage appear insurmountable.

Short Sale is a sale of a property for less than the principal owed, yet could release the mortgagor from obligation to pay the rest. A real estate agent negotiates with the lender for how much is enough for such a sale. Keep in mind that there could be tax implications for certain sales. Consult with a real estate attorney to determine if this is a good option for you, and then prepare the necessary documentation for your real estate agent to submit.

Tips: Avoiding fraud

Equity skimming happens from improper refinances. The lender refinances the mortgage while skimming a chunk of the equity into their pockets. The refinancer might claim the mortgagor only needs to pay rent while they secretly foreclose on the property. Be very careful who you refinance or get a second mortgage with and skeptical of good deals.

Property flipping involves a broker in league with a buyer, seller, and appraiser. The property is sold to a strawman buyer with an inflated value of the home from a fraud appraiser. This property is then sold for an even higher inflated amount to an honest buyer or false identity and the strawman walks away with a higher amount.

Identity theft is a buyer assuming someone else's identity and credit to buy or sell a home.

It is very risky to take on a second lien to get out of debt from the first, or to refinance to get out of debt, so make sure to get a real estate counselor before giving away any information. A second lien might, for example, fraudulently foreclose on a property to take the equity from the first lien. If there is only a little amount left to pay on the first mortgage and the mortgagor takes out a second loan, that second company could earn a lot by fraudulently foreclosing, paying off the rest of the first loan, and seizing the property. Be wary of a becoming a strawman buyer's victim, of identity theft, and of fraudulent refinancing. Seek a qualified lawyer for specific information on fraud threats.

Insurance/taxes- The mortgage company usually secures itself as a payee signer, which means that any insurance claim must be signed and approved by them. Seek a qualified lawyer to see if your insurance situation is shady. The mortgage company likewise should keep track of a mortgagor's property taxes in case the mortgagor stops paying.

Why is my payment mostly for interest? The amortization schedule on promissory note determines for the next 30 years (or whatever) how much principal and how much interest to include in each month's payment during that time to get it paid off by the end. Almost all the monthly payment will apply to interest at first because there is such a large amount of principal still owed. Slowly that principal decreases and the monthly interest dramatically decreases. When the interest payment is lower that means the rest goes to principal. This works out so that most of the monthly payment will apply to interest until about two-thirds the way through the loan, and then it will dramatically switch where most of the payment applies to principal. It just works out that way.

Billpay is a separate bank account that the mortgagor pays into, which the bank then releases to the servicer to pay the monthly bill. The mortgagor usually doesn't earn interest from the time those funds are in that other billpay account (this is why the bank likes billpay), and the bank usually just puts a check in the mail, so it really doesn't do the mortgagor any good. If the mortgagors just holds on to the money themselves and put a check in the mail when the bill is due, they at least earn a little money during that time it would be in billpay. The mortgagor could set up a seperate checking account that automatically receives the same amount each month and pays that to the servicer through automatic billing or an online service. Check with your servicer for what their charges are for online or other services to make payments.

Conclusion: The Architect's Larger Role

Reliance on the owner to competently finance projects has ruined the construction industry. Very basic knowledge of mortgages as explained in this article is uncommon. Particularly as more architectural projects deal with restoration of existing buildings, it should fall on the architect as the owner's advocate to secure financing. The architect transforms from engineer to planner over the years, but this is perhaps as it was always meant to be. Vitruvius inistated that architects take care to design buildings according to the financial class of the client. America's age of McMansions and foreclosures prove this advice goes unheeded.

The pernicious nature of America's entitlement mentality caused the Real Estate crash. Companies said they could compassionately put people in homes they really couldn't afford, and the people did anything they could to get the home. It is extremely disturbing that the homeowner is so eager to bind himself at the mercy of creditors, but it is realistically necessary that some kind of credit be used to finance the home. The common homeowner and business needs an architect as an advocate to determine what is affordable and to get a loan that is feasible. Unfortunately, people look to the government to do this, or to force mortgage companies to be more compassionate. This can only do more damage, perhaps as much damage as the governmental subsidies for sustainable designs really never leads to greener environments. Our buildings are continually less environmentally sustainable, and at the same time less financially sustainable. The government's role is to prevent fraud and cheating; that's it. It is up to the owner, and the owner needs an architect.

All text and images copyrighted

Painting: The Waters of Mormon

2011-01-16T00:04:00.000-08:00

PRINTS AVAILABLE HERE: Waters of Mormon by Benjamin Blankenbehler

"And it came to pass that as many as did believe him did go forth to a place which was called Mormon, having received its name from the king, being in the borders of the land having been infested, by times or at seasons, by wild beasts.

5 Now, there was in Mormon a fountain of pure water, and Alma resorted thither, there being near the water a thicket of small trees, where he did hide himself in the daytime from the searches of the king.....

8 And it came to pass that he said unto them: Behold, here are the waters of Mormon (for thus were they called) and now, as ye are desirous to come into the fold of God, and to be called his people, and are willing to bear one another’s burdens, that they may be light;

9 Yea, and are willing to mourn with those that mourn; yea, and comfort those that stand in need of comfort, and to stand as witnesses of God at all times and in all things, and in all places that ye may be in, even until death, that ye may be redeemed of God, and be numbered with those of the first resurrection, that ye may have eternal life—

10 Now I say unto you, if this be the desire of your hearts, what have you against being baptized in the name of the Lord, as a witness before him that ye have entered into a covenant with him, that ye will serve him and keep his commandments, that he may pour out his Spirit more abundantly upon you?.....

30 And now it came to pass that all this was done in Mormon, yea, by the waters of Mormon, in the forest that was near the waters of Mormon; yea, the place of Mormon, the waters of Mormon, the forest of Mormon, how beautiful are they to the eyes of them who there came to the knowledge of their Redeemer; yea, and how blessed are they, for they shall sing to his praise forever.

6 And it came to pass that as many as believed him went thither to hear his words.

7 And it came to pass after many days there were a goodly number gathered together at the place of Mormon, to hear the words of Alma. Yea, all were gathered together that believed on his word, to hear him. And he did teach them, and did preach unto them repentance, and redemption, and faith on the Lord." (Mosiah 18)

The Mermaid Of The Pond (Direct Translation)

2010-11-24T23:41:00.000-08:00

-This is a literal, unedited, unabridged translation of the Brothers Grimm fairy tale Die Nixe im Teich from “Grimms Märchen” by Dörfler published in Negel. This translation from German and the illustration are copyrighted by Benjamin Blankenbehler.-

There once was a miller who lived a joyous life with his wife. They had money and happiness, and their status increased year by year. But, alas, misfortune can come overnight! Their wealth dwindled away year by year just as quickly as it had grown until finally the miller could barely call the mill in which he sat his own. When he lay down after a hard day’s work he was so sorrowful that he could find no peace, and he stirred fitfully in his bed all night long.

One morning he got up before the break of day to go on a calming walk, hoping it would ease his heart. The first sunbeam came just as he stepped over the mill’s dam, and he heard a murmur in the pond. He turned around to see a beautiful woman rising slowly from the water. She held her long hair with her tender hands over her shoulders and it flowed down on either side until it floated in water, covering her fair body. He realized this was the water-fairy of the pond, and for fear he didn’t know whether he should flee or stay. But the fairy spoke with a gentle voice, calling him by name, and she asked him why he was so sad. At first the miller was silent. But she spoke so friendly that he gained heart and explained to her how he had lived in happiness and wealth but now was so poor that he didn’t know what to do.

‘Be at peace,’ answered the fairy, ‘I will make you richer and happier than you have ever been. You must only promise me that you will give me the youth that has just entered into your house.’

‘What else could that be but a young dog or cat,’ thought the miller, and he gave her the promise she demanded. The fairy descended back into the water, and the miller rushed back to his mill comforted and full of courage.

But he had not yet reached his home when the maid came out the door and called to him, telling him to be full of joy because his wife had just given birth to a young baby. The miller stood as if struck by lightning; for he saw that the treacherous water-fairy had known this all along and deceived him. He walked to his wife’s bed with his head lowered, and she asked, ‘Why aren’t you happy about the beautiful child?’

He told her about his encounter with the fairy and the promise he had made. ‘What good is wealth and success if I lose my child?’ he cried, ‘But what can I do?’ Relatives came by to give good wishes, but they could give no advice on what to do.

From then on the miller’s household saw another reversal of fortune. Suddenly he obtained anything he sought for, as if the boxes and crates filled themselves, and the money in his pocket increased overnight. Before long he was richer than ever before, however he could still find no peace or enjoy it. The promise which he had made to the fairy tormented his heart. Every time he passed by the pool he feared she might emerge to remind him of his fault.

He never let the child go anywhere near the water. ‘If you ever touch the water, watch out!’ he told the child, ‘Because a hand will come out, grab you, and drag you in.’ But the years went by and the fairy never came back, so finally the miller began to calm down.

The baby grew into a young man, and he trained to be a hunter. As soon as he finished his training and became a competent hunter, he entered the service of the ruler of the village. There was a girl in the village who was very beautiful and true. The ruler of the village saw that the young hunter liked the girl, and he gave them a small house to live in. They were married and lived in peace and prosperity, and loved each other with all their hearts.

One day the hunter followed a deer. As the animal came out of the forest into the open field, the hunter chased it and finally brought it down with a single shot. He didn’t notice that he had entered into the area of the dangerous pond. After he had disemboweled the animal, he went to the water to wash the blood off his hands. As soon as his hand touched the water the fairy sprang up and laughed as she wrapped her wet arms around him and pulled him in so quickly that the waves wrapped together over him.

Night fell and the hunter didn’t come back home, causing his wife to worry. She went out to search for him and remembered how he often talked about the persecution of a water fairy which he must always watch out for, that he must never venture anywhere near the pond. She guessed what had happened to him, and so she hurried to the water. There she found his hunter sack lying on the bank, and she could no longer doubt what misfortune had happened. She cried her love’s name, pleading and grieving. She ran to the other side of the pond and cried for him again, cursing the water fairy with hard words. But no answer came. The water stood still as a mirror. Only half the face of the moon gazed at her unflinchingly.

The poor woman didn’t leave the pool. She circled the pond over and over, never stopping to rest. Sometimes she slowed, and then let forth a violent scream, sometimes she gave only a soft whimper. Finally she lost all of her strength and fell to the earth in a deep sleep. Soon she was overcome by a dream.

She climbed fearfully upward between great boulders of stone. Thorns and thistles tore at her feet. The wind beat in her face and the wind pulled at her hair. When she reached the plateau she was met by a totally different scene, a blue sky and a mild breeze. The ground dipped slightly down to a green meadow full of colorful flowers in the middle of which stood a cleanly hut. She approached the hut and opened the door. There sat an old woman with white hair who beckoned warmly at her.

Suddenly the poor woman awoke. The day had already broken. She decided at once to follow what she had done in the dream. She strenuously climbed the mountain, and everything was just as she had seen in the night. The elderly person received her warmly and showed her a stool to sit on.

‘You must have had some terrible luck,’ the old woman said, ‘to seek out my lonely hut!’

Through her tears, the woman told the old woman everything that had happened. ‘Comfort yourself,’ the old woman said, ‘I will help you. Here you will find a gold comb. Wait until the full moon has risen. Then go to the pool, sit down on the edge and use this comb to let your long black hair shine. When you are done set it down on the waterside. Then you will see what happens.’

The woman went back, but the time went very slowly until there was a full moon. Finally the luminous disc shown in the heavens and she went out to the pool, sat down and combed her long black hair with the golden comb. When she was finished she set it down on the waterside. Before long a roar came from the deep. A wave rose up and crashed on the bank, pulling the comb away. It didn’t take any longer than what was necessary for the comb to sink into the ground before the mirror face of the water parted and the hunter’s head rose up. He didn’t speak; his wife just looked at him with a sad gaze. In that same moment a second wave roared up and covered the man’s head. Everything vanished; only the face of the full moon gleamed on the pool. It lay just as still as before.

The woman turned hopelessly went back home. But another dream showed her the hut of the elderly woman. The next morning she set once again on the path and threw all her sorrow before the lady of white.

The old woman gave her a golden flute and said, ‘Wait until the full moon returns, and then take this flute and sit on the bank. Blow a pretty tune with it, and when you are finished set it down on the sand. Then you will see what happens.

The woman did just as the old woman had said. Just as she set the flute on the sand a roar came from the deep. A wave rose, plunged on the flute and pulled it away. The water soon parted and not just the man’s head but the upper half of the man’s body rose up. He reached out his arms toward her longingly but a second wave crashed over him, covering him and pulling him back in.

‘Oh! What good is that I see my love only to lose him again?’ cried the misfortunate woman. Ruefully she again poured out her heart, but again she had a dream which led her a third time into the house of the old woman. She set out for the house again and the wise woman gave her a golden spinning wheel. The old woman comforted her and spoke:

‘Not everything is yet fulfilled. Wait until the full moon returns, then take this spinning wheel, and sit on the bank and spin until all the thread is used up. When you are finished place the spinning wheel near to the water, and you will then see what happens.

The woman followed everything correctly. As soon as the moon shown she took the golden spinning wheel to the bank and spun tirelessly, until the flax was used up and the thread was full. As soon as the wheel sat on the bank, the water roared from the deep more fiercely than before. A powerful wave rushed forward and dragged the wheel away. Then the head rose with a jet of water, and the entire body of the man rose in the air. He jumped quickly onto the bank, grabbed his wife’s hand, and fled.

They had only gotten a small distance when the entire pool rose with a dreadful roar. It streamed with giant force in the broad field. The fleeing pair saw their death approaching and the woman fearfully called for the old woman’s help. In the blink of an eye they were transformed into a toad and a frog. The flood could not kill them when it overtook them, but it tore them from one another and took them far away.

The water passed on and they both touched dry land again with their human form returned. But neither knew where the other was, for they found themselves with strange people who didn’t know of their homeland. High mountains and deep valleys lay between them. In order to survive they both had to guard sheep. So they drove their flocks through field and forest for many long years, but they were full of sadness and yearning.

Spring returned once more to the earth. One day by chance they both drove their flocks near each other. He spotted a flock on the distant mountain slope and led his sheep toward it. They did not recognize each other when they both reached a dell in the slope. But they were happy to not be so lonely. So from then on they led their flocks next to each other, and they didn’t speak much but felt some comfort.

One night as the full moon in heaven shone and the sheep were asleep, the shepherd took the flute out of his bag and blew a beautiful but sad song. When he finished he noticed that the other shepherd wept bitterly.

‘Why are you crying?’ he asked.

‘Oh, the moon shone just like this the last time I played this song on the flute,’ she answered, ‘and the head of my dearest came out of the water.‘

He looked at her, and it was as if scales fell from his eyes, for he recognized his dear wife. As she looked at him and the full moon shone on his face, she also recognized him. They took each other in their arms and kissed, and there is no question whether they were happy.

Earthquakes: Joy for the Community

2010-07-06T20:51:00.000-07:00

- Timeless design principles can unify the community

The responsibility for the safety of a community during an earthquake or any other natural disaster extends well beyond the architect. Regardless of his skills and ethics, when the client and general community refuses to do what is necessary to ensure safety during a disaster, coming catastrophes are sure to take human lives. In our built communities we have often ignored classic design principles necessary for seismic issues. Often the means are simple and cheap but are not utilized simply because they aren't pretty or convenient to the program.

Increasingly, we build isolated structures with little seismic design intent that fail during earthquakes, and disorganized rescuers fail to save lives. When we overcome these struggles, however, we benefit with much more than just safe buildings. The community will have unified for a common cause.

Organization and connectivity often makes the difference. A community with disaster management programs and proper regulations will ensure the rights steps are taken. This approach, cooperation between nations and communities as well as more oversight and regulation in the entire build-design industry, will properly motivate awareness throughout the design process, to earthquakes and other natural and man-made disasters.

With this organization, classic design principles may be implemented throughout the entire scope of design, on a public and individual level. An attitude of greater respect for timeless design principles will prevent overzealous design with new technology, and timeless architecture will unify the community.

Simple design principles can be utilized throughout the entire built environment design process. To reinforce these principles we need strategies that will build greater unity in a community, that will prevent damage and loss of life in a disaster.

A Disaster?

The 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake was fun. I was only five at the time, but I remember it clearly. Through the chaos and strife, I recall excitement and the strange desire that earthquakes would happen more frequently. This was of course foolish because this earthquake killed people, but couldn't there be a way to experience the joys of seismic activities without the messy cleanup, without the suffering?

We tend to get caught up with the introduction of new technology, technology we can't yet handle. Even ideal buildings from geniuses like LeCorbusier fall to catastrophic earthquakes because they aren't designed for earthquakes. Too often we either forget or ignore simple design principles that have been around for thousands of years. San Francisco had had a large catastrophic earthquake from which they should have learned their lessons. But the later Loma Prieta earthquake caused human suffering.

Designers are less likely to go the extra mile, to learn seismic strategies and to employ them, unless someone steps up and starts the trend, and this burden falls on the architect. But the architect is powerless unless there is some sort of public awareness or government regulation. The architect must therefore seek more government intervention and must show that there are greater benefits than mere insurance in the case of an unlikely seismic event.

Great architecture doesn't battle natural forces but channels them to positive uses. Interestingly, civilizations in history have considered earthquakes rather positively. Why should we feel threatened by a planet that constantly sustains our lives and gives us happiness? The earth's shaking reveals it as an animated entity, and as humans try to explain this phenomena, life is assumed.

Most religions have associated earthquakes with the presence of God.^[1] The Greeks thought Poseidon caused earthquakes. Norse mythology taught that Loki, bound in a cave, caused earthquakes. Christianity teaches that earthquakes herald the presence of God's coming. Hindus, Zapotec, Jewish, and Maimas likewise associate seismic activity with the motion of a god. In a world of “relationships which are forever making cosmos out of chaos,”^[2] earthquakes are great universal gestures that rapport communities towards unity.

Principles of Earthquake Design City

Renaissance designers developed archetypes sensitive to catastrophes by implementing height limitations, carefully shaping their typical floor-plans, and creating open urban spaces. The early open spaces were achieved with comprehensive environmental landscaping, and designers later widened roads and open urban spaces for greater response to disasters. Medieval cities had walls, protective envelopes, that may have been inconvenient but provided a host of benefits: protection from attackers, contained urban sprawl, and reinforcement for the general community of structures. The city envelope achieved “appropriate linkages, patterns, and forms which define a viable system”^[3] to deal with catastrophes.

Greater investment in city-wide protective programs can go a long way to solve a variety of problems. City programs must be considered for their potential contributions to disaster prevention and relief. A city's general infrastructure must consider all the natural features that indicate possible disasters and evaluate risks to determine zoning and code restrictions. Code regulations should set height limitations and restrict floor-plan shapes.

Site

Building sites were carefully selected based on possible risks to the public and environmental risks to the building. The more important the building, the better site it got. Vitruvius devoted a good portion of his writings to site selection, with influences from wind, water features, soil type, and geographic features.^[4]

This can be expanded with our new insight on earthquake waves and fault patterns. We can now “determine probabilistic distributions of occurrences with intensities”^[5] of seismic as well as wind loads. A city-wide program on behalf of designers could estimate the vulnerability of existing buildings and also consider geomorphology and geological risks of amplification. This would lead to better city configuration and aid designers of individual structures.

Building

From city-wide elements to design for individual structures and components, Renaissance designers let structural solutions greatly influence their final configuration. Structural solutions to natural forces are often “considered a second level parameter which can be determinant only when linked to the architectural choice of making evident a structural aspect.”^[6] For example, Rem Koolhaas determined the configuration for the Seattle library entirely based on the building's programs. The result is a lopsided building that seems entirely unsafe in an earthquake or any other disaster. Medieval buildings were symmetrical and compact, avoiding the awkward distribution of mass that we see in the Seattle library. The amount of structure for the library is undoubtedly greater than it would need to be if the structural necessities were the first consideration. A final configuration primarily derived from structural solutions will decrease the amount of resistance and mitigation needed against natural forces.

New Solutions

Also promoting greater honesty to natural forces, we recognize today the need for structures to deform in an earthquake. Rather than battling lateral forces, the much simpler solution is to just let it happen and prevent collapse or permanent deformation by using sophisticated moment-resisting frames.

Seismic isolation is another recent solution used more around the world, particularly in China were new urban construction is booming. Proper isolators can reduce the structure's acceleration response by one-eighth to one-half while reducing the cost of conventional seismic design by 13%. Isolators allow any kind of building shape and building type. Rubber bearing are most popular among the various types of isolators because they require less maintenance, they have vertical tension capabilities, they recover after the seismic event, and they are unaffected by temperature change. Chinese codes dictate which isolators are to be used based on how “important” the building is. For common civil buildings, horizontal forces must be decreased at least an eighth, while important buildings must have a decrease of at least a fourth.^[7]

Recently, the “US Federal Emergency Management Agency adopted a performance-based seismic-resistant design approach” to seismic isolation.^[8] Performance-based design accounts for uncertainty in seismic hazards and building response, and seeks a certain performance criteria without exceeding or failing to reach this goal.

The isolators are built particular to the building's shape, the desired flexibility, the soil conditions, and the amount of vertical motion desired. The effect an earthquake has on a building can thus be mitigated without simply preventing or blindly battling against the forces.

Cooperation

These principles cannot be applied throughout the entire design spectrum, from city design to building components, without widespread cooperation. The California Seismic Safety Commission said architects are “in a crucial position to influence the seismic safety of structures” because of their “overall view of all aspects of the design and construction process.” It's the architect's responsibility to work with the community, to peer review other projects, to provide education programs for the public, and to evaluate damaged buildings.^[9] But the architect is powerless unless the client feels some kind of pressure, either from insurance companies, from government regulations, or from safety concern for the occupants. It is therefore essential that the public be educated on the threats of natural disasters, and that the government take a stronger role in code regulations and safety programs.

Inter-government

Since the China-US Millennium Symposium on Earthquake Engineering in November 2000, there has been great cooperation between America and Asia in earthquake design. In the past, cooperation has been difficult because of the distance between these countries, but improvements in digital communication have helped this collaboration.

Multinational research has been more fruitful than when countries go it alone, and a larger number of people can be helped. More protocols and inter-university projects would cement common cooperation between countries on the pacific rim. In this symposium, both countries recognized that the greatest challenges to modern earthquake design is cooperation, public education, and increasingly ambitious building projects.^[10]) Emphasis has been placed on the need for a general digital network that can be accessed by the general public.

The 2004 Thailand tsunami disaster was shameful. We now have capabilities to detect seismic activity as soon as it happens and warn people before they are effected, a “Digital Disaster Reduction System.” It is in everyone's best interest to establish an international detection and warning system to prevent damage from world catastrophes. With such a system we can also have greater insight in fault activities and tenancies to help local design, developing catastrophic classification maps, and so forth.

The Pacific Earthquake Engineering Research Center can establish a desired performance criteria for a region that will dictate the urban design there. With such a system in place, it would be much easier for the designer to develop seismic designs. It is simply a matter of implementing these “simple prescriptive procedures.”^[10]

Inter-community

Lifelines are the top priority for societies: water, power, gas, etc. These should be the priority for regions and communities. Each community needs a central agency to monitor and inspect all lifelines. This agency would identify hazards to networks, inventory the networks, determine vulnerabilities, implement mitigation measures, and prepare a response model for all anticipated disasters.

To help manage large systems, these networks could be broken down into “cells,” each with their monitoring agency. To help in this response plan, “digital community models” for each cell will make identification of issues, communication, and aid easier in the case of a disaster.^[11] All agencies inside the regional disaster management system must seek holistic solutions for all kinds of disasters, terrorism, wind, fire, flooding, etc., to ensure preventive measures that enforce and don't diminish prevention of other disasters.

The communities' lifelines should be redundantly interconnected, so that if one community's lifeline should fail it has a backup. The result would be “appropriate linkages, patterns, and forms which define a viable system”^[3] much like medieval city infrastructures.

Again, the structure necessities of this architectural system should be the primary exigencies for settlement patterns and archetypes within communities. For example, construction atop precarious ridges should be discouraged even though they may have a nice view. This sounds reasonable enough, but getting people to actually build intelligently is a difficult matter.

There are inevitably building types that will that fall out of this criteria, and these buildings are especially at high risk- buildings such as rehabilitation projections, areas of renovation and densification (new housing), intense urbanization, and urban sprawl. Regional and local regulations should therefore discourage these kinds of settlements, and disaster agencies should consider special preventive and relief measures in these areas.

The three biggest challenges to developing this system are (a) Inter-institutional and inter-disciplinary coordination, (b) Private-Public sector Collaboration, and (c) Development of susceptibility risk maps.^[11] To make inter-institutional coordination easier, each disaster agency should be restructured into a hierarchal order, from national to regional and community down to cells. The kind of legal squabbling that caused so much damage in last year's Lake Tahoe fire can be prevented by establishing a decisive leader over all disciples on each level. Greater clarity in information over the proposed international digital network would help insurance agencies and other private sector establishments provide pressure for seismically safe communities.

Government departments need access to the disaster network to provide pertinent information and to receive helpful information that save lives. If each community is responsible for precise mapping and each of their maps is added up into an overall map, FEMA could develop much better maps for the general public. Besides the typical seismic hazard map, there should be local vulnerability maps, direct maps (population in regards to physical elements of the city), and functional maps (population in regards to their activities.)^[11]

This kind of coordination is the most important design measure for dealing with disasters. After all, natural and man-made disasters are the main reason mankind built cities in the first place. Disasters bring people together for prevention, endurance, and relief. Earthquakes are especial in that they are broad events that they hit a large amount of people much the same way. They challenge our beliefs of gravity and solid foundations, and spur us to build a more solid groundwork. These fundamental designs are likewise broad and for the greater good. Broad communication between civilizations and communities can help with research that will save lives during an event.

We have lost essential design attitudes for preserving life and safety in our structures and for civilization in general. Structure necessities should come first in considering configuration. Structures and human activities should work with natural forces rather than blindly battling them. Most importantly, coordination should be a means of disaster prevention and relief. From international communication to building component design, these mantras should be common in architectural language and public knowledge.

Earthquakes don't have to be disasters if they harmlessly bring the community towards unity with each other and with the natural landscape. New technology offers better solutions to the issues, and if we don't lose sight of those fundamental mantras, they can make the designs cheaper and more reliable.

More ambitious expeditious projects and quick acceleration in technological development are challenges, but with greater governmental intervention each designer involved can hold his responsibility. America's tendency toward thoughtless pragmatism can be reversed.

References

^ERI University of Memphis, “Earthquake Myths and Folklore” 2008 http://www.ceri.memphis.edu

^Mordecai M. Kaplan, “The Meaning of God in Modern Jewish Religion” 1995

^JAE, Vol. 33, No. 4, “Urban Design and Hazards” by Henry J. Lagorio On behalf of Association of Collegiate Schools of Architecture, Inc. 15 August, 2006 Summer 1980

^See Vitruvius' “Ten Books on Architecture”

^Applied Mathematics and Mechanics Volume 27, Number 5, “Probability model and
solution on earthquake effects combination in along wind resistant design of tall-flexible buildings” by Hong Xiao-jian and GuMin May, 2006

^M.Mezzi and A. Parducci “Conceptual Seismic Design and State-of-the-Art Protection Systems for Consortium of Universities for Research in Earthquake Engineering” http://www.curee.org

^Fu Lin Zhou, Zheng Yang, Xiang Yun Huang, Ping Tan “Research and Application on Different
Types of Seismic Isolation Structures in China” http://3icee.njut.edu.cn

^Rafael Sabelli, Stephen Mahin, Chunho Chang, “Seismic Demands on Steel Braced Frame
Buildings with Buckling-Restrained Braces” http://nisee.berkeley.edu

^State of California Seismic Safety Commission “Architectural Practice and Earthquake
Hazards (Committee on the Architect's Role in Earthquake Hazard Mitigation)”(2008)

^B.F.Spencer, Y.X. Hu “Earthquake Engineering Frontiers in the New Millennium” 2001

^U. S. Conference on Lifeline Earthquake Engineering, James E. Beavers “Advancing
Mitigation Technologies and Disaster Response for Lifeline Systems” 2003

^Nora Elsa Nacif, María del Pilar Espinosa and Dora Roitman de Schableman “Seismic
Prevention and Urban Development” http://wwww.crid.or.cr (1996)

Comparison of Early Yucatan Observations And Book of Mormon Claims

2010-05-24T10:52:00.000-07:00

Friar Diego de Landa was one of the first Europeans on the American continent, and as the top destroyer of the pre-Columbian Maya civilization has a unique insight on the culture that has been long extinct. Friar Landa ordered the destruction of thousands of sacred writings, artifacts, and effectively wiped out the civilization's religion and way of life.

It would make sense for Landa to justify his actions by portraying Spain as the bringer of long-lost Christianity to a forgotten branch of Israel, lost since apostasized. Indeed, Landa appears to do this, often drawing distinct comparison between their way of life and Christian rites. He never attempts to portray the Indians anything more than depraved primitives, however, and justifies his inhuman genocide by comparing himself to Israel who destroyed Jericho at God's command.

Friar Landa’s diary Yucatan Before and After the Conquest was only recently brought to light and translated into English. In 1830, Joseph Smith produced the Book of Mormon, which he purported to be a record of ancient American Indians that had sailed from Jerusalem to the American continent. Smith's book bears some striking resemblances to Landa's record, not the least of which is baptism, claims of origins from the Jews, and details of priestly orders.

Here I present quotes from both works that appear to correlate unexpected historical observation about the American people and the people alleged in the Book of Mormon:

Diary of Friar Landa	Book of Mormon
Prophecy of the Conquistadors
"As the Mexican people had signs and prophecies of the coming of the Spaniards and the end of their power and religion, so also did those of Yucatan some years before they were conquered... An Indian named Ah-cambal (a spiritual leader of the people)…told publicly that they would soon be ruled by a foreign race who would preach a God and the virtue of a wood which in their tongue he called vahom-che, meaning a tree lifted up..." (19)	"...in the latter days, when our seed shall have dwindled in unbelief, yea, for the space of many years, and many generations after the Messiah shall be manifested in body unto the children of men, then shall the fulness of the gospel of the Messiah come unto the Gentiles, and from the Gentiles unto the remnant of our seed... they shall be remembered again among the house of Israel; they shall be grafted in, being a natural branch of the olive-tree, into the true olive-tree." (1Ne. 15:13-16)
Origin of American peoples from the East
"Some old men of Yucatan say that they have heard from their ancestors that this country was peopled by a certain race who came from the East, whom God delivered by opening for them twelve roads through the sea. If this is true, all the inhabitants of the Indies must be of Jewish descent..." (8)	"Yea, the more part of all the [12] tribes have been led away; and they are scattered to and fro upon the isles of the sea" (1Ne. 22: 4) "...after we had sailed for the space of many days we did arrive at the promised land... we did put all our seeds into the earth, which we had brought from the land of Jerusalem." (1 Ne. 18:23-24)
City planning and wine vineyards
"Before the Spanish subdued the country, the Indians lived together in well ordered communities… in the center of the town were the temples, with beautiful plazas, and around the temples stood the houses of the chiefs and the priests, and next those of the leading men. Closest to these came the houses of those who were wealthiest and most esteemed, and at the borders of the town were the houses of the common people... their plantations were set out in the trees for making wine." (26)	"And I, Nephi, did build a temple; and I did construct it after the manner of the temple of Solomon save it were not built of so many precious things; for they were not to be found upon the land, wherefore, it could not be built like unto Solomon’s temple. But the manner of the construction was like unto the temple of Solomon;" (2 Ne. 5:16) See the biblical description for how Hebrew cities were arranged around the temple. "And it came to pass that [King Noah] planted vineyards round about in the land; and he built wine-presses, and made wine in abundance;" (Mos. 11:15)
Confusion over whether Yucatan is an island
"Yucatan Is not an island, nor a point entering the sea, as some thought, but mainland." (1) emphasis mine	"...we have been led to a better land, for the Lord has made the sea our path, and we are upon an isle of the sea.” (2 Ne. 10:20)
Baptism
"Baptism is... with a word meaning to be born anew or a second time, the same as the Latin renascer. Thus in the language of Yucatan sihil means ‘to be born anew’ or a second time but only however in composition, thus caput-sihil means to be reborn [the specific term for bapitsm is distinct from caput-cuxtal, ‘to come to life a second time’- note from the author]. It’s origins have been unable to learn, but it is something they have always used and for which they have such devotion that no one fails to receive it; they had such reverence for it that those guilty of sins, or those who knew they were about to sin, were obliged to confess to the priest, in order to receive it; and they had such faith in it that in no manner did they ever take it a second time. They believed that in receiving it they acquired a predisposition to good conduct and habits, protection against being harmed by devils in their earthly affairs, and that through it and living a good life they would attain a beatitude hereafter which, like that of Mahomet, consisted of eating and drinking." (42-43)	"Ye must repent and be born again... He that is baptized in my name, to him will the Father give the Holy Ghost." (2 Ne. 31:11-12) "...blessed is he that believeth in the word of God, and is baptized... by and by ye shall pluck the fruit thereof, which is most precious, which is sweet above all that is sweet, and which is white above all that is white, yea, and pure above all that is pure; and ye shall feast upon this fruit even until ye are filled, that ye hunger not, neither shall ye thirst." (Alma 32:16,42) "...they came forth and did confess their sins and were baptized unto repentance..." (Hel. 5:17)
'Amen'
"They have the custom of assisting one who delivers a message by responding with a cadence of the voice, a sort of aspirate in the throat as if to say ‘it is well’ or‘be is so’" (39)	"And thus it is. Amen." (1 Ne. 9: 6, 14: 30, 22: 31, Hel. 12: 26, see also Alma 6: 8, 7: 27, 3 Ne. 5: 26, Ether 4: 19) Mormon congregations say in union 'Amen' at the end of a sermon.
Succession of Priests & Teachers
"The people of Yucatan were as attentive to matters of religion as of government, and had a High Priest… He was succeeded in office by his son or closest kin. In him lay the key to their sciences, to which they most devoted themselves… He and his disciples appointed the priests for the towns, examining them in their sciences, and ceremonies, put on their charge the affairs of their office, and the setting of a good example to the people, he provided their books (scripture) and sent them forth. They in turn attended to the service of the temples, teaching their sciences they taught here… the administering of their sacraments, the omens of the days, their methods of divination and prophecies events, remedies for sicknesses, antiquities, and the art of reading and writing." (12-13)	"And it came to pass that king Mosiah granted unto [High Priest] Alma that he might establish churches throughout all the land of Zarahemla; and gave him power to ordain priests and teachers over every church... every church having their priests and their teachers, and every priest preaching the word according as it was delivered to him by the mouth of Alma." (Mos. 25:19-21)
Confessing sins to avoid sickness
"The Yucatecans naturally knew when they had done something wrong, and they believed that death, disease, and torments would come on them because of evildoing, and sin, and thus they had the custom of confessing to their priests when such was the case. In this way, when for sickness or other cause they found themselves in danger of death, they made confession of their sins… the sins of which they commonly accused themselves were theft, homicide of the flesh, and false testimony." (83)	"...Zeezrom lay sick at Sidom, with a burning fever, which was caused by the great tribulations of his mind on account of his wickedness... and his many other sins, did harrow up his mind until it did become exceedingly sore, having no deliverance; therefore he began to be scorched with a burning heat... And it came to pass that they went immediately, obeying the message which he had sent unto them; and they went in unto the house unto Zeezrom; and they found him upon his bed, sick, being very low with a burning fever; and his mind also was aexceedingly• sore because of his iniquities; and when he saw them he stretched forth his hand, and besought them that they would heal him.” (Alma 15: 3-5) "Wo unto the liar, for he shall be thrust down to hell. Wo unto the murderer who deliberately killeth, for he shall die. Wo unto them who commit whoredoms, for they shall be thrust down to hell." (2 Nephi 9:34-38)
Punishment for sins and adultery
"They had laws against delinquents which they executed rigorously, such as against an adulterer, whom they turned over to the injured party that he might either put him to death by throwing a great stone upon his head… For the adulteress there was no penalty save the infamy, which was very serious thing to them. One who ravished a maiden was stoned to death." (162)	"But if he murdered he was punished unto death; and if he robbed he was also punished; and if he stole he was also punished; and if he committed adultery he was also punished; yea, for all this wickedness they were punished.” (Alma 30: 10) See the rules on stoning in the Bible, and Jacob 2:28-35 regarding mercy for women.
Polygamy oulawed
"The Yucatan never took more than one single wife, although in other places they frequently took a number together." (42)	"Behold, David and Solomon truly had many wives and concubines, which thing was abominable before me, saith the Lord....for there shall not any man among you have save it be one wife; and concubines he shall have none." (Jacob 2: 24,27)
Name of nation "Home"
"...he met certain Indian fisherfolk whom he asked what country this was, and who answered Catoch, which means ‘our houses, our homeland,’for which reason he gave that name to the cape. When he asked by signs how the land was theirs, they replied Ci uthan, meaning ‘they say it." (2)	"Nephites were inspired by a better cause, for they were not fighting for monarchy nor power but they were fighting for their homes and their liberties, their wives and their children, and their all, yea, for their rites of worship and their church: And they were doing that which they felt was the aduty which they owed to their God." (Alma 43:45-46)
Divorce frowned upon
"Even though divorce was so common and familiar a thing, the old people and those of better customs condemned it, and there were many who never had but a single wife; nor did they ever marry one bearing their own name on the father’s side, for this was considered a very bad thing. Equally wrong was it held that a man should marry his sister in law, the widow of a brother." (41)	"It hath been written, that whosoever shall put away his wife, let him give her a writing of divorcement. Verily, verily, I say unto you, that whosoever shall put away his wife, saving for the cause of fornication, causeth her to commit adultery; and whoso shall marry her who is divorced committeth adultery." (3 Ne. 12: 31-32 )
Increase in divorce
"In olden times they married at the age of twenty, but now at that of twelve or thirteen. For this reason they divorce more easily because they marry without love and ignorant of a married life and the duties of married people; and if their parents could not persuade them to return to their wives, they hunted them another and others and others." (41)	"And they were married, and given in marriage, and were blessed according to the multitude of the promises which the Lord had made unto them... [later] they did deny the more parts of his gospel, insomuch that they did receive all manner of wickedness, and did administer that which was sacred unto him to whom it had been forbidden because of unworthiness." (4 Nephi 1:11, 27)
Importance of geneology
"They make much of knowledge of the origins of their lineages, especially if they come from one of the houses of Mayapan; this they learn from their priests, it being one of their sciences, and they boast much about one of their lineage who has distinguished himself. The name of the father is transmitted to his son, but not to his daughters" (40)	"I am the son of Mormon, and my father was a descendant of Nephi." (Mormon 8:13) The Hebrew people commonly kept their lineage sacred and handed their name down to their son, especially in the Book of Mormon.
Preparation for child baptism
"Their custom of preparing for baptism was as follows: the Indian women raised the children to the age of three… the priest proceeded in the purification of the house, expelling the demon… They asked the largest [children] whether they had done anything bad, or obscene conduct, and if any had done so they confessed them and separated them from the others, and began to bless the children with long prayers… went to the children and menaced each one with a bone on the forehead (Lehi, the father of the Nephi/Lamanite people, means bone of the forehead) nine times. After this, he wet the bone in a jar of water he carried, and with it anointed them on the forehead, the face, and between the fingers of their hands and the bones of their feet… after this the priest rose, removed the white cloths from their heads, as well as others they wore suspended from the shoulders containing a few feathers… The fiesta then ended with long eating and drinking; and this fiesta was called em-ku, which means, ‘the descent of the god." (45)	See common Mormon baptism and temple rites. Child baptism was condemned in the Book of Mormon, showing that it was practiced among those people: "And he that saith that little children need baptism denieth the mercies of Christ, and setteth at naught the atonement of him and the power of his redemption." (Moroni 8:20)

Vitruvius' Theory Of Human Evolution, 2000 Years Before Darwin

2010-03-08T13:54:00.000-08:00

We consider Charles Darwin the father of the evolution theory. But almost 2,000 years before him, Marcus Vitruvius Pollio observed evolution in life forms and made scientific theories of the mankind's origins. Vitruvius recorded many well known scientific principles that were lost in the dark ages such as rain cycles and the circumference of the earth. But the origin of the human species is at the root of his treatise,and it drives his principles of design, principles that blossomed into every branch of modern art and design.

Origin of Humans: Wild Beasts
Origin of Life: Chance
Genetic Mutation, Variance of Species
Racial supremacy
Modern Theories of Evolution

Origin of Humans: Wild Beasts

"The men of old were born like the wild beasts, in woods, caves, and groves, and lived on savage fare." (I, 1, 1)

Vitruvius described our ancestors as no different than wild animals. Though he never explicitly states that humans developed from wild animals, he outlines a process of discoveries and anatomical changes that made humans "gifted beyond the other animals."

"As time went on, the thickly crowded trees in a certain place, tossed by storms and winds, and rubbing their branches against one another, caught fire, and so the inhabitants of the place were put to flight, being terrified by the furious flame. After it subsided, they drew near, and observing that they were very comfortable standing before the warm fire, they put on logs and, while thus keeping it alive, brought up other people to it, showing them by signs how much comfort they got from it. In that gathering of men, at a time when utterance of sound was purely individual, from daily habits they fixed upon articulate words just as these had happened to come; then, from indicating by name things in common use, the result was that in this chance way they began to talk, and thus originated conversation with one another." (II, 1, 1)

We have seen this acted out National Geographic TV specials... though in today's version of events the trees didn't catch fire due to friction; lightening struck the African plains, and man domesticated the flame so they could warm themselves, cook food, and socialize. Social intercourse led to upright walking, which led to our ability to work with tools.

"...as they kept coming together in greater numbers into one place, finding themselves naturally gifted beyond the other animals in not being obliged to walk with faces to the ground, but upright and gazing upon the splendour of the starry firmament, and also in being able to do with ease whatever they chose with their hands and fingers, they began in that first assembly to construct shelters." (II, 1, 2)

Humans imitated nature in their constructions, each according to the context of their locations, for example people in rainy climates built sloped roofs while people in hot climates built thick walls of dried mud.

With these early beginnings accomplished, humans could take a dominant role over all the earth and develop a modern civilization.

"Furthermore, as men made progress by becoming daily more expert in building, and as their ingenuity was increased by their dexterity so that from habit they attained to considerable skill, their intelligence was enlarged by their industry until the more proficient adopted the trade of carpenters. From these early beginnings, and from the fact that nature had not only endowed the human race with senses like the rest of the animals, but had also equipped their minds with the powers of thought and understanding, thus putting all other animals under their sway, they next gradually advanced from the construction of buildings to the other arts and sciences, and so passed from a rude and barbarous mode of life to civilization and refinement." (II, 1, 6)

Notice that Vitruvius groups humans with "the rest of the animals." But it is the "higher ideas born of the multiplication of the arts" that leads them to take on the role of Nature themselves, by "developing the refinements of life" that "nature had been lavish in the bestowal of," and so they "embellished them with luxuries. (v. 7)"

"Africa was the mother and nurse of wild animals..." (VIII, 3, 24)

Africa is considered the origin of human life today.

Origin of Life: Chance

"For things are produced in accordance with the will of nature; not to suit man's pleasure, but as it were by a chance distribution." (II, 6, 5)

At first glance it would seem that the Vitrivian life's origins was ironically similar to today's proponents of intelligent design. He praises "divine intelligence" for bestowing the materials necessary for life and for designing the universe (see IX, 5, 4). He also describes nature as an "architect" which human architects follow in the footseps (see V, 4, 8).

But the universe came by chance. Divine intelligence is our ability to understand the mechanics of the universe (see IX, 1, 1), that we can "find out the operation of the sun in the universe," the "general assemblage of nature." Atlas holds up the firmament, assigned to that task because he gave humans knowledge of the universe. We can attain perfection, said Vitruvius, by simply learning those divine truths and follow them.

"For in all their works they proceeded on definite principles of fitness and in ways derived from the truth of Nature. Thus they reached perfection, approving only those things which, if challenged, can be explained on grounds of the truth." (IV, 2, 6)

The four elements are not atoms. Vitruvius differentiates what he calls elements and what we define elements today. He relates Democritus' "atoms, termed by our writers bodies that cannot be cut up or by some indivisibles." (II,2,1) But the "primordial elements are four in number: air, fire, earth, and water; and that it is from their coherence to one another under the moulding power of nature that the qualities of things are produced according to different classes." (VIII, intro)

Before Newton wrote his laws of thermodynamics or Karl Marx wrote "all the is solid melts into air," Vitruvius observed:

"...whatever is born of the air returns in the same way to the regions of the sky; nothing suffers annihilation, but at dissolution there is a change, and things fall back to the essential element in which they were before." (VIII, intro)

It is the chance distribution, the "moulding power of nature" that created the human body: "...nature has designed the human body so that its members are duly proportioned to the frame as a whole..." (III, 1, 4)

Furthermore, the first humans evolved by learning the mechanics of the universe:

"Thus, when our ancestors had seen that this was so, they took their models from nature, and by imitating them they were led on by divine facts, until they were perfected in their contrivances which are so servicable in our life." (X, 1, 4)

Genetic mutation, variance of species

"Euripides... Earth, he held, was impregnated by the rains of heaven and, thus conceiving, brought forth the young of mankind and of all the living creatures in the world." (VIII, intro)

The molding influences of nature that mashed together, as it were, the atoms of the universe created all animals, including humans. But they aren't all created the same, says Vitruvius, because different places have different contexts:

"Euripides seems to have remarked; for he says that places at a greater distance from the sun are in a violent heat, and that those which are nearer he keeps temperate." (XI, 1, 13)

Animals develop differently under different conditions. "This great variety in different things is a distribution due to nature..." (VIII,3,26) Vitruvius goes on to surpass Darwin in his explanation for how exactly this work; Vitruvius describes genetics. Everything has a module that maps out the design of the greater object. Design is "the selection of modules from the members of the work itself and, starting from these individual parts of members, constructing the whole work to correspond." (I, 2, 2)

"...Nature designed the human body..." (II, 1, 4) The design of the temple likewise depends on a module, the gene:

"The design of a temple depends on symmetry, the principles of which must be most carefully observed by the architect... a correspondence among the measures of the members of an entire work, and of the whole to a certain part selected as standard. From this result the principles of symmetry. Without symmetry and proportion there can be no principles in the design of any temple; that is, if there is no precise relation between its members, as in the case of those of a well shaped man... It was from the members of the body that they derived the fundamental ideas of the measures which are obviously necessary in all works..." (III, 1, 1 & 5)

The assemblage of an architectural edifice imitates the distribution of the species, each of which has a "a place, origin, and order of its own." (IV, 2, 2)

Racial Supremacy

"These diversities would not exist if the different properties of soils and their juices were not qualified by the power of the sun... For instance, there are in Boeotia the rivers... they are driven every day during that season to those rivers to drink, and the result is that, however white they may be, they beget in some places whity-brown lambs, in other places gray, and in others black as a raven." (VIII, 3, 13 & 14

Food and water alters genetic material, causing the skin becomes dark. And in humans?

"These variations in heat and the subsequent cooling off are harmful to the people living on such sites. The same conclusion may be reached in the case of inanimate things." (I, 4, 2)

It is hard to deny that these theories of evolution led to the worst of today's racist tenants. For evidence for his theory of human evolution Vitruvius points to "primitive" civilizations, much like how European conquistadors justified their genocidal invasions. Italy is superior because of its temperate climate and even receiving of sunlight, says Vitruvius. It's not too cold and not too warm and therefore produces superior life.

It is obvious that entire races of people are effected by the region's general climate, says Vitruvius, but the extreme influences of nature can be mitigated by architects. We can "amend by art what nature, if left to herself, would mar."(VI, 1, 2)

People in the south are weak but smart, while people north are manly but stupid, says Vitruvius. Naturally the Romans are the superior race.

"These effects are noticeable and discernible not only in things in nature, but they also are observable in the limbs and bodies of entire races. In places on which the sun throws out its heat in moderation, it keeps human bodies in their proper condition, and where its path is very close at hand, it parches them up, and burns out and takes away the proportion of moisture which they ought to possess. But, on the other hand, in the cold[171] regions that are far away from the south, the moisture is not drawn out by hot weather, but the atmosphere is full of dampness which diffuses moisture into the system, and makes the frame larger and the pitch of the voice deeper. This is also the reason why the races that are bred in the north are of vast height, and have fair complexions, straight red hair, grey eyes, and a great deal of blood, owing to the abundance of moisture and the coolness of the atmosphere.

On the contrary, those that are nearest to the southern half of the axis, and that lie directly under the sun's course, are of lower stature, with a swarthy complexion, hair curling, black eyes, strong legs, and but little blood on account of the force of the sun. Hence, too, this poverty of blood makes them over-timid to stand up against the sword, but great heat and fevers they can endure without timidity, because their frames are bred up in the raging heat. Hence, men that are born in the north are rendered over-timid and weak by fever, but their wealth of blood enables them to stand up against the sword without timidity...

Further, it is owing to the rarity of the atmosphere that southern nations, with their keen intelligence due to the heat, are very free and swift in the devising of schemes, while northern nations, being enveloped in a dense atmosphere, and chilled by moisture from the obstructing air, have but a sluggish intelligence. That this is so, we may see from the case of snakes. Their movements are most active in hot weather, when they have got rid of the chill due to moisture, whereas at the winter solstice, and in winter weather, they are chilled by the change of temperature, and rendered torpid and motionless. It is therefore no wonder that man's intelligence is made keener by warm air and duller by cold.

But although southern nations have the keenest wits, and are infinitely clever in forming schemes, yet the moment it comes to displaying valour, they succumb because all manliness of spirit is sucked out of them by the sun. On the other hand, men born in cold countries are indeed readier to meet the shock of arms with great courage and without timidity, but their wits are so slow that they will rush to the charge inconsiderately and inexpertly, thus defeating their own devices. Such being nature's arrangement of the universe, and all these nations being allotted temperaments which are lacking in due moderation, the truly perfect territory, situated under the middle of the heaven, and having on each side the entire extent of the world and its countries, is that which is occupied by the Roman people. In fact, the races of Italy are the most perfectly constituted in both respects—in bodily form and in mental activity to correspond to their valour." (VI, 1, 3-11)

Vitruvius' Ten Books On Architecture" was written shortly after the death of Christ and rediscovered in 1414. It took Europe out of the Dark Age along with the invention of the printing press . It advanced the studies of science, philosophy, and architecture. Virtually every important book written on architecture for the next thousands years was based on Vitruvius. It is no stretch to say the Aryan white supremacy that led to the Nazi extermination of primitive races, the destruction of large civilizations in the Americas, and the white power that persists today found its roots in the racism of this work.

Darwin changed this in the theory of evolution. He said there was no "perfect" species or race. Circumstances change and advanced species evolve according to the powers of chance.

But didn't Vitruvius also allow for progress? There could be continued innovation and refinement in architecture, he said. Modern architects took out rows of columns around the cella of the temple to make procession easier for the patrons. A statist would have abhored this but Vitrius cheered. The ability to innovate is the reason classes of architecture continue to multiply as society evolves.

"It is true that posterity, having made progress in refinement and delicacy of feeling, and finding pleasure in more slender proportions, has established seven diameters of the thickness as the height of the Doric column, and nine as that of the Ionic." (IV, 1, 8)

Modern Theories of Evolution

The Vitrivian theory of evolution changed as the works of Vitruvius spread through Europe. In 1548, Walther Rivius repeated the racist ideas in Vitruvius Teutsch:

"...they began to have human dwellings because the necessary uses of water and fire supposedly united and came together into a livable house... Because of inherent stupidity, these helpful human dwellings were not prevalent, as men have sought to climb up and to better themselves."

Until very recently, scientists pointed to "primitive" civilizations in Africa and Asia as scientific evidence of mankind's evolution, just as Vitruvius had done:

"That houses originated as I have written above, we can see for ourselves from the buildings that are to this day constructed of like materials by foreign tribes: for instance, in Gaul, Spain, Portugal, and Aquitaine... From such specimens we can draw our inferences with regard to the devices used in the buildings of antiquity, and conclude that they were similar."(II, 1, 4 & 6)

Modern art was not allowed to progress because artists were obsessed with imitating nature in a strict search for truth of realism, as Vitruvius instructed, and abhored nonrealistic art. Vitruvius scorned "fresco paintings of monstrosities, rather than truthful representations of definite things... Such things do not exist and cannot exist and never have existed. Hence, it is the new taste that has caused bad judges of poor art to prevail over true artistic excellence." (VII, 5, 3)

"The fact is that pictures which are unlike reality ought not to be approved... Therefore, if we give our approval to pictures of things which can have no reason for existence in actual fact, we shall be voluntarily associating ourselves with those communities which are believed to be unintelligent on account of just such defects." (VII, 5, 4-5)

Sounds much like Nazi talking points about "degenerate art."

Henry Wotton brought Vitruvius to England in 1624 with The Elements of Architecture. Coincidentally the British Empire immediately blossomed. He likewise urged caution about how we imitated "the great pattern of Nature" and specifically the human body as the ideal design.

"I must confess confess indeed there may be a lascivious and there may be a superstitious use, both of picture and of sculpture: To which possibility of misapplication, not only these semi-liberal arts are subject; but even the highest perfections and endowments of nature... what art can be more pernicious than even religion itself, if it self be converted to an instrument of art?

Wotton threw out aesthetics from the list of architectural values, searching for innovation from strict function and utility in architecture. But he still seeks a "moral architecture" that produces the "repairing of nature." He admits variation among living things and remarks, "we see that diversity doth destroy unity." Nature is "the simplest mother of Art."

Modern scientists took a religious interest in human evolution. Ernest Haeckl drew the famous "tree of life" model of humans and animal, derived from the ancient religious idea of the tree of life. He placed humans on the very top. Russell Wallace developed the theory of evolution concurrently with Darwin, but claimed a nontemporal origin for our designs. Charles Darwin ridiculed the ancient civilizations he studied, the "sacred books of the Hindoos or the beliefs of any barbarian." link.

Hopefully racial supremacy has diminished in popular culture today. But the idea that we become our own instruments of nature lives on. Global warming scientists today believe we are destroying our entire environment and are able to reverse that course, as nurses of our environment. Architecture is still the product of chance that distinguishes us as the "divine intelligence" over all other raw matter.

© Copyright 2010 Benjamin Blankenbehler, reproduction strictly prohibited

"The Death and Life of the Great American City" By Jane Jacobs

2010-02-20T17:13:00.000-08:00

In 1961 the Modernist movement which had long been theoretical and dormant in America’s architecture began to manifest in our cities and effect people's lives. Europe’s Modernist architecture blossomed after World War 2 as an optimistic thriving economy emerged and as people craved a new modern lifestyle.

America has always relied on pragmatism and individuality. The new technology and engineering possibilities served to fulfill the dream of a home and car for each American family. American families abandoned the cities and moved out to the suburbs.

Jane Jacobs moved to New York City from a small town and wrote about her experience in the city as this movement gained steam. Jacobs said that her jobs in the working district “gave me more of a notion of what was going on in the city.” As the modernists starting influencing how cities were planned, Jacobs met them with contempt and became outspoken in her criticism.
^[1]
The Death and Life of the Great American City attacked New York City’s new Planning Commission led by Robert Moses. Devoid of theoretical training or higher education, Jacobs wrote from a city-dweller’s perspective, and painted a picture, but without outlining a scheme for implementing her ideal.

A major criticism of Jacobs is that she fails to suggest how the politicians and those who control real estate could be influenced or forced to move toward her ideal. Jacobs does suggest, for example, that politicians want to appease dense neighborhoods that hold more votes and cities thus control the purse strings. And Jacobs suggests that such communities be activists in order to prevent the schemes of modernists like Moses.

After the book was published Moses sought an expressway that would dig through Jacobs' neighborhood in the Village, and Jacobs led a successful opposition rally that actually led to her arrest. Jacobs’ other published works focus on economics and the city’s role in world economies, so it is conspicuous that she doesn’t suggest further how economy might be used as a weapon for implementing her vision. Rather than leading a crusade, Jacobs painted a vision which we thought was practical and feasible for the greater economic good and health of the nation. It became up to the politicians and real estate people to figure out how to implement it.

Jacobs begins by disproving Modernism and revealing their shallow promises. Jacobs claims that the failure of modernism’s involvement in the city was made manifest in urban renewal. She claimed that urban renewal policies destroyed communities and created isolated, unnatural urban spaces. While modernist planners thought deductively, Jacobs was consistently inductive in her logic and reasoning. In the search for attractive spaces, she said, “Handsome is as handsome does.”

The know-it-all modernists weren’t smarter than the simple city dwellers. Using models of successful Urbanism, like Greenwich Village, and by pointing out how certain conditions have been successful, she makes a strong case for her ideal city. She goes on to show that urban renewal and other modernist debacles hurt the economy and health of the occupants by compromising these conditions.

As she turned her back from what was widely considered the wave of the future, Jacobs presented herself as a traditionalist but not as a conservative. She valued tradition and the conservative family, but she didn’t perceive threats as coming from outside, from the Modernism of Europe. Rather, she recognized that America’s ideals and pragmatic solutions for success needed to change as society expanded at a quicker pace and new technologies shaped our future. She said that the greatest “threat to the security of our tradition, I believe, lies at home. It is the current fear of radical ideas and of people who propound them.” She sought a more sophisticated liberalism through dichotomy and challenged visions of the future by PHd big-shots. Without any formal training, Jacobs successfully authored several attacks on the ideas of many well-established authorities. These attacks consistently championed the city and promoted a denser, more vibrant urban community.

In The Economy of Cities, Jacobs challenged the idea that agriculture precedes the city. She convincingly asserted that the city is actually the root of a region’s economic growth, not agriculture. She challenged the fundamental beliefs of some of the greatest economists in Cities and the Wealth of Nations as she suggested we should consider the city first and the nation-states second in macro-economics.

One of Jacobs’ most dominant themes in The Death and Life of Great American Cities is the benefits of mixed-use architecture. In a diverse community of people there is more learning to be had. One culture can learn from another culture, one industry from another industry, a higher level of income from a lower level of income. She loves meeting strangers on the street and doesn’t find any danger in such an environment.

Jacobs harshly criticizes the separation of uses in the city. She advocates mixed districts with various industries and people of various levels of income. Blocks should be smaller and streets shorter so that people cross paths more. There should be no blank walls and no cars, with which people isolate themselves from others. A larger police force doesn’t keep things safe, but safety comes by the observation of “public actors,” store-keepers, onlookers, vigilant neighbors. To demonstrate this, Jacobs points out that larger parks experience more crime. If a park can sustain itself with its own activities, when people can get lost in it and see all the way across to the other side, if there are always people there because of the mixed-use environment, there will be less incentive and more vigilance from the community to prevent for crime.

Jacobs said we crave a more interesting and bizarre atmosphere. Projects that segregate occupants by income in homogeneous cores lend towards more crime and boring communities. In her book “System of Survival,” she narrows down two “moral syndromes” of people: the commercial (business owners, farmers, scientists) and the guardian (government, charities, religions.) These two moral syndromes should be kept separate but should be invariably included in our spaces and everyday lives in a great variety. When the two are combined, inefficient entities result, like mafia or communism. When there isn’t a great enough variety, one becomes too dominant and takes away the freedoms of the people.

The street should be considered as a positive space in the city because that’s where people interact while buildings are in the background. As various building types are situated in chaotic and unexpected places, the positive space becomes more interesting and healthier. The neighborhood, says Jacobs, is a sentimental idea. It can be defined in three ways: the city as a whole, a street or block, or a district. This displays a variety of social extensions which are reduced by the suburbs. In the gilded age of rising income, Jacobs resents that people flee from this diversity. She goes on to address gentrification, when urban development makes an old neighborhood too expensive for the old population to keep on living in, as a “self-destruction of diversity” which must be overcome. Jacobs only paints the picture and leaves it up to the reader to figure out how to overcome such obstacles.

Jacobs’ second major theme is resentment that the government tears down old neighborhoods for new idealized projects. These projects stifle diversity and clear away the established history and culture of the city. New buildings should be mixed with old ones, she says. The new idealized projects are some of the worst construct of the “car people” designers, and promote further separation from other human beings and more dependence on the automobile. By inserting new buildings “among old ones to knit up holes and tatters in a city neighborhood so that the mending is all but invisible,” a community can actually un-slum itself. With a sufficiently dense population of people, many of which are residents, a city can only be un-slummed by such means.
The city should be considered as a lattice, not a tree, Jacobs says. The interconnections make it impossible to simply transplant a whole major part of it.

“Nothing is static,” observes Jacobs. It is perhaps valuable to consider ourselves as only parts of this lattice-work and not be presumptuous enough to think that we can hold back a deluge of water as we try to implement an ideal that denies simple human nature and methods of progress.

A city excels by the coming together of different views. A city that is connected to other cities, whose occupants have access to cultures that excel each in their own way, these are the cities that lead economically, socially, and politically. Jacob’s eye for the good ol’ days combined her fearless consideration of liberal ideas makes her a suitable planner of such an environment. The circumstances behind her ideas should be a reminder of the folly that arises in times of optimism, and we should continue to be vigilant and allow those solutions that actually work, even if we love to complain about them.

See: New York Times Review
See: Summary

^Image by claugeo27 on flickr

Vitruvius Teutsch, pp. 1-6 English Translation

2010-01-18T12:20:00.000-08:00

© This translation coyprighted 2009, Benjamin Blankenbehler. Reproduction in part or whole strictly prohibited.

English translation pp.7-10
English translation pp.11-14

Vitruvius Teutsch

Walther Rivius or Ryff:

[Page 1]

Vitruvius German

Principally, the most well known and renown Roman architect, artistic worker or builder: Marcus Vitruvius Pollio. Ten books of architecture and artistic building. A key and introduction to all mathematics and mechanical art, clear-witted and diligent striving or speculative artistic work. From such a high understanding, correct ground, and a full and certain foundation of all laudable art, the masses of industry and order become resolved in writings, that interested readers will be instructed in the art of architecture and artistic buildings by what is contained here, and that they may easily learn and grasp a correct understanding of architectural mathematical and mechanical arts. All this to better adorn and declare better understanding through beautiful artistic figures and antiquities, and particular commentaries.

First in German, and prescribed for the use and advantageous benefit of all artistic handwork, workmen, builders, vehicle and civil designers, well-builders, wood workers, painters, sculptures, goldsmiths, carpenters, and all of those who use artistic titles and tools.

D. Gualtherü H. Riuium Medical & Mathematical

Special and impossible attention has been made to formerly transfer this into the German language, understood by no one else.

Nürnberg: Johan Petreius, In 1548

Privileged with regal support of the king, for year and not hereafter.

[Page 2]

The scholarly, foresighted, and wise men, mayors and counselors, the city Nuremberg, my commanding and favorable gentlemen.

Scholarly, foresighted, and wise men: this is to clear all doubts, E.F.E.W. Modest and wise art, with what great diligence and high understanding of all art and meaningful inventions were founded and brought forth by the ancients our forefathers, which are to us a temporal welfare and necessary physical preservation. Also with such wariness did they freely and thoughtfully leave their helpful and useful inventions behind for us, their descendants.

The art and various meaningful inventions are there as a leading testimony, if they propagate each similarly well, so that they occasion to everyone some useful and advantageous opportunity and design. We notice, however, that one has a special purpose or lawful goal for the others, making it a specialty.

Thus (how modest for eyes) have quite a few helpful arts, meaningful inventions, principally sprung up, and remained until now in constant use, so that they are very necessary for others, for pleasant, more peaceful, and more social human gatherings, or for civic reason and use, that it incur no imposition.
Thus also will the greater portion be dignified and held back from the fruits and uses that they may daily bring. How, then, are we so much more separated because they are funny and amusing as a falsehood, charming and agreeable.

Thus we take for ourselves all art and meaningful inventions- not just what the ancients our forefathers would have goodwillingly shared, but also all that is modern and all is founded daily and new. And with diligence we venture and attempt this discretion, partitioning, or distinction. We find that under all art lies nothing that will bring to those who want or encounter it such great daily use and unbelievable advantage, such learning, practice, and unbelievable advantage, as the excellent art of Architecture, which is justly seen as the most respectable, useful, crucial and most loved of all.

But this area is not to be understood as only needing architecture. According to the opinion and teaching to of ancients and highly considered Vitruvian Architecture, some work of stonemasons, bricklayer, etc. should be respectively considered as arts through architecture, which work and help the experienced, diligent architects use as a handy instrument or tool. Experienced with architecture, these other artistic creations, judiciaries, or advantages, which are just as precious, and from good sturdy ground, good understanding of the work, and meaningful beginnings, may thereby reveal the fundamental issues in their own work. Finally they may request and complete all our temporal and physical endeavors, our important

[Page 3]

wants and needs, achieving them through intelligent and good understanding of the ordering and building of the work.

We can also see if this is just as true for the ancient heathen philosophies and the diligent development of natural things, whose thoughts and opinion were that they began to have human dwellings because the necessary uses of water and fire supposedly united and came together into a livable house. We should be entirely careful that the art of architecture be the very first approach, this union of the first humans into a pleasant home. Thus we view the need and use of the home. For whoever pursues this admirable good need not justly measure any other art or clever invention. Even the first attempted and early-developing architecture, which give many statements to us, not just to screen and protect us against foul weather, hail, frost, wind, cold, and rain, but also from various dangerous malicious people, contrary and furious animals, and so forth- to protect, shelter and shade us from many dangers and unjust disasters. Also to carry life and limb through various good times. Because of inherent stupidity, these helpful human dwellings were not prevalent, as men have sought to climb up and to better themselves.

Today, we still see with eyes that only these arts and various meaningful inventions are an important premise and necessary means, through which we receive, harvest, and bring forth a peaceful, livable civilization- that we don't have or consider any other way because the art of the Lord God, from special gracious and fatherly will, providence, nursing, and screening, inspired and given from such human omnipotence.

Thus, as the most important and timely expertise, we first view the means through our human body in prolonged health, and to get human strength. It is clear that the same greater portion got their source from this art. Where there isn't a visual example, a crumbling bath house, gymnasium, observatory, or theater, we see great and glorious constructs of the antiquities, which were built with some bodily practice and refreshment and with such remarkable expense by the unbelievers, and they are still today to be seen, and they testify with their particular system, especially the great aqueducts, or culverts, how various art and form is wonderfully finalized and defeated through this art. And not just bodily preservation and importance, but also a thousand other uses. We now value museums, as if nothing on earth flowered that was not from this art, including the human body, getting standing, or getting trade, as some fruitful branches and twigs out of a cut root. Thus we exceed from small things. Simple tools developed and brought forth this excellent art, including the narrow work of some noteworthy agricultural equipment (through which we harvest everything) , and all other instruments. With diverse practices, they lead abundant wells with streams of water, not just one place but others. Also in the depths of the earth, they seek out the vein of water, in the high mountain, and dig through hard cracks of stone, to liken their hight and flatness, to shake the depths, to lead up the height, to contain and dam the river, pond, and ocean, to deplete the marsh, and to expand, to provide advanced cities with strong flows of water and all their enjoyment, and to use some ways. A ship must be built, and all of the oceans must be traveled across only by ship. Therefore the shores must be provided with ports and shipyards, and bridges built over the large and small rivers, and the royal seaships need directed. No matter what the purpose of the useful and noteworthy artistic work is, everyone will be brought through it to a fundamental and correct understanding of the art

[page 4]

of architecture. In short, if we similarly endow the preservation of the Christian religion from the holy mighty and powerful construction, including churches, temples, holy places, and whatever common city policy and regiment concern, including the holy favored palaces of judgment and city halls, armories, treasuries, hospitals, royal and kingly courts, and all common and particular city homes. They were constructed with such great magnificence and glory, found but not intended from well-ordered policies. The most important construction, namely the city's fortification, castles and spots, were also founded through this art, as well as city walls, city ports, gates, graves, fortresses, bastions, garrison, post, etc. all with their advantages and defenses. Buildings were also constructed for control and unjust dangers, for more free, secure city houses, business, and trade, with all artistic machines, in which the nature is unrivaled through the artistic inventions of architecture through hardships. As well as cannon cranes, vehicles, and thousands, countless similar artistic mechanical instruments, all of which have their origins in architecture. They could never remain if robbed of the same fundamentals.

In order to humbly convince with these true arguments and with this solid logic, that this art of architecture together with all its parts is the the most useful, necessary, and therefore the most beloved and enjoyable of all artistic and meaningful inventions, through which principal every well-ordered policy and city regiment at every point in time of peace or war may be noted in affluence and virtue as firm and freely receiving security, calm, frugality and with the highest expertise of common needs- that you may even more-so become modestly convinced with all the vast histories , and particularly through the excellent examples from Archimedes, and through other famous artistic architects-

To be just, that this excellent art of architecture, all that which was invented, brought forth, and developed, not only out of out of particular high reason, various experiences, meaningful attempts, and some practice, but also satisfied in writing, and which was shared to us descendants with all doubts- that it has such particular good and high merit for common use, and is worthy of much praise and approval -

Therefore I have placed in this book a convenient and handy order with greatest diligence to describe the architecture, that the entire art with all its parts may be laid out in short summary, as if in an immaculate mirror, with all arts, and not just as a cheap or expensive treasure, but as a correct dependable foundation and all-encompassing groundwork for all the arts that go with architecture, to be highly received. Until now, it still will be needed as a true and unwavering assistant and advisor for all artistic mathematical speculation, from all art in specialty. This issue was until now understood by many excellent, educated, well-known people of certain nations, but this book of Vitruvius will share this in their native (but for us in German) foreign and unknown languages, for their particular advantage and to direct their work and meaningful inventions as well as their wise and clever methods.

Therefore still today this glorious artistic book of Vitruvius will be transferred by other foreign nations into some other languages, chiefly into Italian and then into Spanish, and then the French language.

[page 5]

But until now, as I said, only the foreign-speaking German reader who appreciated art has remained unacquainted, ignorant, or hidden from the greater portion through through lack of translation or distribution of these glorious books, this precious treasure.

It is in this time, in which all art and meaningful inventions are brought higher, day to day from this blessed, excellent, indebted German nation, from which all other nations consult. But they may also far outdo the this nation in high-reason, in useful and common use, and pressing work and effort. Still, as far as I know, none want to really face these impossible questions.

I have the good intention and desire to enthusiastically serve, and to be moved for the expertise of necessary work and efforts, foremost for the common use of the meaningful mathematical art, the same relative to architecture, for it to be the same for all. Despite my weakness, I take upon myself this concentrated effort to goodwillingly share diverse architectural books of the highest ability, and to expose and transfer all artistic things into a common and plain German language.

These books will describe and order the distant yet far-sighted and talented Vitruvius. It will not only describe the right ability required for artistic and orderly construction, but also all other arts in which the architecture may call for mathematical arts and mechanical inventions. It will all be in a short summary, comprehensive and brief, that the abiding readers of these books may perhaps become diligent investigators of these artistic things, which may be somewhat dark, difficult, and not entirely understandable. This includes multiple things, but to give a particular example, what fortified construction and meaningful machinery were need for cannons at the time of Vitruvius, as founded on the first fundamentals of architecture. This includes many other lengthy subjects that would have been improved upon, chiefly the issue portion, had they not been unfamiliar and unknown to the German reader, barely considered in writing by us Germans, touched upon or borne from solid ground. I would therefore be further concerned at this time for many professions related to mine, such as the distinguished art of medicine, that they look at certain activities and recreations of the superb examples of other excellent artists including: Lucae Paccioli, Caesaris Caesarini, Benedicti Iourj, Boni Mauri, Leonis Baptistae, Guilielmi Philandri, Sebastiani Serlij, Patri Nonij, Orontij Finei, Nicolai Tartaleae, etc. the architecture and closely related arts, whose writings proved crucial in my undertaking here as true precepts. Their books in foreign languages may laid out and declared in leading visual figures and in German commentary, and eventually deal with all art and architecture, including mathematical art and mechanical inventions and speculations. Then the teaching and schooling of the somewhat judicious and practiced Vitruvius may become modestly clear and understandable. I am being brief here, but various other arts shared or related to architecture have not been well borne, or have become second-rate. Just as this subject, they have little understanding or use because of lack of useful and delineated instruction, which I hope that I may create here out of need.

May all despite my weakness of person be spared work and effort by me, that I may prove helpful and useful for common use, and for all diligent and artistic expertise, and the sharing of these ten books. I am furthermore moved and anxious that the

[page 6]

Vitruvian architecture, and the ordered figures and commentary or design in particular books, deal with the most useful and advantageous architecture, related mathematical art, and meaningful mechanical speculation.

As the wise and versatile architect Vitruvius adhered first to the all-powerful Caesar Julius, and then to Augustus, to hold his books and writings high as an excellent present and glorious gift, and especially to extend thanks, all who have received so much should dedicate under both these Roman Caesars' glorious names, to see the book high, and publize what is so crucial. We should do so for those who transferred these books into some foreign languages, and furthermore for those who documented and traded architecture related arts, who do so still in this day and age, indeed the insightful speculation of further descendants and followers.

We should likewise commend the opinions and high and great views of the same powerful potentates, their applicable efforts and literary work, who have helpfully and gracefully founded to set for common use all diligent artistic expertise, as a strong protection and a mighty shield. I have not hesitated to follow the auspicious examples of certain educated, sensible, visionary, and wise gentlemen, including E.F.E.W, who richly adorned and honored all famous and laudable arts with modest experience and with various glorious gifts from God. I have also chosen in particular all the highest patrons who were soft and fatherly possessors, providers, and protectors of all famous laudable arts, to translate and order the commentary of Vitruvian architecture, which includes other important books that articulately deal with architecture related art. Under the glorious and far-spread name E.F.E.W., I have spread about and published, to the various advantages and use of all art-enthusiasts.

Then while E.F.E.W has a particularly friendly disposition and has good intentions, he also strives to serve and stand for any common use and expertise to any client. E.F.E.W is furthermore modestly displays angelic, joyful and peaceful regiment and rightly ordered Christian policies, and thus from all principals, brings all artistic virtue, famous, artistic, and laudable things, to make anywhere a place of peace, to make any and peeveryone of good report, so that few may become wounded. I don't doubt that it will fall on me to utilize E.F.E.W.'s effort through my literary work. I truly hope that all art-enthusiasts will find this work under E.F.E.W.'s high view and glorious name pleasing and agreeable. As a volunteer, I will likewise greatly expend and let up no diligence to this end, that these and similar endeavors may be advantageous and helpful to all art-enthusiasts and common use. I will by day bring my highest power to goodwillingly honor and please E.F.E.W.

E.F.E.W. honors to God's holy name and common fatherland's use and glory, that the almighty God of all authoritative understanding and wisdom mandate E.F.E.W His shield and protection, the rule, patronage, and intervention.

Date in Wüzburg: 16. Feb. 1548.

E.F.E.W
Patron
Gualtherus H. Riuius Medicus & Mathematicus & c.

[This translation may contain inaccuracies. Please let me know if you find any!]

Vitruvius Teutsch, pp. 1-6 Original German
Vitruvius Teutsch, pp. 7-10 Original German
Vitruvius Teutsch, pp. 11-16 Original German

Vitruvius Teutsch, pp. 7-10 English Translation

2010-01-18T12:17:00.000-08:00

© This translation coyprighted 2009, Benjamin Blankenbehler. Reproduction in part or whole strictly prohibited.

English translation pp.1-6
English translation pp.11-14

Short summary of the entire content of the Ten Books of Vitruvius, in order of chapters, cataloged.
The First Book:

Of the mighty artist Augustus introducing Vitruvius, in the first book of architecture: Page 1.
What architecture is. The first direction and teaching for young, beginning constructors: Chapter 1, Page 2.

What architecture fundamentally is: Chapter 2, Page 24.

Many aspects of architecture, chiefly how the more important designs or distributions should be done, including the common construction: Chapter 3, Page 32.

Choosing the healthiest site and location for construction, and why many sites are dangerous and unhealthy. Of which sites or areas should be set and ordered to day and light: Chapter 4, Page 33.

Rules of thumb or fundamentals for city walls and gates: Chapter 5, Page 37.

Arranging the work. How the fortification of city walls should be arranged and judged, to avoid unhealthy, harmful wind: Chapter 6, Page 42.

How to choose the most desirable site for public buildings. The final chapter of Vitruvius' first book: Page 43.

The other books:

The ancient world, how the first human lived, and of the first manifestation of society and beginnings of houses, and how they operated day to day: Chapter 1, Page 58.

The first source of all things according to the life and opinions of the ancient heathen philosophies: Chapter 2, Page 64.

Bricks and building blocks: Chapter 3, Page 65.

Sand: Chapter 4, Page 68.

Lime: Chapter 5, Page 69.

A certain lime of the earth named “Puteolano powder” (Pozzolana): Chapter 6, Page 70.

Quarries and mining: Chapter 7, Page 72.

Some distinctions, knowledge, manners, and opportunities of masons: Chapter 8, Page 75.

Construction with timber: Chapter 9, Page 86.

The distinguishing nature and properties of fir wood of the Apennine Mountains, with literary evidence from the final chapter of Vitruvius' other books: Page 91.

The Third Book:

The composites and first examples of the temple or holy places, symmetry and measurements of the human body, and all extreme special proportions from the first chapter of the third book of Vitruvius' architecture: Page 96.

[page 8]

Some types and classifications of temples and church construction. Chapter 2, page 109.

Fundementals of columns, adornment, and the structure of such. Chapter 3, page 117.

The Fourth Book.

The subject of columns: the invention or first examples of the three orders. The first chapter of the fourth book of Vitruvius' architecture. Page 131.

The ornamenting and beautiful adornment of columns, also how it was invented and came about- from Vitruvius' architecture. Chapter 2, Page 137.

The Doric order- The third chapter of the fourth book of Vitruvius' architecture. Page 141.

The inner distribution and division of framework and portico, or porch (cella and pronaos)- the fourth chapter of the fourth book of Vitruvius' architecture. Page 148.

How to array the construction, appropriate for the four corners of the world. Chapter 5, Page 149.

The porches and fixed doors in the temple and church construction. Chapter 6, Page 150.

The departments and symmetry of the temple in the Tuscan order. Chapter 7, Page 155.

The correct oder and placement of altars for idols. Chapter 8, Page 158.

The Fifth Book.

The placement and providence of holy construction, namely the Courthouse and City Hall. Chapter 1, Page 160.

The correct oder of treasuries, prison, and Curia. Chapter 2, Pag 164.

The Theater entertainment building. Chapter 3, Page 165.

Harmonics. Chapter 4, Page 168.

The skillful order of theater seating. Chapter 5, Page 170.

Practical accommodations and foundations for theaters. Chapter 6, Page 173.

Roofing for stores, and portico of the theater. Chapter 7, Page 176.

The interwoven collonade and walkway behind the stage and around the theater. Chapter 9, Page 182.
The practical order of baths, and their appropriate members and parts. Chapter 10, Page 185.

The buildings of Palestrarum (Palaetria) and Xistis. Chapter 11, Page 188.

The ports and harbors of the ocean, and what kind of construction to perform. Chapter 12, Page 189.

The Sixth Book.

Mixed qualities and aspects of the heavens in some regions and landscapes. In which to construct homes. Chapter 1, Page 193.

The proportions and measurements of individual houses and living units. Chapter 3, Page 199.

The correct measure and symmetry of its station and its interior. Chapter 4, Page 202.

The correct measure and symmetry of interiors and some fixtures. Chapter 5, Page 205.

The buildings in Oecus, of the Greek order. Chapter 6, Page 206.

Where in the world any building should have its view towards, for the sake of health and safety. Chapter 7, Page 27.

[page 9]

Index of Chapters

Seemly regions and comfortable make, common and individual houses or construction of some dwellings and, to direct the persons at every level. Chapter 8, Page 208.

Buildings around the world, primitive huts and advanced houses, with their applicable parts. Chapter 9, Page 209.

The Greek order and art of construction compared to the Italian way. Chapter 10, Page 211.

Strong fundamentals and ground rules of construction for strength and endurance. Chapter 11-12, Page 214.

The Seventh Book

Paving or painting, to be able to make some forms beautiful and strong defensible. Chapter 1, Page 220.

Laying down lime, plastering and whitewashing the stonework. Chapter 2, Page 223.

Some forms and appearances of arches, with modest instruction of stonework and brick lining. Chapter 3, Page 224.

How to make durable stucco in moist regions. Chapter 4, Page 228.

Instruction on how to adorn a room's interior. Chapter 5, Page 230.

The preparation of marble, chiefly marble with ocher color. Chapter 7, Page 233.

The method and properties of natural red lead. Chapter 8, Page 234.

The correct temperature of natural red lead. Chapter 9, Page 235

Artistically created colors. Chapter 10, Page 236.

The temperament of the color blue. Chapter 11, Page 237.

In what form white lead, Verdigris, Sandaracha should be prepared. Chapter 12, Page 238.

How to prepare the color purple as the most beautiful color. Chapter 13, Page 238.

Some preparations of the color purple. Chapter 14, Page 239.

The Eighth Book

How one searches for and finds water. Chapter 1, Page 242.

Rainwater. Chapter 2, Page 242.

The nature, properties, force, and effects of warm water that runs over certain metals, as well as quite a few flows, wells, oceans, and so forth. Chapter 3, Page 246.

Particular sorts and properties of many landscapes and wells. Chapter 4, Properties 252.

The excavating and reservation of water. Chapter 5, Page 253.

How to guide water with handy instruments. Chapter 6, Page 253.

Some methods and manners of leading water. Chapter 7, Page 255.

The Ninth Book

The new inventions of Plato, regarding measurements. Chapter 1, Page 261.

The justice of the composing stick, founded by Pithagora. Chapter 2, Page 264.

The artistic inquiry of Archimedes, through which he realized the fastening of silver into the golden throne. Chapter 3, Page 266.

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Index of heavenly spheres, stars, planets, and things seen in the darkness. Chapter 4, Page 272.

The path of the sun through the twelve heavenly signs. Chapter 5, Page 275.

The immovable stars of the septentrionalis sides of the zodiac. Chapter 6, Page 276.

The immovable stars of the meridionalis sides. Chapter 7, Pages 277.

The right foundation and understanding of the horoscope and of shadows during the equinox at Rome and other regions. Chapter 8, Page 279.

The right understanding and useful manner of the horoscope and of its founding, and who initially conceived it. Chapter 9, Page 283.

The Tenth Book

What a lever or hoist is, the difference between the hoist and other instruments, how it is useful, and how it was invented. Chapter 1, Page 290.

Another method for making a powerful hoist that will lift and power almost every heavy load and in all dangers. Chapter 4, Page 293.

How one may erect a more customary hoist in a different way. Chapter 5, Page 295.

Extraordinary artistic inventions in Ctesiphon that transport large, heavy loads across the land. Chapter 6, Page 297.

The first founding of the quarry for the building of the temple of Dianne in Ephesus. Chapter 7, Page 298.

How to move heavy double loads of different sizes. Chapter 8, Page 299.

Artistic machines of some water-arts. Chapter 9, Page 302.

Some artistic wall construction. Chapter 10, Page 302.

Preparation for artistic propellers. Chapter 11, Page 35.

Artistic machines in Ctesibius that lift water up high. Chapter 12, Page 307.

How one may run an artistic water organ. Chapter 13, Page 308.

How one may measure far distances on a wagon or ship with an artistic machine. Chapter 14, Page 310.

The correct preparation and use of bows or melee weapons, and some guns. Chapter 15, Page 311.

The ballista, also of bows or melee weapons. Chapter 16, Page 311.

The correct proportions of weights of stone for the holes in catipults. Chapter 17, Page 313.
Certain machines and artistic tools that tighten guns and bows. Chapter 18, Page 313.

Some war arrays of the enemy and what is needed to lay siege on the enemy. Chapter 19. Page 315.

End of Chapters.

[This translation may contain inaccuracies. Please let me know if you find any!]

Vitruvius Teutsch, pp. 1-6 Original German
Vitruvius Teutsch, pp. 7-10 Original German
Vitruvius Teutsch, pp. 11-16 Original German

Vitruvius Teutsch, pp. 11-14 English Translation

2010-01-18T12:15:00.000-08:00

© This translation coyprighted 2009, Benjamin Blankenbehler. Reproduction in part or whole strictly prohibited.

English translation pp.1-6
English translation pp.7-10

Strict explanation of the meaning and correct understanding behind all astute figures in the 10 books of Vitruvian Architecture, set in an index.

The First Book.

Figures explaining the meaning of a number of Egyptian images, ancient images which were needed in place of characters in their writing. Page 8.

Circles, straightedges, and all customary geometric instruments required for art. Page 11.

Garb and clothing of the oldest Roman councilmen, senators, and of the clothing known as Toga. This includes the plain female clothing known as the Stola. Also, the Roman clothing for war, clothing needed for battle. Page 13.

Visual instruction, in what form, manner, and joints the Caryat’ids' would order women and matrons rather than columns in the construction of ancient building masters. Page 14.

Image of ancient art, including Roman pictures of women in ancient Roman dress, which had been used in place of some columns. Page 14.

Explanation of artistic columns with imagery, which is still needed in this day. Page 15.

The visual form of the capital. It is crucial and precious that forms of the main ancient female imagery be set on columns. Page 16.

The visual explanation of mighty siege machines, including the glorious conquest and triumph of Lacedemonia over their neighbors the Balatonians, that was forever set around their Prince Pausania. Page 16.

Devices bosses use to make some changes, which a sensible contractor may fancy to bring in some work. Page 17.

The artistic renderings Satyri and Sileni, which are to be seen still to this day as particular artistic antiquities in Rome. Page 19.

Portrayed image of beloved painter Albrecht Dürer. He died on April 6, 1528 in Nürenberg at age 58. Page 21.

Artistic painting of framework and buildings' imagery in ancient styles. Page 22.

Figure of comparisons in musical proportions along with astronomic figures. Page 23.

The artistic renderings using the foundations and fundamentals for works on a holy church building. The triangle and rectangle, in correct symmetry, according to symmetry of German Stonemasons. The main work is thus crafted, built in part according to the German style of the minister of Milan. Page 27.

Artistic renderings of orthography. The accepted grounds for letters. Ichnographia of the German Stonemason fundamentals of the triangle, measured with particular diligence. Page 29.

The special erecting of a column's foundation, with the base and capitals. How these columns are displayed. Page 29.

The special rendering of a building's geometric architecture, practice from theory: from the circle, rectangle and triangle, and from symmetry

[Page 12]

of customary but rejuvenated work, set to the visual examples of orthography and stenography. Page 30.

Hemionitis, Phillitis, Lingua Ceruina Hirschzung/ Asplenon, Scolopendrium, Ceterach, Welsch Milzkraut. Fol. 37.

Figure of the old order for the ground rules and production of the city walls, with their gates and barrages. Page 39.

Special portrayal of the grand castle in Milan which has quite a portrayed garrison. Page 40.

Figure of arch bricks portrayed in paintings, and their inclusion in round gates, including some forms and arts of cutting ashlar. Page 41.

Figure of a strong and frightening wall, ordered to maintain the great inventions for a mighty defense or barrier. Page 41.

Artistic endeavors of quite mighty construction, with bastions, towers, weapons of war, walls, defenses, barriers, breastwork, shooting holes, mines, all according to all the appropriate weapons. Page 42.

Special explanation of the artistic vapours, steam vessels and fireballs, known by Vitruvius as Colipile. Page 45.

Special explanation of the eight-sided Thurn and marble at Athens, built by Andronico Cyrrheste, known as Palladio. To give meaning for the weather through changes in the wind. Page 46.

Explanation of weather forecasts, and the rendering of the fundamentals of the chief Thurn Tritonis. Page 47.

Figure of the cut-out floor slab, known by Vitruvious as Amusium, and how this is measured by a plumb-bob, and how it is to be recorded and distributed by the shadow of the empty staff. Page 48.

Very diligent and special distribution of the top tiers, to make them chiefly level, to show the eight the eight leading winds according to their common equinoctial differences. Page 48.

Figure of the 24 winds, and how Vitruvius scales them in a correct order. Page 50.
Figure of the distribution of the wind regions (windkreis) in the 16 main winds, according to the teachings of Vitruvius, distributed in circles, and labeled with letters. Page 51

Figure of the 12 main winds, how they are ordered around the globe, according to the opinion of the creators of all of today's ships' common compass. Page 52.
Figure of the distribution and expedition of the wind, from which we make ocean charts and some maps. Page 53,

Explanation of the meaning and correct understanding of the figures in the other books of architecture from Vitruvious.

Artistic portrayal of how one supposes the primitive humans lived, and came through the invention of fire into community and friendly dwellings, and how they exalted the language they talked to each other with. Page 61.

Artistic explanation of how the first humans invented construction with some huts and houses. Page 62.

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Index of Figures.

Artistic explanation of the ancient wood structures, with voracious portrayal of these buildings. Why they are needed in Switzerland, Sweden, Norway, and the respective landscapes. Page 63.

Visual explanation and precise measurement of the form of a brick, according to Vitruvius. Page 67.

Of the order and union of the four hand breadths of bricks. Their half and fourth parts according to the teachings of Vitruvius. Page 68.

Visual explanation or display of the general wall design. Page 78.

Visual display of the general precious wall design. Page 79.

Special portrayal of very ancient graves, and ancient heathen ruins or antiquities, to give a better understanding of Vitruvius' thoughts. Page 80.

Special portrayal of various shapes and foreign forms of colored bottles and similar vessels. Why heathens would need certain vessels to contain cremated ashes. Page 80.

Visual display of Greek wall-work, according to the teachings of Vitruvius. Page 81.

Visual explanation of the unordered, original Greek wall design Pseudisodomi according to the displays of Vitruvius. Page 82.

Visual display of the fully worked wall design, between the forward and rear turns with ashlar, and filled with rough stonework between. Page 82.

Visual figure or subject of the fundamentals, of the buildings mausoleum that royals used for graves. Page 84.
Figure of the entire building of king Mausolos of Halicarnassus, and tents under six wonders. Page 84.

Figures in the Third Book:

Visual figure of the joints in the human body, the correct proportions and symmetric geometry of the parts. Page 100.

Visual display of how the fundamental human joints work, how the smaller stay placed in the larger in correct symmetry, so that the middle center of the nabel is proportional and fair. Page 101.

Visual figure of the fundamentals and ordered procession of form of the building of the temple, in the order established by Prostilos and Vitruvius. Page 105.

Fundamentals and procession of the form and order Amphiprostyle, a holy building of the temple, according to the teachings of Vitruvius, erected with a special cella. Page 106.

The Ichnographia, which is the fundamentals of the form of a mighty holy temple, or of similar buildings, known by Vitruvius as Peripteros. Page 107.

Artistic rendering or ground rules and orthography of a holy building in the form of Pseudodipteri, distributed diligently with the clear understanding of Vitruvius. Page 108.

Visual rendering or ground rules of a mighty holy building in the form of Dipteri, the order of which would be built according to heathen knowledge of precious temples and erected according to the teachings of Vitruvius. Page 109.

Series of fundamentals of holy and mighty buildings in the form of Hypetri, diligently crafted under open sky according to the teachings and thoughts of Vitruvius. Page 109.

Visual use of the position of the column according to the knowledge and manner of Pycnostili, set very tightly into one another, and how it would be reported and described by Vitruvius. Page 112.

Visual use of a part with great artistic foliage, the stepped and intermittent baluster column. Page 114.

Columns or pillars that are known by the order of Dyastili and Areostili, according to

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Index of Figures.

the teachings of Vitruvius, visual examples. Page 114.

Visual figure of the beautiful, most functional, and most useful practice of the placement and ordering of columns in the Custyli order. Page 115.

Tablet with a draft showing the upper part of the shaft or flutes of columns, according to the teachings of Vitruvius. Page 116.

Visual example of how each column may be englarged and structured in correct proportion and symmetry. Page 117.

Special explanation of the most common forms of pulverizers and hoists. Page 121.

Special display of the correct lengths, their measurments of ancient Roman works, planes, and other common measuring devices.Page 122.

Display of special symmetry and measurement of bases or feet of some common round or quadrant columns, according to the teachings of Vitruvius. Page 123.

Visual figure of the measurement and symmetry of Ionic capitals, with their connections, necessary parts, and decorations, according to the teachings of Vitruvius. Page 126.

Special display of the fundamentals of an artistic and correct Ionic corner column. Page 126.

Correct symmetric measurement of the Ionic column and all of its parts, also how to level and bring a practice of perspective to it. Page 127.

Special display for the easy bearing of the front gable, named by the ancient architect Tympanum, and in triangular or bowed form. Page 129.

Portrayal of lions-head scuppers, and some forms of animal watter channels. Page 129.

Figures in the Fourth Book.

Correct and special display of the six order of columns with their bases and capitals, together with some forms of capitals, which symmetry that is shown by Vitruvius. Page 134.

Visual figure of the laced foliage and rim-work, known by Vitruvius as Eucarpia, chosen and fastened by our German architects. Page 135.

Very special portrayal of the true living Acanthi, its growth and form laced vines or basket. Page 135.

Explanation of the correctly measured upper plates, and the entire symmetry of Corinthian capitals. Page 136.

Example of a cut corner of the plates in the outer quadrants. Page 136.

Example of a cut corner in the inside quadrants. Page 136.

A beautifully decorated and diligently measured Capital, with special symmetry according to the teachings of Vitruvius and based on other artistic works of antiquities. Page 137.

Visual display of room interiors, which developed into the decoration of the upper entablature and architrave, according to the teachings and opinions of Vitruvius. Page 140.

Doric Columns, with their capitals and components measured in correct proportion and symmetrical visual form. Page 143.

Visual display of beautifully decorated Doric capitals, with some measurements and symmetry. Page 143.

Visual portrayal of thunderbolts, some special examples taken from heathen antiquities. Page 146.

Visual display of all appropriate components in the Doric order, and how to order them in diligent measurement, correct proportion, and symmetry in the work. Page 149.

Visual figure of beautiful ancient bases, with special measurement of the decoration. Page 147.

[This translation may contain inaccuracies. Please let me know if you find any!]

Vitruvius Teutsch, pp. 1-6 Original German
Vitruvius Teutsch, pp. 7-10 Original German
Vitruvius Teutsch, pp. 11-16 Original German

Vitruvius Teutsch, pp. 1-6 Index Images

2010-01-18T11:56:00.000-08:00

Vitruvius Teutsch, pp. 7-10 Chapter Index
Vitruvius Teutsch, pp. 11-16 Index Images

Original German transcription of Vitruvius Teutsch by Walther Hermenius Ryff (Rivius) in 1548. Pages 1-6:

Vitruvius Teutsch

Nemlichen des aller namhafftigsten und hocherfarnesten / Römischen Architecti / und Kunstreichen Werck oder Bawmeisters / Marci Vitruvij Pollionis / Zehen Bücher von der Architectur und künstlichem Bawen. Ein Schlüssel und einleytung aller Mathematischen und Mechanischen künst / Scharpffsinniger fleissiger nachtrachtung oder speculation künstlicher werck / Aus solchem hohem verstand / rechtem grund / sattem und gewissem fundament aller löblichen künst / Der massen fleissig und ordentlich in Schrifften verfasset / das hierin ein yeder Kunstbegiriger leser der Architectur unnd kunstlichen Bawwercks unterwisen wirt / und der Architectur angehörigen Mathematischen unnd Mechanischen künsten ein rechten verstandt / leichtlichen erlernen und fassen mag. Alles mit schönen künstlichen Figuren und Antiquiteten / unnd sonderlichen Commentarien zu mehrerem bericht und besserem verstand gezieret und erkleret.

Allen Künstlichen Handtwerckern / Werckmeistern / Steinmetzen / Bawmeistern / Zeug und Büxenmeistern / Brunnen leyteren / Berckwerckern / Malern / Bildhawern / Goldtschmiden / Schreineren / und allen denen / welche sich des Zirckels und Richtscheids künstlichen gebrauchen / zu sonderlichem nutz und vilfeltigem vortheil Erstmals verteutscht / und in Truck verordnet

Durch D. Gualtherium H. Rivium Medi. & Math.
Vormals in Teutsche sprach zu transferiren / noch von niemand sonst understanden / sonder für unmüglichen geachtet worden.

Zu Nürnberg Truckts Johan Petreius. Anno M.D.XLVIII.

Mit Keyserlicher und Königlicher Maiest. Privilegio / in vj. Jaren nit nach zu Trucken.

[page 2]

Den hochgelerten Fürsichtigen Erbarn und Weisen herren/ Bürgermeistern und Hath/ der Stadt Nürnberg/ meinen Gebietenden und Günstigen herren.
Hochgelert Fürsichtig Erbar vnd Weise herren/ es ist on allen zweiffel E.F.E.W. Gnugsam kunst vund wissent/ mit was grossem fleiß vnd hohem verstandt/ alle künst vnd scharffsinnige erfindung/ was uns d vund zu zeitlicher wolfart/ vnd leiblicher erhaltung nuz vnd notwendig/ von den Alten (unseren vorfaren) erstlichen erfunden vnd auffbracht/ auch mit was grosser fursichtigkeit/ uns die selbigen jre vilfeltige nuzliche erfindun nachgetassen haben.

Welche künst vnd mancherlen scharpffsinnige erfindung/ ob sie gleich wol alle samen in gemein/ dahin fur nemlichen gericht sindt/ das sie nederman/ nach mancherley gelegenheit vnd notturfft/ nüzlichen vnd vortheilig seyend/ mercken wir doch das eine fur der andren/ ein sonderlichen zweck/ oder geseztes zyl fur jr hat/ darauff sie in sonderheit gerichtet ist.

Dann (wie gnugsam fur augen) sind etliche solcher vilfeltigen künst/ vnd scharpffsinnigen erfindungen/ surnemlichen auffkomen/ vnnd bißher in stetigem gebrauch bliben/ darumb das sie fur andren zy freundtlicher/ fridtlicher/ vnd geselliger Menschlicher versamlung/ oder Bürgerlichen standts vnd wesens/ also gar notwendig/ das jr keins wegs mitfüg zy geraten.

So werden auch der mehrer theil in ehren vnd wirden gehalten jrer von derlichen frucht vnd nuzbarkeit halb/ die sie teglichen bringen mögen/ wie vns dann weiterer auch etliche allein von wegen/ das sie vast lustig vnd kurzweilig/ in sungerheit anmütig vnd wolgefellig sind/ vnd wirt also wargenomen/ das ein jede kunst (wie gesagt) auff ein sonderlich endlich furnemen gerichtet ist.

So wir aber alle künst vnd scharpffsinnige erfindungen (nit allein dasselbig so vns den alten vnseren vorfaren/ also gutwilliglichen mit getheilet worden/ sonder auch alles das/ was vberlangst hernach/ vnd noch teglichen new erfunden vnd auffbracht wirt) fur vns nemen/ vnd mit fleiß nach diser ermelten abthelung/ oder vnterschidung/ erwegen/ vnd ersuchen/ berfinden wir/ das vnter allen künsten keine ist/ die zu dem selbigen/ das jr in seinen weg zu manglen oder geraten/ auch demit solchen vilfel tigen trefflichen nuz/ vnd vnglaublichen vortheit bringe/ vnd zu dem allen auch mit solcher sonderlichen ergeßlicheit/ gelernet/ geübt/ vnd gebraucht werde/ als die trefflich kunst der Architectur/ welche billich von allen verstendige die nüzlichst/ notwendigst/ lieblichst kunst/ fur den andern allen geachtet wirt.

Aber dises orts werde nit nach gemeinem brauch fur die Architecture verstanden/ mancherlen arbeit der Steinmeßsen/ Maurer/ vnnd dergleichen/ welcher arbeit vnd hilff sich der erfaren/ fleissig Architectus/ als eins bequemé Instruments oder Werckzeugs gebraucht/ sonder (nach der meinung vnd lehr des aller Eltesten vnd hoch berümpsté Architecti Vitruuij) sol durch dz wortlin Architectur ein solche kunst verstandé werden/ die mit vilfeltigen andren kunsten/ dermassen geziert ist/ das der so diser kunst erfaren ist/ aus gewissem/ sattem grund/ vnd guten verstand die Werck vnd scharpffsinnige erfundung/ aller anderer künstlicher Werckleuth/ Judicieren oder vrtheilen mag/ vnd dabey seiner eygnen Werck wisserecht grundliche vrsachen anzuzeigen/ vnd endliche daraus ersuchen vnd schliessen. Alles das/ was vns zy zeitlicher vnd leiblicher vnterhaltüg/ zur noturfft/ lust

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lust vnnd nuzbarkeit/ reichen mag/ küglichen/ vnnd aus gutem verstand/ in das Werck zu ordnen/ vnd bawen.

Dan ob auch gleich wol von den alten heidnischen Philosophen/ vnd fleissigen erfündigern naturlicher ding/ etliche der opinion vnd meinung gewesen/ das sich Menschlich geschlect zy anfang/ von wegen des noturfftigen gebrauchs des Wassers/ oder des Fewrs/ vereinigt vnd zusamen gethon haben solt/ zugeselliger beywohung/ Achten wir des doch genzlichen darfur/ (so wir die notturfft vnd nuzbarkeit der wonunggebew betrachten) das die kunst der Architectur/ die aller erste versach gewesen sey/ diser vereinigung/ zu freundtlicher beywonung der ersten Menschen/ Dan ye dise treffliche gutthat keiner andren kunst/ noch scharpffen erfindung/ billicher zugemessen werden mag/ dann eben der erst anfahenden/ vnd newauffkomenden Architectur/ welche vns nit allein anweisung geben fur Vngewitter/ Hiz/ Frost/ Windt/ kelt vnd Regen/ vns zuversicheren vnd bewaren/ sonder auch fur mancherley geferlicheit bößhafftiger Menschen/ wider vnnd grimmiger Thier/ vnd andere dergleichen/ vilfeltige geferlicheit/ vnd vnbillichen bedrang/ zuversichern/ beschirmen vnd deschüzen/ auch leib vnd leben/ durch mancherlen vortheil zuerretten/ On welche hilff Menschlichem geschlecht/ aus angeborner blödigkeit/ nit wol mügliché gewes(?)t wer/ dermassen durch souil Alter/ auff zu steigen/ vnd sich zuvermeren/

Dann wir noch heutigs tags fur augen sehen/ das allein diese kunst vnd vilfeltige scharpffsinnige erfingung/ das furnembst vnd notwendigst mittel ist/ dadurch wir in fridlicher/ Bürgerlicher beywonung/ vns erhalten/ erneren/ vnd auffbringen/ also das wir nit wol anderst halten oder erachten könden/ dann das vns dise kunst von GDT dem HERREN/ aus sonderlichem Genedigem/ Väterlichem willen/ vnnd schickung/ zu Schuß vnd Schirm Meschlicher vnuermüglicheit/ verliehen vnd geben sey.

Dann so wir fur das erst (als das notwendigst vnd höchst zeitlicher wolfart) die mittel betrachten/ durch welche Menschlicher Cörper in in langwiriger gesundtheit/ vnd den leblichen krefften erhalten wirt/ befindet sich klarlich/ das die selbigen den mehreren theil/ aus diser kunst jren vrsprung haben/ Wie dan die gewaltigen/ herliché Gebew/ der Antiquen/ die zu macherley leiblicher übung/ vnd refection/ mit soché mercklichen vnkosten erbawen/ der vngleublich wer/ wo nit augenscheinliche Erempel/ der zerfallen Gebew Thermamurm/ Gymnasiorum, Palaestrarum. Theatrorum, mit jren sonderlichen eingebewen/ noch heutigs tags vor augen gesehen wurden/ bezeugen/ vnd in sonderheit die mechtigen Aquaeducten/ oder Wasserleitungé/ so mancherley art vnd gestalt/ wunderbarlichen durch dise kunst gefürt/ vnd bezwungen/ nit allein zuleiblicher erhaltung vnd notturfft/ sonder auch andrer tausentfaltiger nuzbarkeit/ Also das wir freybekennen müseen/ das nichts auff erden/ dadurch Menschlicher Cörper/ Stand Wesen/ vnd handel/ erhalten wirt/ das nit aus diser kunst (als aus einer gesclachten Wurzel/ mancherlen fruchtbare Est vnnd Zweig) entsprungen sey/ Dann uber die geringen Werck macherley notwendiger instrument des Ackerwercks/ vnd Veldbaws (dadurch wir alle erneret werden) deßgleichen aller andrer Werckleuth/ bequemen zeug (so wir vmb kurze willen vberscreiten) hat vns dise furtreffliche kunst erfunden vnd auffbracht/ die Wasserreichen Brunnen quellen/ nit allein von einem ort an das ander/ manigfaltiger weiß zu leiten/ sonder auch in der tieffe der Erden/ die Adren der Wasser/ zu ersuchen/ die hohen Berg/ vnd harte schruffen der Felsen zu durchgraben/ jre höhe der ebne zu vergleichen/ die tieffen Tall erschütten/ vnnd in die höhe auff zu füren/ Wag/ Weiher vnnd See fassen/ vnnd verdammen/ die tieffen sumpff erschöpffen/ vnd ertrucknen/ die starcken flüß der Wasser/ in gewisse staden zu richten/ vnnd jren auff vnnd tryb nach gefallen/ macherley weg zuverwenden/ vnd durch das baw werd der Schiff/ dieselbigen sempt dem ganzen Meer allenthalben zu durch Schiffen/ die gestaden mit Port vnd Meerhaffen zuversicheren/ vber die grossen vnd kleiné Wasserflüß/ mächerlen zu Brucken/ deßgleiché fünstliche Müllwerck vnnd mancherley Wasserkünst/ daran zurichten/ dann was diser muzlichen vnnd notwendigen künstlichen Werck sind/ werden alle durch den grund vnnd rechten verstant diser kunst

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kunst der Architectur zu wegen gebracht/ Ob wir gleich von kurze wegen der herlichen/ Gewaltigen/ und Mechtigen Gebew/ zu erhaltung Christlicher Religion gstifftet/ also kirchen/ Tempel/ Gotscheuser/ desgleichen was gemeine Bürgerliche Policey und Regiment betrifft/ also die herlichen ansichtigen Pallast der Gericht vnnd Ratheuser/ Zeugheuser/ Schazkameren/ hospital/ künigliche vnd Fürstliche höfe/ vnd aller gemeiner vnd sonderlicher Bürgerlichen wonung/ vnd lust Gebew/ die mit solcher grosser magnificenz vnd herlicheit/ allenthalben in wolgeordneten Policyen erbewen find/ nit gedencken wolté/ Als auch weiter der aller notwendigsten Gebew/ zu befestigung der Stet/ Schösser vnd Flecken/ durch dise kunst erfunden/ als Ringmauren/ Stadtporten/ Thürn/ Gräben/ Bollwerck/ Pasteyen/ Schütté/ Wahl/ vnd dergleichen/ mit jren vortheilen vnd Wehren/ wie dan solche fur Gewalt vnd vnbillichen bedrang zu freyer/ sicherer/ Bürgerlicher wonung/ handtierung/ vnd Gewerb/ von nöten/ sampt aller küstlicher Machination/ in welchen die Natur durch die künstliche erfindung der Architecture/ vbertroffen wirt/ als Geschüz hebzeug/ Ziehe zeug/ vnd dergleichen tausentgeltige/ vnzalbare/ künstliche Mechanische instrument/ welche alle aus der Architectur dermassen jren vrsprung haben/ das sie on die selbig/ als jres eygné fundaments beraubt/ keins wegs bestehen möge/ Also das aus disen warhafftigen Argumenten vnd vnz weyffelhafftiger erweisung/ gnugsamlichen bezeuge werden mag/ das dise kunst der Architectur/ sampt jréangehörigen theilen/ vnter allen künsten vnd scharpffsinnigen erfindungen/ die nuzlichst/ notwendigst/ vnd dabey die aller lieblichst vnd lustigest sey/ durch welche furnemlichen ein yede wolgeordnete Policey/ vnd Bürgerlich Regiment/ zu yeder zeit/ des friden vnd vnfridens/ frey/ sicher/ rüwig vnd gnüuglich mit höchster wolfart des gemeinen nuz/ standthafftig vnd fridlich erhalten/ vnd löbliche/ in reichtumb vnd tugenden/ vermeret werden mög/ Wie dann weiter mit allen Gewaltigé historicis gnugsam bezeuge werden möcht/ vnd in sonderheit durch die trefflichen Erempel Archimedis/ vnnd andrer berümpter künstlicher Architecten.

Daraus nun billich zu schliessen/ das die selbigen/ welche aus sonderlichem hohem verstandt/ vilfeltiger erfarnum/ scharpffsinniger nachtrachtung/ vnd mancherley übung/ dise treffliche kunst der Architectur/ nit allein erfunden/ auffbracht/ vnd gemehret/ sonder auch in schrifften gestellet/ vndf uns nachkommenden mitgetheilet haben (on allen zweiffel) solcher sonderlichen gutthat/ vnd hohen verdiensts gegen gemeinem nuz/ grosses lobs vnd ehren wirdig sind/

Wie dann bißher eub solchs herlichs lob von allen denen/ so diser sachen verstendig/ in sonderheit (fur andren allen/ so vond der Architectur ye schrifftlich gehandlet/ vnd jren verstandt andezeigt/ vnd den nachkommenden mitgetheilet haben) Dem aller Eltesten/ Erfarnesten/ hochberümpsten/ vnd Namhafftigsten Architecto Vituuio/ zu geschriben wirt/
Dadurch dann auch die selbigen Bücher/ welche er mit höchstem fleiß von der Architectur bescriben/ vnd in ein solche fügliche vnd bequeme ordung gestellet hat/ das in kuzer summa dise ganze kunst/ mit allen jren angehörigen theilen/ als in einem klaren Spiegel fur augen furgelegt werden mag/ bey allen künstnern/ nit allein als ein theurer/ vnd kostbarlicher Schaz/ sonder als der rechte warhafftige grund/ vnd aller gewissest fundament/ aller/ der Architectur angehörigen künsten/ in hohem werd erhalten worden/ vnd auch biß auff dise zeit/ noch als ein getrewe vnbetrügliche wegleitung/ vnd anweisung aller künstlichen Mathematischen Speculation/ von allen künstneren in sonderheit gebraucht wirt/ Welcher vrsach halb sich dann auch bißher vil trefflicher/ Wolgelerter/ Namhafftiger Leuth macherley Nation vnterstanden/ dise Bücher Vitruuij in jrer mütterlichen (aber doch vns Teutschen) frembden vnd vnbekanten sprachen/ allen kunstliebhabenden zu sonderlichem vortheil mit zutheilen/ nach den selbigen jre Werck vnd scharpffsinnige erfindungen/ gleich als nach einer gewissen vnd scharpffen Regel zu richten.

Wie dan noch heutigs tags dise herliche künstliche Bücher Bitruuij bey andren außlendischen Nationen in mancherley sprachen tranßferirt worden/ surnemlichen in Italianischer/ auch hernach in hispanischer/ vnd yezndt in Französischer sprachen

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welche aber doch (wie gesagt) dem Teutschen kunstbegirigen Leser den mehrer theil frembd/ also das allein durch mangel der tranßlation/ oder verteuschung/ dise herliche Bücher vnd kostbarlicher Schaz/ den Teuschen künstneren noch bißher vnbekant/ verborgen vnd vnuerstendig bliben.

Dieweil aber auch diser zeit/ in welcher alle künst/ vnd scharpffsinnige erfindung/ von tag zu tag/ ye höher gebracht werden/ von souil herlichen/ trefflichen Jngenien/ Teuscher Nation/ dadurch die selbig allen andren außlendischen Nationen/ nit allein Conferirt/ sonder auch dieselbigé/ in hohem verstandt/ weit übertreffen mag/ solcher nuzlichen/ vnd gemeinem nuz/ vnd wolfart notwendiger arbeit vnd mühe/ noch keiner als eins vnmüglichen fürnemens hat vnternemen wöllen (souil mir dann zu wissen) Bin ich aus sonderlicher wolmeinung/ vnd höchster begirdt/ gemeinem nuz vorab/ deßgleichen allen/ der scharpffsinnigen Mathematischen künst (souil die selbigen der Architectur angehörig) liebhaberen zu dienen/ vnd wilfaren bewegt worden/ dise schwere mühe auff miche zu nemé/ vilgemelte Bücher der Architectur/ nach höchstem vermögen/ meins geringen verstandts/ zu Tranßferieren vnd in gemeiner/ verstendlicher/ Teutscher sprach/ allen kunstlich haberé/ durch den Truck/ gutwilliglichen mit zu theilen.
Dieweil aber dise Bücher vom hocherfarnen Vitruuio/ mit solchem grossen verstandt/ vnd trefflicher fursichtigkeit bescriben/ vnd geordnet/ das nit allein alles dasselbig/ was zu rechtem verstandt/ künstlichs vnd ordentlichs Bawens/ sonder in allen andren/ der Architectur angehörigen Mathematischen künsten/ vnd Mechanischer erfindung/ nowendig erfordert werden mag/ alles so gar in kurzer summa/ begriffen vnd gefasset/ das zu besorgen gewest/ das die getrewe vnterrichung diser Bücher/ villeicht den fleissigen erforscheren/ diser künstlichen sachen/ etwas dunckel vnnd schwer/ vnd nit allenthelben verstendlich/ Furnelichen aber dieweil auch etliche ding/ in sonderheit was die befestigung Gebew/ vnd schapffsinnige erfindung mancherlen Machination des Geschüßz betrifft/ nach der zeit vitruuij/ doch aus dem ersten grund der Architectur erfunden/ Wie dann auch weiter andre ding/ durch langwirigé brauch Geendret/ vnnd auch etwan gebessert worden/ Zu dem/ das dise ding/ furnemlichen der vrsach halb/ dem Teutschen Leser frembd vnd vnbekant sind/ Dieweil bißher bey vns Teutschen derselbigen wenig in schrifften gedacht/ oder auß sattem grund gehandlet oder tractiert worden/ Bin ich derhalben/ noch weiter verursacht worden/ zu müssigen zeiten/ bey neben meiner surhabenden profession/ der hochlöblichen kunst der Medicin/ zu sonderlicher ergeßung vnd recreation nach dem herlichen Erempel/ anderer trefflicher künstner als Lucae Paccioli/ Caesaris Caesarini, Benedicti Iourj, Boni Mauri, Leonis Baptistae, Guilielmi Philandri, Sebastiani Serlij, Patri Nonij, Orontij Finei, Nicolai Tartaleae 8c. Vnd andre mehr/ der Architectur vnd derselbigen angehörigen kunst hochuerstendige/ deren schrifften ich mich furnemlichen in disem furhaben als getrewer Preceptoren gebraucht/ auch wie due selbigen/ in jren frembden sprachen dise Bücher Vitruuij/ durch sonderliche augenscheinliche Figuré/ vnd Teutsche Commentarien aus zu legen vnd erkleren/ vnd in den selbigen/ weiter alle/ der Architectur angehörige Mathematische künst/ vnd Mechanische erfindung vnd Speculation/ auffs aller kunzest zu handeln/ dadurch dann den selbigen/ welche diser künst etwas verstendig vnd gübt/ die lehr vnd vnterrichtung Vitruuij/ wol hettegnugsam klar vnd verstendig sein mögen/ Dieweil aber in solcher kurze/ so vilfeltige andre/ der Architectur mittheilhafte vnd angehörige künst/ nit dermassen haben tractiert/ oder furgetragen werden mögen/ das dieselbigen/ welche diser ding/ von mangel wegen andrer nuzlicher/ vnd verstendlicher vnterrichtung/ wenig verstandts haben/ solchen nuz/ hierin hetten schaffen mögen/ als wol von nöten wer/ Bin ich abermals weiter bewegt/ vnd verursacht worden (damit ye von mir weder arbeit noch mühe gespart wurde/ in dem/ darin ich nach meinem geringen verstandt/ fur mein Person/ gemeinem nuz/ vnd aller fleissigen künstner wolfart/ dienstlich vnd fürderlich sein möcht/ Auch bey neben der obgemelten verteuschung der zehen Bücher) der

[page 6]

Architectur Vitruuij/ vnd den verordneten Figuren vnd Commentarien oder außlegung der selbigen/ alle der Architectur furnembste vnnd notwendigste/ angehörige Mathematische künst/ vnd scharpffsinnige Mechanische Speculation/ vilfeltiger nuzlicher erfindung/ in sonderlichen Büchern/ zu handlen/ vnd dem vngeüubten vnd unuerstendigen Leser/ auffs aller einfeltigst/ klerlichst vnd verstendlichst/ aus dem rechten gewissen grund/ zu gemeiner einleitung der scharpffen hochverstendigen Bücher Vitruuij/ im Truck/ gutwilliglichen mit zu theilen ré.

Dieweil aber der hochverstendig vnd vilerfaren Architectus Vitruuius/ sein Bücher vnd Schrifftarbeit also hoch gehalten/ das er sie wirdig geachtet/ dem Großmechtigsten kenser Julio erstlichen/ vnd hernach Augusto/ als ein trefflichs geschenck/ vnd herliche gab/ zusonderlicher erzeigung der danckbarkeit/ aller entpfangener gutthat/ zu Dedicieren vnd unter diser beider Römischen kenser herlichen namen/ vnd hohé ansehen/ zu publicieren/ Welchem altherkomené/ löblichen brauch/ auch dieselbigen/ welche dise herliche Bücher/ in mancherley frembden sprachen Tranéferiert/ vnd auch weiter vond der Architectur angehörigen künsten/ gescriben/ vnd gehandelt/ noch biß auff dise yezige zeit/ auch weiter nachkomen vnd erhalten/ also das sie jre scharpffsinnige Speculation. Vnd was sie vermeint/ gemeinem nuz vnd aller fleissigen künstner wolfart/ fürderlichs vnd dienstlichs erfunden zu habé/ dasselbig den mechtigsten Potentaten/ zu Comendieren/ vnd das hohe vnd groß ansehen derselbigen/ als ein starcken Shuz/ vnd mechtigen Schirm/ zu sezen/ jrer angewendten mühe/ solcher Schrifftliché arbet/ Hab ich abermals nit gezweiffelt/ jnen in solchem ehrlichen Erempel zufolgen/ derhalben auch E.F.E.W. als sonderliche Hochgelerte/ Hochverstendige/ Füsichtige/ vnd Weise Heren/ welche nit allein in allen ehrlichen vnd hochlöblichen künsten/ gnugsamlichen erfaren/ vnd mit vilfeltigen herlichen vnd trefflichen gaben Gottis/ reichlichen geziert/ vnd hochgeehret/ sonder auch aller ehrlichen löblichen künst getreweste/ milteste vnd Väterlichste erhalter/ auffbringer vnd beschirmer/ auch aller höchste Mecenaten vnd Patronen sind/ in sonderheit zu erwelen/ die Verteuschung vnd geordneten Comentarien der Architectur Vitruuij/ deßgeliché auch andre besondre Büucher/ darin der Architectur angehörige künst/ auffs verstendlichst gehandlet werden/ vnter E.F.E.W herlichen vnd rhümreichen namen/ in Truck zu verordnen/ vnd zu vilfeltigem vortheil vnd nuz allé kunstliebhabern zu publicieré/ Dan dieweil E.F.E.W. sonderlich freundlich gemüut/ vnd wolmeinung/ gegen allen denen/ so auch in geringen/ gemeinen nuz vnd wolfart zu dienen ye vnterstanden/ jderman kundt/ wie dan auch E.F.E.W. Gotgefellige/ glücklich vnd fridlich Regiment vnd recht wolgeordnete Christliche Policen/ gnugsam anzeigen/ so von jederman furnemlichen als ein sonderlicher rhustadt/ erhaltung vnnd auffbringung aller kunst tugent/ Ehrlichen/ Künstlichen vnd Loblichen sachen/ je vnnd je hochgelobt/ vnd nit wenig verwundret worden/ zweiffle ich nit/ es werde E.F.E.W. dise geringe gab solcher meiner Schrifft arbeit angewendter mühe/ gutwilliglich von mir auff nemen/ verhoff ich genzlichen/ es werden solche Werck vnter E.F.E.W. hohem ansehen vnd herlichen namen/ allen kunstliebhabern desto gefelliger/ vnd angenemer sein/ Wa ich dasselbig spüren werde/ bin ich gezliché des erbietens/ hinfur kein fleiß oder mühe zu vnterlassen/ alles dasselbig/ was in disen/ vnd dergleichen/ gemeinem nuz vnd allen kunstbegirigen vortheilig vnd furderlich sein mag/ E.F.E.W. zu ehren vnd gefallen gutwilliglichen nach meinem höchsten vermögen an tag zu bringen/
Damit E.F.E.W. dam Allmechtigen Got/ der aller Obrigkeit verstandt vnd Weißheit gibt/ in seinem Schirm vnd Schuz befelhend/ Der Regiere/ Schüze vnd Handhabe/ E.F.E.W. zu seines Götlichen namens Ehre/ vnd Gemeines Vaterlands nuz vnd fromen.

Daturm Wüzburg. 16. Feb. 1548.

E.F.E.W
Vnderheniger
Gualtherus H. Riuius Medicus & Mathematicus & c.

English translation pp.1-6
English translation pp.7-10
English translation pp.11-14

Vitruvius Teutsch, pp. 7-10 Chapter Index

2010-01-18T11:46:00.000-08:00

Vitruvius Teutsch, pp. 1-6 Index Images
Vitruvius Teutsch, pp. 11-16 Index Images

Original German transcription of Vitruvius Teutsch by Walther Hermenius Ryff (Rivius) in 1548. Pages 7-10:

Kurze Summarien des ganzen Inhalts der X. Bücher Vitruuij/ nach ordnung der Capitel/ Register wenz gestellt.

Des Ersten Buchs.

An den großmechtigen kenster Augustum voredt Vitruuij/ in das Erst Buch der Architectur.
Fol. 1.
Was die Architectur sey/ vnd von erster anweisung vnd vnterrichtung/ der jungen oder an fahenden Bawmeystern.
Das 1. Cap. Fol. 2.
Warauff fürnemlich die Architectur fundiert sey.
Das 2. cap fol. 24.
Von etlichen theilen der Architectur/ so furnemlich in der außlegung oder distribution eigener besonderer vnnd auch der gemeinen Gebew wargenomen werden sollen.
Das 3. cap. Fol. 32.
Von erwelung der gesundesten plaz vnd ort zum baw zuseßen/ vnnd warumb etliche ort schedlich vnd vngesundt/ von welchen orten oder gegneten die offnungen/ zum tag vnd liecht geseßset vnd verordnet werden sollen.
Das 4. cap. Fol. 33.
Von den gründfesten oder Fundamenten der Statmauren vnd thürnen. Das 5. cap. Fol. 37.
Von außtheilung der werck/ so innerhalb der befestigung der Statmauren auß getheilet vnd gerichtet werden sollen/ die schedlichen vngesundé wind zuvermeyden. Das 6. cap. Fol. 42.
Wie man die gebreuchlichsten ort/ gemeiner Stat erwelen soll/ das vij. Vnd lest Cap. des Ersten buchs Vitruuij.
Fol. 43
Des Andern buchs Inhalt.
Von der alten Welt/ wie sich in der erste die menschen gehalten/ vnd von erster erzeigung der freundlichait vnnd anfang der beywonung/ vnnd wie solches von tag zy tag zugenomen.
Das 1. cap. Fol. 58.
Vom ersten vrsprung aller ding/ nach dem wohn vnd meinung der alten Heidnischen Philosophen.
Das 2. cap. Fol. 64.
Von Ziegel oder maurstein.
Das 3. cap. Fol. 65.
Vom Sandt.
Das 4. cap. Fol. 68.
Vom kalck.
Das 5. cap. Fol. 69.
Von sonderlicher kalck erden Puteolanisch puluer genant.
Das 6. cap. Fol. 70.
Von den Steinbrüchen vnd Steinkauten.
Das 7. cap. Fol. 72.
Von macherley vnterschied/ weiß/ vnd manier/ vnd gelegenheit der gemeur.
Das 8. cap. Fol. 75.
Von fellung des Bawholzs.
Das 9. cap. Fol. 86.
Von vnterschiedlicher natur vnd eigenschafft am Dannen holz/ mit schrifftlicher bezeigung des welschen Gebirgs Apennini das r. vnnd lezt Capitel des Andern buchs Vitruuij.
Fol. 91
Des Dritten buchs Inhalt.
Von der Composiz oder ersten fürnemung der Tempel oder Gozheuser/ Symmetri vnd messung des Menschlichen Cörpers/ vnd aller glidmassen eygentlicher proportion. Das 1. Cap. Des 3. buchs Vitruuij der Architectur.
Fol. 96.

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Von mancherley art vnd vntterschied der Tempel vnd kirchen gebew. Das 2. cap. Fol. 109.
Von der Columen grundfestung/ zier/ vnd angehörigen glidern. Das 3. cap. Fol. 117.
Des Vierten buchs Ihnalt.
Von der erfindung oder ersten vrstrung vnnd vrsach dreyerley manier oder gattung der Columen. Das 1. Cap. Deß Vierten buchs Vitruuij von der Architectur. Fol. 131.
Von den Ornamenten vnd schönen zierung der Colonen/ auch wie solche erfunden vnd auffkumen/ von der Architectur Vitruuij. Das 2. cap. Fol. 137.
Von der Dorisch manier. Das 3. Cap. Des 4. Buchs/ von der Archi: Vitruuij. Fol. 141.
Von der innerlichen distribution vnd abtheilung der Zellen vnd Pronao oder Portal/ das viert Capitel des vierten buchs Vitruuij Architectur. Fol. 148.
Von stellung der gebew/ wie solche nach den vier orten der Welt zurichté. Das 5. cap. Fol. 149.
Von den Portalen vnd Thürgestellen/ der Tempel oder kirchen gebew/ Das 6. cap. Fol. 150.
Von der abteilu'g vnd Symmetria der Tempel/ nach Tuscanischer manier. Das 7. cap. Fol. 155.
Von rechter ordenierung vnd stellung der Altar der Abgötter. Das 8. cap. Fol. 158.
Des Funfften buchs Inhalt.
Von der stellung vnnd schickung der herlichen gebew/ der Gericht/ Rhatheuser Forum genant. Das 1. cap. Fol. 160.
Von rechter ordenierung der Schazkammern/ Gefencknuß/ vnd Curia. Das 2. cap. Fol. 164.
Von den Schawpläzen Theatra genant. Das 3. cap. Fol. 165.
Von der Harmonij. Das 4. cap. Fol. 168.
Von wolgeschickter ordenierung der gefeß im Theatrö. Das 5. cap. Fol. 170.
Von bequemer Conformation vnd grundlegung eines Theatri. Das 6. cap. Fol. 173.
Von der Obdachung des Schops oder Porticus des Theatri. Das 7. cap. Fol. 176.
Von dreyerley unterschiedlichen geschlechten der Scenen. Das 8. cap. Fol. 180.
Von den gewelbten Porticalen vnd Spacierschöpffen hinter der Scena/ vnnd vmb daß Theatrum. Das 9. cap. Fol. 182.
Von bequemer ordenierung der Bäder vnnd der selbigen angehörigen glider oder theil/ Das 10. cap. Fol. 185.
Von der erbewung Palestrarum vnd Xistis. Das 11. cap. Fol. 188.
Von den Porten des Meers vnnd Hafen/ vnd was von gebew im wasser auffzufüren. Das 12. cap. Fol. 189.
Des Sechsten buchs Inhalt.
Von mancherley Gegent vnd Landtschafft vnterschiedlichen qualiteten vnd Aspect des Himels/ nach welchem die gebew der wonung gericht werden sollen. Das 1. cap. Fol. 193.
Von der Proportion vnd Mensur sunderlicher heuser vnd wonung. Das 2. cap. Fol. 196.
Von dem innern gebew der sonderlichen heuser vnd wonungen. Das 3. cap. Fol. 199.
Von der rechten maß vnd Symmetria deß Hoffplaz vnnd innern gemachen oder Selen/ Das 4. cap. Fol. 202.
Von der rechten maß vnd Symmetria der inner gemach/ vnnd mancherley eingebew. Das 5. cap. Fol. 205.
Von dem gebew Oeci nach Griechischer manier. Das 6. cap. Fol. 206.
Gegen welchem ort der Welt ein yedes gebew sein ansehen haben soll/ gesundtheit vnnd nuzbarkeit halber. Das 7. cap. Fol. 207.

[page 9]

Register der Capitel.

Von geburlichen orten vnd bequemen gemachen/ gemeiner vnd sunderlicher wonung oder gebew mancherley geschlecht vnd nach yedem standt der personen zu richten. Das 8. cap. Fol. 208.
Von den Veldwonungen/ Meyerhöffen vnd Bewrischen wonungen/ sambt jren angehörigen theilen. Das 9. cap. Fol. 209.
Von der Grichischen manier vnnd art zubawen gegen dem Italianischen gebrauch weit vnterscheiden. Das 10. cap. Fol. 211.
Von starcker fundierung vnnd grundfeste der gebew zu der stercke vnnd langwirigkeit/ Das 11. vnd lezt cap. Fol 214.
Des Siebendenbuchs Inhalt.
Von den Pauimenten oder Estrichen/ wie solche schön vnd starck oder werhafft mancherley gestalt zu machen seien. Das 1. cap. Fol. 220.
Vom dereytung des kalcks zu der Weisse vnd Dünchen der gemeur. Das 2. cap. Fol. 223.
Von mancherley form vnd gestalt der gewelb/ mit gnugsamer vnterrichtu'g des Dünchens vnd bekleidung der mauren. Das 3. cap. Fol. 224.
Wie man anfeuchten orten langwirigen dünch machen soll. Das 4. cap. Foll. 228.
Unterrichtung wie die gemach innerhalb mit gemehl zu zieren. Das 5. cap. Fol. 230.
Von der bereitung des Marbels zu der Zierung der mauren vnd wend. Das 6. cap. Fol. 232.
Von mancherley farben/ vnd fürnemlichen von der farben Ochra. Das 7. cap. Fol. 233.
Von der art vnd eygenschafft der natürlichen Minij. Das 8. cap. Fol. 234.
Von rechter temperatur des natürlichen Minij. Das 9. cap. Fol. 235.
Von den künstlich gemachten farben. Das 10. cap. Fol. 236.
Von der temperierung der Bloen farb. Das 11. cap. Fol. 237.
In was gestalt das Pleyweiß/ Spangrün/ vnd Sandaracha künstlich bereit werden sollen. Das 12. cap. Fol. 238.
Wie die farb Ostrum allerfarben die Schönest bereit werde. Das 13. cap. Fol. 238.
Von mancherley bereitung der Purpur farben. Das 14. cap. Fol. 239.
Des Achten buchs Inhalt.
Wie man wasser suchen vnd finden sol. Das 1. cap. Fol. 242.
Vom Regen wasser. Das 2. cap. Fol. 243.
Von der natur/ Eigenschafft/ krafft vnd Würckung/ der warmen wasser so vber mancherley Metall lauffen/ deß gleichen etlicher Flüß/ Brunnen/ See/ vnd der gleichen. Das 3. cap. Fol. 246.
Von sonderlicher Art vnd Eigenschafft etlicher Landschafft vnd Brunnen. Das 4. ca. f. 252.
Von der Prob vnd Bewerung der Wasser. Das 5. cap. Fol. 253.
Wie die Wasser mit bequemen Instrumenten zu Layten seyen. Das 6. cap. Fol. 253.
Von mancherley weyß vnd manier der Wasser leytung. Das 7. cap. Fol. 255.
Des Neundtenbuchs Inhalt.
Von der Newen erfindung Platonis/ die Velt messung betreffend. Das 1. cap. Fol. 261.
Von der Gerechtigkeit des Winckelhacken vom Pithagora erfunden. Das 2. cap. Fol. 264.
Von der künstlichen Prob Archimedis/ dadurch er den zufaß des Sylbers in der güldin kron erkant hat. Das 3. cap. Fol. 266.

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Register der Himlichen Sphera/ Gestirn/ Planeten/ vnnd auffmerckung des Schatten.
Das 4. cap. Fol. 272.
Von dem Lauff der Sonnen/ durch die zwölff Hymlische zeichen. Das 5. cap. Fol. 275.
Von den vnbeweglichen Sternen auff der Septentrionalischen seitten vom Zodiaco.
Das 6. cap. Fol. 276.
Von dem vnbeweglichen Gestirn der Meridionalischen seiten. Das 7. cap. Fol. 277.
Vom rechten grund vnd verstand der Horologien vnd Schatten im Aequinoctio zu Rom vnd an andren orten. Das 8. cap. Fol. 279.
Vom rechten verstandt vnnd nuzlichen gebrauch der Horologien vnd der selbigen Ersten erfindung/ vnd wer solche anfenglichen erdacht hab. Das 9. cap. Fol. 283.

Was ein Kust oder Hebzeug sey/ vnd desselben vnterschid gegen andren Instrumenten/ wie auch solche erstlichen erfunden/ vnd von jrer notwendigkeit. Das 1. cap. Fol. 290.
Von mancherley Machination Küst vnd Hebzeug/ so man im baw der Tempel vnd kirchen vnd grossen gewaltigen gebewen braucht. Das 2. cap. Fol. 292.
Von mancherley namen vnd Künst vnd Hebzeug/ vnd wie solche auffgericht werden sollen. Das 3. cap. Fol. 293.
Wie man auff ein andre art ein gewaltigen Hebzug machen soll/ ein yeden vast schweren last on alle gefahr zuheben vnd geweltigen. Das 4. cap. Fol. 293.
Wie man ein vast gebreuchlichen Hebzug auff ein andre weyß auffrichten mög. Das 5. cap. Fol. 295.
Wunderbarliche künstliche erfindung Ctesiphontis/ vast grossen schweren Last vber Land zufüren. Das 6. cap. Fol. 297.
Von erster Erfindung des Steinbruchs/ zum baw des Tempels Diane zu Epheso. Das 7. cap. Fol. 298.
Von zweyerley vnderschidlicher Bewegung/ schweren Last zugeweltigen. Das 8. cap. Fol. 299.
Von künstlicher Machination mancherley Wasserkünsten. Das 9. cap. Fol. 302.
Von mancherley künstlichem Mülwerck. Das 10. cap. Fol. 302.
Von der bereitung einer künstlichen wasserschrauben. Das 11. cap. Fol. 35.
Von der künstlichen Machination Ctesibij/ ein wasser vast hoch zuheben. Das 12. cap. Fol. 307.
Wie man ein künstlich Orgelwerck mit wasser anrichten mög. Das 13. cap. Fol. 308.
Wie man durch künstlich Machination auff einem Wagen oder Schiff/ den gefarnen Weg messen soll. Das 14. cap. Fol. 310.
Von rechter bereitung vnnd gebrauch der Werffen oder Schlenckeren/ vnnd mancherley geschoß. Das 15. cap. Fol. 311.
Von den Balisten/ das ist von den Schlenckeren vnd Werffern. Das 16. cap. Fol. 311.
Von rechter Proportion des gewichts des steins/ gegen den löcheren des Werffzeugs. Das 17. cap. fo. 313.
Von sonderlicher Machination/ darmit die Künstzeug/ zum Geschoß vnd werffen gespant werden. Das 18. cap. Fol. 313.
Von mancherley kriegßrüng von den Feinden vnd auch wider die Feind in einer elegerung zu brauchen. Das 19. cap. Fol. 315.

Finis der Capitel.

[There may be some innacuracies in this transcription. Please let me know if you find any!]

English translation pp.1-6
English translation pp.7-10
English translation pp.11-14

Vitruvius Teutsch, pp. 11-16 Index Images

2010-01-18T11:26:00.000-08:00

Vitruvius Teutsch, pp. 1-6 Chapter Index
Vitruvius Teutsch, pp. 7-10 Chapter Index

Eigentliche erklerung der bedeutung vnd rechten verstands aller fürgerissenen Figuren der X. Bücher der Architectur Vitruuij/ in Registerweiß gestellet.
Des Ersten Buchs

Figuren der bedeutung etlicher Egiptischen zeichen/ welcher sie an stat der Buchstaben irer schrifft/ bey alten zeiten gebraucht wurden. Fol 8.
Circkels/ Richtscheids/ vnd aller gebreuchlichen Geometrischen Instrument/ künstliche fürbildung. Fol 11.
Tracht vnnd kleidung der eltesten Römer Ratherren/ Senatores/ vnd von diser kleidung Togati gennent/ sampt der ehrlichen Weibs klaidung/ dauon sie Stolate genant/ vnd auch der Römerischen kriegs kleidung/ welche zum streit gebraucht wurden. Fol 13.
Augenscheinlicher bericht/ in welcher gestalt/ manier vnd glidmaß die Caryatischen weiber vnnd matronen/ an stat der Seulen/ in die gebew von alten Bawmeistern geordnet wurden. Fol 14.
künstlicher antiquitet anzeigung/ wie die Römer weibliche bilder/ in alter Römischer kleidung/ an stadt der Seulen mancherley gebraucht haben. Fol 14.
Fürmalung künstlicher Seulen von bildwerck/ wie solche diser zeit/ bey den Welchen im gebrauch. Fol 15.
Augenscheinliche figur der Capiteel/ so mit hauptern der weibsbilder von den alten gezieret vnd im brauch gewesen auff die Colonen zuseßen. Fol 16.
Augenscheinliche fürmalung des gewaltigen siegzeichen/ so die Lacedemonier von der herlichen vberwindung vnd Triumph/ der Plateenser jren nachtbawren zu ewigem rhumb jres Fürsten Pausania gesezt haben. Fol 16.
Abzeichung mancherley verenderung der bossen/ so ein verstendiger Bawmeister weiter nach seinem gefallen in mancherley werck bringen mag. Fol 17.
künstliche auffreissung der beiden/ Satyri/ welche als sonderliche künstliche antiquitet/ noch heutigs tags zu Rom gesehen werden. Fol 19.<
Lebliche Contrafactur der bildung des hochberümpten Malters Albrecht Dürers/ starb zu Nürnberg den 6. tag Aprilis im jar 1528. Seins alters im 58. jar. Fol 21.
Küstliche fürmalu'g der fassung vnd geheu'ßder bildwerck nach antiquischer manier. fo. 22
Figur der vergleichung Musicalischer Proportion/ mit den Astronomische' figuren. Fol. 23.
Künstliche auffreissung des grunds vnnd fundaments eines herlichen kirchen baws/ aus dem Triangel vnnd Quadrat in rechter Symmetria aus dem S(?)ymmetria aus dem Teutschen Steinmeßen grundt/ deß Maßwecks auff gerissen/ zum theil in der manier wie das Münster zu Meyland von Teutschen erbawen. Fol. 27.
Künstliche auffreissung der Orthographi oder auffzeihens des obgesezten grundts oder Ichnographi nach dem Teutschen Stainmeßen grund des Triangels/ mit sonderlichem fleiß abgemessen. Fol. 29.<
Eigentliche auffreissung des grunds der Seulen mit jren Basament vnd Capiteelen/ auch wie solche Seulen auffgezogen werden. Fol 29.
Eigentliche auffreissung Geometrischer Architectonischer weiß eines gebews auß dem grund auffzuziehen/ aus dem Zirckel/ Quadrat vnd Triangel/ nach gewonlicher Syme

[page 12]

Register der Figuren.

tria des verjüngten werck schuchs/ zu augenscheinlichem Erempel der Orthographi vnd S(?)cenographi geseßet. Fol 30.
Hemionitis, Phillitis, Lingua Ceruina Hirschzung/ Asplenon, Scolopendrium, Ceterach, Welsch Milzkraut. Fol. 37.
Figur der grundlegung vnnd aufahender auffürung der Stat Mauren mit jren Thüren vnd Wehren nach der alten manier. Fol 39.
Eigentliche Contrafactur des gewaltigen Schlos Meyland mit etlicher desselbige' wehren verzeichung. Fol 40.
Figur der verzeichung obgemelter Welbstein vnd der selbigen versezung in ronden Thürnen/ sampt mancherley gestalt vnd art die Quaderstein zuhawen. Fol. 41.
Figur eines starcken verschrenckten gemeurs/ zu erhaltung großlasts Erdrichs zu einer gewaltigen Schütten/ oder Wahl verordnet. Fol 41.
künstliche fürreissung etlicher gewaltiger gebew/ so mit jren Basteyen/ Rondelen/ Streich weren/ Mauren/ Schüten/ Wähl, Brustwehren/ Schießlöchern/ Grabung/ mit aller zugehör auffs wehrlichst zugericht. Fol. 42.
Eygentliche fürmalung der kunstlichen Wind vnd Demffgefäß/ vnd fewer kuglen/ so vom Vitruuio alle Colipile genant werden. Fol. 45.
Eygentliche fürmalung des achteckigen Thurns vnd Marbelstein zu Athen von Andronico Cyrrheste erbewen/ vnd Palladia genant/ die witterung durch verenderung der Wind zubezeichnen. Fol. 46.
Fürmalung der Wetterzeiger/ vnnd auffreissung des grunds vorgeseztes Thurns Tritonis. Fol. 47.
Figur des auffgerißnen Stocks/ von Vitruuio Amusium genant/ wie solcher nach der pleywag gericht/ vnd aus dem schatten des mitlern steffts verzeichnet vnd außgetheilet werden soll. Fol. 48.
Ganz fleissige vnd eygentliche außtheilung der obern platten vorgesezter pleyrechten ebne nach gemeiner vnterschiedung des Equinoctials die acht fürnembsten Wind anzuzeigen/ nach der meinung Witruuij. Fol. 48.
Figur der viervndzweinzig Wind/ wie solche nach rechter ordnung vom Vitruuio eingetheilet werden. Fol. 50.
Figur der außtheilung des Windkreis/ in die sechzehen fürnembsten Wind/ nach der leer Vitruuij mit dem Circkel abgetheilet/ vnd mit buchstaben verzeichnet. Fol. 51.
Figur der zwelff fürnembsten Wind/ wie solche vmb die Weltkugel verordnet nach der meinung der Contrafactur diser zeit aller Meerschiffung gebreuchlichs Cöpaß. 52.
Figur der außtheilung vnd auffreissung der Windt/ darauß die Meer Charten zu machen/ auff mancherley Landschafft. Fol. 53.
Erklerung der bedeutung vnd rechten verstands der Figuren des Andern buchs der Architectur Vitruuij.
Künstliche verzeichung wie man sich vermüt/ die aller ersten Meschen gelebt/ vnd durch erfindung des fewers in gemeinschafft vnd freundliche beywonung komen/ vnd die sprach der redt sich vnter jnen erhaben hat. Fol. 61.
künstliche fürmalung wie die ersten Meschen/ das Bawwerck durch mancherley hütten vnd wonungen erfunden haben. Fol. 62.

[page 13]

Register der Figuren.

Künstliche fürmalung der alten Cholchier erste hülzene Gebew/ mit warhafftiger Contrafactur solcher Heuser/ wie sie in Schweiz vnd Schweden/ Nortweden vnd der gleichen Landtschafft im brauch sind. fo. 63.
Augenscheinliche fürmalung/ vnd etlicher maß vnd form der Maurstein/ nach der meinung Vitruuij. Fol. 67.
Von der ordnung oder vereinigung/ der fier zwerch handt breiten Maurstein/ mit iren halben vnd fiertheilen nach der lehr Vitruuij. Fol. 68.
Augenscheinliche fürmalung oder anzeigung/ vngezierdes vergitters Gemeur. Fol. 78.

Augenscheinliche anzigung gezierdts vergitterts Gemeur. Fol. 79.
Eigentlicher Contrafactur etlicher vast alter begrebnuß/ vnd alter Heidnischer gedechtnuß oder antiquitet zu besserem verstandt der meinung Vitruuij auffgerissen. Fol. 80.
Eigentliche Contrafactur vilfeltiger form vnd frembder gestalt der stainen krüg vnd der gleichen gefeß/ wie solche vnd Heyden zu begrebnus jrer aschen gebraucht worden. Fol. 80.
Augenscheinliche bezeichnung des Griechlischen maurwercks/ nach der mainung Vijfo. 81.
Anzeigung des Grichischen maurwercks/ von wegen der gleichlichen ordnung der fugen Jsodomum genant. Fol. 81.
Augenscheinliche verzeichnung des alten vnordenliche'/ doch vesten Griechischen gemeur Pseudisodomi nach der anzeigung Vitruuij. Fol. 82.
Augenscheinliche anzeigung der außgefülten gemeur/ zwischen fordern vnd hinter Wenden mit Quaderstein/ aber darzwischen mit rauhem Stainwerck außgefüllet. Fol. 82.
Augenscheinlische Figur oder fürreissung des grundis/ des kümglichen gebews Mausoli zu seiner begrebnus. Fol. 84.
Figur des ganzn gebews/ vom künig Mausolo zu Halicarnasso/ vnd vnter siben wunderwerck gezelet. Fol. 84.
Figuren des Dritten buchs.
Augenscheinliche Figur der glidmassung Menschlichs Cörpers in rechter proportion vnd Symmetria Geometrischer weß abgtheilet. Fol. 100.
Augenscheinliche anzeigung wie in der grundlegung Menschilcher glidmassung nach rechter Symmetri/ ein andre klainere vierung in die grösser einzubringen sey/ dem mitlern Centro des nabels proportionierlich vnd gerecht. Fol. 101.
Augenscheinliche Figur des grundts vnd vordern auffzugs der gestalt der gebew vnd herlichen Tempel/ in der manier Prostilos von Vitruuio genant auffgezochen. Fol. 105.
Grund vnd auffzug der gestalt vnd manier Amphiprostili/ eines herlichen gebews eins Tempels/ nach der lehr Vitruuij/ mit einem sonderliche' körlein zuerbawe' auffgerissen. Fol. 106.
Die Ichnographia/ das ist die grundlegung der gestalt eines gewaltigen herlichen Tempels oder der gleichenbaw/ vom Vitruuio Peripteros genant. Fol. 107.
Künstliche auffreissung des grundts vnd Orthographi eines herlichen gebews der gestalt Pseudodipteri zu klarem verstandt Vitruuij mit fleiß abgetheilet. Fol. 108.
Augenscheinliche auffreissung des grundts eins herlichen gewaltigen baws der form Dipteri/ in welcher manier nach Heidnischer weiß kostbarliche Tempel/ nach anzeigung Vitruuij erbawen worden. Fol. 109.
Volget die grundtlegung des herlichen vnd gewaltigen gebews/ der form Hypetri/ das ist vnter freyem Hymel nach der ler vnd meinung Vitruuij fleissig auffgerissen. Fol. 109.
Augenscheinliche fürreissen der stellung der seulen nach weiß vnd manier Pycnostili, das ist ganz eng in einander gesezt/ wie solches vnd Vitruuio gemeldet vnd bescribe' wirt. f. 112.<
Augenscheinliche fürreissen eines Stucks mit vast künstlichem laubwerck/ der getrehetn vnd vnterbrochnen Balustren seulen. Fol. 114.
Wie die Seulen oder Colonen beyder weiß vnd manier Dyastili vnd Areostili zu ordnen nach

[page 14]

Register der Figuren.<
Der lere Vitruuij/ augenscheinlich erempel. Fol. 114.
Augenscheinliche Figur der wolgestalten bequembsten/ vnd aller nuzlichsten weiß/ der stellung vnd ordenierung der Columnen in der manier Custyli. Fol 115.
Ta;fflein der einziehung des oberen theils des Schaffts/ oder Pfeiler der columen/ nach der lehr Vitruuij. Fol. 116.
Agenscheinlich erempel/ wie ein yede Colonen in rechter Proportion vnd Symmetria/ mög ergrösset vnd gebauchet werden. Fol. 117.
Eigentliche fürmalung etlicher gebreuchlichsten form der Pfelstempffer vnnd Hebzeugs darzu. Fol 121.
Eigentliche fürreissung der rechte' leng/ mit seiner außtheilu'g des alten Römischen werck/ schuchs/ vnd andere gebreuchliche Meßsteben. Fol. 122.
Furreissung eigentlicher Symmetri vnd abtheilung des Basen oder füß/ mancherley ronden oder gefierten Columen gebreuchlich nach der lehr Vitrruij. Fol. 123.
Augenscheinliche Figur der abtheilung vnd Symmetri der Ionische' Capiteel/ mit jren wurblen vnd angehörigen glidern/ vnd zierungen nach der lehr Vitruuij. Fol 126.
Eygentliche fürreissung des grundts einer künstliche' vnd gerechte' Ionische' Eckseule'. Fol. 126
Gerecht Symmetrische abtheilung der Ionischen Columne'/ vnd aller der selbigen glider/ wie auch solche Perspectiuischer weiß zurichten vnd in das werck zubringen. Fol. 127.
Eygentliche fürreissung der bequemer höhung der vorder Geybel/ von den alten Architectis Tympana genant/ in Triangel vnd runder bogen form. Fol. 129.
Contrafactur der Löwen köpfflein/ vnd mancherley gestalt zierlicher Wasser kannel. Fol. 129.
Figuren des Vierten Buchs.

Gerechte vnd eygentliche fürreissung d' sechs manieren d' Colunen mit jren Basen vnd Capitelen/ sampt mancherley gestalt der capiteel/ welcher Symmetri vo' Vitru. Angezeigt wird. fol. 134.
Augenscheinliche Figur des geflochtnen Laubs vnd Kranzwerck/ von Vitruuio Eucarpia genant/ von Walhen vnd vnseren Teutschen Architectis Festinen. Fol. 135.
Ganz eygentliche lebliche Contrafactur des waren Acanthi/ sambt seiner wachsung vnd gestalt geflochten Zänen oder körblein. Fol. 135.
Fürreissung rechtmessiger abtheilung der öbern platen vnd ganzen Symmetri der Corintischen Capiteel. Fol. 136.
Erempel der abschneidung der eck der platten ausserhalbdem quadrat. Fol. 136.
Erempel der abschneidung der eck innerhalb des quadrats. Fol. 136.
Ein schön wolgeziert vnd fleissig abgetheilt Capiteel/ mit eygentlicher Symmetri nach lehr Vitruuij/ vnd andren kunstreichen wercken der Antiquitet auffgerissen. Fol. 137.
Augenscheinliche fürreissung alles Zimmerwercks/ von welchem die zier des obergebelcks vnd Architrab/ den vrsprung haben/ nach der lehr vnd meinung Vitruuij. Fol. 140.
Der Colonen von Dorischer manier/ mit iren capitelen vnnd allen glidern abgetheilet in rechter Proportion vnd Symmetri augenscheinliche auffreissung. Fol. 143.
Augenscheinliche fürreissung Schöner wolgezierter Dorischer Capiteel/ von macherley abtheilung vnd Symmetri. Fol. 143.
Augenscheinliche Controfactur der Donderstral/ wie solche eygentlichen von Heydnische' antiquiteten abgezeichnet. Fol. 146.
Augenscheinliche fürreissung aller angehörigen glider der Dorischen manier/ wie solche in das werck zu ordnenin fleissiger abtheilung gerechter proportion vnd Sym'etri. Fol. 149.
Augenscheinliche Figur schöner antiquischer Basament/ mit eygentlicher abtheilung der gezier. Fol. 147

[Page 15]

Register der Figuren.

Figur der geripten vnd gekeleten Columnen. Fol. 148.
Eygentliche auffreissung des grunds/ aller orgnung vnnd abtheilung der inneren gebew/ Zellen vnd abseiten/ mit anzeigung der auffgezogenen vorwandt/ nach d' lehr Vitruuij. Page 149.
Eygentliche auffreissung der abtheilung aller glider der Portal vnd Thürgestell/ mit jren zierungen nach der lehr Vitruuij. Page 152.
Augenscheinliche bezeichnus der rechten stellung der Antonen des Ionische Thürgestels. Page 153.
Augenscheinliche auffreissung der abtheilung der Portal Thürgestell/ nach Italianischer manier in der Ionischen art. Page 154.
Eygentliche auffreissung des grundts vnd fundaments nach der proportion vnd Symmetria/ der Tuscanischen manier aus der lehr Vitruuij abgetheilet. Page 156.
Figuren des Funfften buchs.

Augenscheinliche auffreissung Geometrischer abtheilung drey Cuben gerecht in einander zuuerzeichnen/ nach der meinung Vitruuij auß der ler Pythagorischen Philosophen. Fol. 160.
Augenscheinlichs erempel d' auffzeichung des Marckplaz/ vnd herumb auff gefürten gebew/ Rat/ Gericht/ vnnd Gewerbhauß/ nach der alten Griechischen vnd Italianischen manier. Fol. 163.
Augenscheinlichs erempel der grundlegung vnd auffziehung des herlichen Pallasts/ so Vitruuius Julie der Tochter Augusti zu Rom selber iu das werck verordnet hat. Fol. 164.
Eygentliche abtheilung eins kleineren Theatri nach dem gebrauch der Latiner auß der lehr Vitruuij mit fleiß in grund gelegt/ vnd zu augenscheinliche' erempel auffgerissen. Fol. 167.
Augenscheinliche Figur/ wie in die Gewelbten siz Theatri/ die gestimpten Gefeß von Glocken oder Cymbalen zu lieblichem gethön gefeßt vnd geordnet werden sollen/ nach der lehr Vituiij/ sampt gerechter Symmetria mancherley Gewelb zuschliessen. Fol. 173.
Augenscheinliche Figur des grunds eins gewaltigen herlichen Baws vnd Theatri/ nach der lehr vnd vnterrichtung Vitruuij mit sonderlichem fleiß auffgerissen. Fol. 175.
Der grund ganz fleissiger eygentlicher vnnd gerechter Messung aller glidmassen/ in jrer proportion vnd Symmetria des herlichen gewaltige' gebews des Amphiteatri/ zu Rom dise zeit Colosseo genant/ nach de' grundt der Ichnographiakünstlich auffgerissen. Fol. 177.
Augenscheinlich Erempel der Gradt oder siz des Theatri mit den zwischstafflen/ auch wie solche nit allein Dallhellig vnd gesenckt sonder auch wie die künstlichen vnd mühsam in einander gefügt vnd geschlossen werden. Fol. 178.
Augenscheinliche verzeichung der Ichnographi/ des grundts vnd fundaments eins Griechischen Theatri/ nach der lehr vnd meinung Vitruuij/ vast fleissig auffgerissen. Fol. 182.
Figur einer künstlichen Badstuben/ nach der manier vnd brauch der alten Römer/ mit aller jrer zugehör auß der lehr Vitruuij geordnet. Fol. 187.
Figur eins vesten vnd starcken Meerports vnd Hafen/ mit allen angehörige' gebew'. Fol. 191.
Figuren des Sechsten buchs.

Figur der vnterscheidung der Welt kugel/ durch mancherley abtheilung der gegent vnnd Landschafft den vnterschied der stym'en zu mercken. Fol. 196.
Figur macherley gebew vnnd anders/ aus der Perspectiua/ in temperierter distanz in die streimen des gesichs zu bringen/ zu augenscheinlichem bericht gesezt. Fol. 198.
Figur des inneren baws vnd hoffplazs wolgeordneter wonung/ eins sonderliche' hauß/ nach Tuscanischer manier zu sonderliche' erempel auß rechter Perspectiua auffgerissen. Fol. 200.
Augenscheinlich Erempel des innern baws vnd hoffplaz nach Corintischer manier. Fol. 200.
Figur des innern baws vnd Hoffplaz sonderlicher gebew/ heusern vnd wonungen in der manier Tetrastyli nach der lehr vnd meinung Vitruuij. Fol. 201.
Figur den Trauff vnd Regenwasser mancherley gestalt an die obgesezten vorschöpff/ nach der lehr Vitruuij zerspreutet abzutragen. Fol. 201.

[Page 16]<

Auffreissung eins gewelbten vorbaws eins inneren hoffplaz nach der art vnd meinung Vitruuij zu augenscheinlichem erempel auffgerissen. Fol. 202.
Figur des grunds eins herlichen Hoffs mit den fürembsten glidern/ alles nach der lehr vnd meinung Vitruuij in rechter proportion vnd Symmetria auffgerissen. Fol. 203.
Figur Augenscheinlichs erempel des alten Römische' brauchs vnd manier/ auff den Sizbetten zu disch zulige'/ nach vast alten Marble'/ sehr künstreicher antiquitete' abgemacht fol. 206.
Eins herlichen gewaltige' Fürstlichen hofes vnd Pallast/ mit allen zugehörigen glidern nach Griechischer manier/ eygentlichen in grund gelegt/ nach der lehr vnd anzeigung Vitruuij. Fol. 215.
Figur der keffer oder kragstein so in die mauren gelegt werden die bögen der gewelb zu tragen. Fol. 216.
Augenscheinliche bezeichnus etlicher starcken fundament vnd grundfeste/ darauff die gebew langwirig zu bestehen gesezt werden mögen/ nach der lehr vnd bescreibung Vitruuij zu einem erempel gesezet. Fol. 216.
Figuren des Sibenden buchs.

Figur der form vnd gestalt/ mancherley einschliessung der quaderstein zum pflastern. Fol. 222.
Augenscheinlich Erempel der verbingung oder zusamen fügung der kleinen gebachen steinlein zu einem Pauiment nach antiquischer Römischer manier. Fol. 223.
Figur der rechten form vnd gestalt des kreuz gewelbs Testudo genant. Fol. 226.
Der breiten Schwibbögen/ welche Vitruuius Fornices nennet/ eigentliche auffreissung/ fol. 226.
Eygentliche auffreissung der Italianischen gewelb/ vo' der gestalt der gewelbogen Lunatum genant. Fol. 226.
Figur der pleywag die gerade der lenge zu examiniren. Fol. 227.
Figur nach der lehr Vitruuij/ ein winckelhacken gerecht zustellen. Fol. 227.
Augenscheinliche Figur wie sich in feuchten gemachen im dünchen zuhalten. Fol. 228.
Figur vast künstlicher/ zierlicher form vnd gestalten/ mancherley ding/ so die Walhen pflegen von Gewechs in Lustgärten zu machen. Fol. 232.
Eygentliche fürreissen bequemer rüstung ein Kienschwarz zubrennen/ nach der lehr vnnd meinung Vitruuij. Fol. 237.
Figur vnd gestalt eins künstlichen distilier ofen/ nach Saracenischer weiß vnd manier fol. 237.
Figuren des Achten buchs.

Augenscheinlich Erempel wie auß dem auffsteigenden dunst Wasser zu such vnd finden/ auchzu leiten sei nach der lehr Vitruuij. Fol. 243.
Eygentliche fürreissung mancherley Instrument der Wasserwagen vnd absehen der B(?)eld messung. Magst hierüber auch wol sehen die figur oben am 343. blat. Fol. 255.
Anzeigung künstlicher Wasserleytung mancherley gestalt/ nach Antiquischer Römischer manier auß der lehr vnd meinung Vitruuij. Fol. 258.
Augenscheinlichs Erempel/ auß abtheilung der Blech/ die Maß vnd gewicht der Kören so dorauß rondiert werden zu erlernen. Fol. 259.
Eygentliche Contrafactur mancherley künstlicher Wasserkrüg. Fol. 260.
Figuren des Neundten buchs.

Zu außtheilung einer yeden Hoffstet/ beschaw dise figuren. Fol. 263.
Augenscheinliche figur/ der Stygen oder Trappen/ wie sie vom öbersten boden biß auff dem vndersten getheilt werden. Fol. 264.
Eygentliche fürreyssung der Newen erfindung Pythogore/ sambt gerechter eygentlicher Symmetria der Styegen. Fol. 265.
Augenscheinliche figur der geschwinden erfindung Archimedis. Fol. 267.
Augenscheinliche figur des auffgerissenen halben Eylinders. Fol. 269.
Augenscheinliche gestalt des Mesolabij mit seiner abtheilung bezeichnuß. Fol. 271.

[There may be some innacuracies in this transcription. Please let me know if you find any!]

Vitruvius Teutsch, pp. 1-6 Original German
Vitruvius Teutsch, pp. 7-10 Original German
Vitruvius Teutsch, pp. 11-16 Original German

Basic Rules Of Daylighting

2009-09-30T14:09:00.000-07:00

Skylights go high up in space, distribute light evenly

The Pheonix Library has skylights above columns to create an effect of lightness in the structure, and to better diffuse light.

The Matsumoto Performing Arts Centre has lighting lining the top of the wall revealed by the corner with the ceiling. The wall diffuses light and has a feeling of openness.

Workspaces go close to windows

Sidelight from windows is appropriate for tasks, along with personal lamps. Office fluorescent lighting is the worst kind of light for working.
- Determine whether envelope loads (energy leaked through to the outside) or internal loads (heat or cool generated inside the building) are dominant to design heat exchange in the windows.^[1]
Daylight is cool, direct sunlight is warm

The color of sunlight entering the building is blue if it comes from blue sky, and gold if it comes from the sun.

Direct sunlight is much brighter. Avoid glare, light levels entering a window should be no greater than three times the light in the room. This varies according to the room's function.

Glare can be avoided with windows on two planes rather than just one wall, and with curved white ceilings or walls to diffuse light.

Winter light is dimmer and cooler than summer light

Tinted or reflective glass hinders views and is depressing

Daylight is sufficient for 2 times the window height

The room's function will determine how much daylight is appropriate. Outside obstructions can either significantly increase or decrease the amount of sunlight a window receives.

Calculations for daylighting guide here

[Image by:

^Steve Burt on flickr, all other images copyrighted Architecture Revived]

Sacred Temple Clothing In Ancient Israel

2009-09-28T20:24:00.000-07:00

1 Importance of clothing in the temple
- 1.1 Holiness and authority
- 1.2 Connection to temple design

2 Description of priestly garments

2.1 Ephod, breastplate, robes
2.2 Mitre, tunic, girlde
2.3 Crown, trousers
2.4 Clothing of other priests
2.4 Urim and Thummim

3 Garment of Adam

3.1 Garment of light, skin, apron of leaves
3.2 Patriarchal authority

4 Influence on other cultures

4.1 Idols and divination
4.2 Egypt, Greece, Europe
4.3 Shinto, Hinduism, Buddhism
4.4 Native America

5 Conclusion

Importance of clothing

The clothing worn by those who entered the ancient Hebrew temple was part of an over-all form that engaged strict functions. Besides the common function for clothing as a covering and shelter for the body, clothing in the ancient temple contributed to the holiness that was crucial to the sacred place. Clothing indicated the authority of the priests and contributed to his functional role.

Manifest Holiness

“Holy” comes from the Old English hālig, which means “uninjured, sound, healthy, entire, complete.” The Moses declared that “the world also shall be stable, that it be not moved” because of “the beauty of the holiness” of the Lord. (1 Chron. 16:29-30)

When his leadership was challenged, Moses declared that the Lord chooses who is righteous by having a closer proximity with that person: “Even to morrow the Lord will shew who are his, and who is holy; and will cause him to come near unto him: even him whom he hath chosen... the man whom the Lord doth chose, he shall be holy.”(Num16:5) Holiness is a state of stability and health, but also of nearness to God- literal nearness, the Hebrews believed.

“Sacred” comes from the Latin word sacrum, which refers to anything that is set apart and in God's power. “It was generally conceived spatially, as referring to the area around a temple.” Sacredness then is the space between God and man. It is a form that is determined by the function of holiness.

To maintain a division from profane actions and purifying rituals, only certain people could enter the temple. Just before Moses received the ten tablets of commandments, Moses and the head priests were commanded to “worship at a distance.” Only Moses could approach the holy ground on the mountain. After more covenants were made and greater altars built, even still a cloud covered the mountain as Moses conversed with God.

Priests weren't allowed to even approach the temple without appropriate clothing on and proper grooming. The clothing worn at the temple acted as a physical manifestation of the holiness required to make the temple sacred. The strictness of the clothing was required for the priests “that they bear not iniquity and die.”

Nadab and Abihu were consumed with fire for attempting to offer burnt sacrifices without the priesthood authority (Lev. 10:12). Only certain people could perform the rituals, and only at certain times. Even putting on the clothes followed a strict etiquette. After being washed, the high priest was dressed in this order: tunic, robe, ephod, breastplate, girlde, mitre, crown. He then was anointed, and the other priests went through the same ritual.

Connection to temple design

The appearance of the priests' clothing mirrored the temple. The precise outline for the temple design was immediately followed by vestige for the priests. The dimensions, colors, and elements were very similar. The clothing was constructed immediately after the temple. The priests were anointed in their vestige immediately after the temple was anointed.

Much like the form of the temple indicates its functional role in the religion, government, and society, the clothes of the priests indicated their particular functional roles. They also were intended "for honor and beauty" of the place. Each priest had their clothing custom made to fit the proportions of their body.

When any of the clothing became too dirty to get washed out all the way, the clothing was disposed of by shredding it and then burning it in the candles of the temple's menorah. Only the high priest's clothing was hidden in a secret place never to be used again.

Description of priestly garments

Ephod - Scholars believe the ephod began as a simple linen form and evolved into an extravagant device for ceremony. The ephod was a simple linen skirt that went up and over the shoulders like an apron, with open sides that were fastened with a girdle. The first ephod in Moses' time may have been simple plain cloth. Some scholars say the following elaborate definition was written in later to mirror the design of the temple:

It was woven of blue, purple, scarlet, and gold thread into fine linen. Gold rings on the shoulders attached straps which held the breastplate with gold chains. Two green heliodor or copper carbonate gems in gold settings on these shoulder straps had the names of each tribe of Israel inscribed on them, six on each stone. These were called “remembrance stones.”

Breastplate - The Urim and Thummim was carried by the breastplate, so that it would be upon Aaron's heart. On the breastplate “of judgment” also were four rows of three stones, certain gems that also had the names of each tribe written on them. The colors of these stones coordinated with representative colors of each tribe. Two rings with blue linen attached the breastplate on the bottom to the girdle. It was also woven of gold, of blue, and purple, and scarlet into fine linen.

These jewels had special significant by denoting the authority of the wearer, “for a memorial before the LORD continually,” that Aaron “shall bear the judgment of the children of Israel upon his heart.”

Robes - The robe was woven of seamless blue cloth. Pomegranates of blue, purple, and scarlet and gold bells alternate around the bottom hem of the robe. They presumably have symbolic significance- the pomegranate is the fruit of the land (Deut. 8: 8) that God gave to the people. The bells ring with any movement to let everyone know the wearer's presence; thus it was a device to help Aaron “minister.” The sound was also a requirement for anyone who enters the temple, “that he die not.”

Mitre - Though today the mitre in the orthodox Christian church are large and pointed, the Hebrews used a simple flat turban. The mitre evolved concurrently with the rooftop and window forms of cathedrals in the middle ages, becoming larger and more triangular. Though mitres of recent orthodox churches are gold or white, the Hebrew mitre was blue. As a clear indication that the function of the wearer created the sacred space, a gold plaque on the mitre read: “Holy to the Lord.” Any iniquity committed in that space bore upon the wearer. A head-tire held the mitre on the head, a cord tight around the top of the head.

The lower priests mitres were similar to the high priests' except they were easily placed on the head.

Tunic - The tunic could be seen extending lower than the robe. It was checkered to match the gridded pattern of the breastplate.

Girdle - The girdle around the waist completed the dress of the highest priest in the temple. The girdle was woven of sky-blue, dark-red and crimson dyed wools, and twisted linen. Josephus claimed that it was thin, very long, embroidered, and woven of colored wool and white linen. The lower priests probably had simple plain white linen girdles. The placement of the knot was in the front and the ends of the knot hung low, according to Josephus (Antiquities 3:7:2).

Crown - The gold plaque on the mitre is called a crown or diadem. The word means: “the embroidered white silk ribbon, ending in a knot and two fringed strips often placed on the shoulders.” The diadem in early times was worn about the shoulders or neck to denote rank or official and was often presented to winning athletes.

It is hard to say if this is the first crown in history, but it is probably the first time it was worn on the head. Josephus described three gold bands on a blue cap above the mitre, with finely woven linen on each band, an apparent predecessor to the kingly crown. Blue cords around the back of the head held the gold plaque in place.

Trousers - Aaron's sons who worked in the temple wore trousers “to cover the flesh of their nakedness.” They are pure 6-ply white flax and simply woven.

Other clothing, lower priests - Aaron's sons who worked in the temple wore tunics, girldes, and less formal head-coverings, and each article was white.

On the day of atonement, the High Priest wore clothing similar to the ordinary priests. He wore two tunics (one in the morning and one in the evening), trousers “upon his flesh,” a girdle, and a mitre. After that day these clothes were to never be worn again. The priest “shall take off the linen garments, which he put on when he went into the holy place, and he shall leave them there.” They are all pure white simply-woven flax, unlike the colorful normal dress.

Urim and Thummim - The Urim and Thummim, traditionally translated to mean “light and perfection,” was a device worn on the High Priest's breastplate, through which he received answers from God. Some speculate that the secret name of God was written on paper and inserted next to the device, and that is how it got its holiness to answer important questions. Others speculate that it was a device, or two, that was placed in a pocket and pulled out with an answer (see Encyclopedia Biblica). Writing seems to be importantly involved. They speculate that Urim and Thummim translates to “cursed or innocent,” that it was a tool of judgment. In 1 Samuel 14:41, Saul discovered the sinner in a group by continually splitting the group into subgroups while asking for “Urim” or “Thummim.” Some suggest that the Urim and Thummim therefore used cleromancy, because this verse in the Septuagint version indicates the object was manipulated. Also, the next verse says they “cast lots.”

Because all but two recorded uses of the device brought yes or no answers, some scholars believe it produced single words. Talmudic rabbis traditionally believed light shined from the gems on the breastplate to create letters that spelled out an answer. Josephus said it shined brilliantly. Some even said the gems moved (See Yoma 73).

The Urim and Thummim was believed to have been created by God and given to Moses. It was used for matters that concerned the entire congregation. Recently, scholars have done extensive research and determined that the Urim and Thummim had a significant role in ancient Israel for receiving revelation from God. (More Info Here)

Garments of Adam

According to rabbinic literature, Adam's original body reached from earth to heaven, and was "of extreme beauty and sunlike brightness." His "skin was a bright garment." He didn't have robes of skin, but garments of light (Gen. R. xx.), which he needed to remain in the Garden of Eden.

The garment of light was lost upon Adam's fall and they sewed aprons with fig leaves when they discovered that they were naked. God created garments of skins for them. Some claimed these garments were made in the sixth day of creation.

Mythological Judaism further claims that Adam reclaimed a garment of light when he repented of his sin, a garment which the Messiah also wears. (More Info Here)

Patriarchal Authority

Adam's descendants handed down these garments of skin patriarchally, according to some Jewish literature. They were handed down to the eldest son, carried in Noah's ark, and eventually stolen by the evil king Nimrod. Before he was defeated, the garments led people and animals to bow down to him. Jacob stole the garments of skin from Esau in order to get his father's blessing.

Clothing showed leadership in ancient times. Joseph's multi-colored coat is another example of patriarchal blessing in the form of clothing. It is there for all to see, part of a person's image, and it is given to the wearer. The clothes of the king was considered an honor given by the people, a glory given by God. The clothing of the temple priest therefore must indicate the glory and authority given by God and the people.

Influence on other cultures

The appearance and meaning behind the sacred temple clothing has some influence from cultures of that time, including Egypt and Assyria. Clothing specific to the Hebrews can be seen in later cultures, particularly in Crusaders and the early Christian church. There are startling similarities to sacred clothing in the Far East and Americas.

Idols and divination

Some scholars say that a new kind of graven image or idol had its origins in the ephod clothing. Gideon and Micah created a golden ephod that was worshipped by Israel (Judges 8:27). As an indicator of authority, the gold ephod of Micah was no longer worn on the body, but become an object unto itself like a statue. Micah's ephod was known as a Teraphim, or manifest object. Such an ephod became known as pesel or massekah, meaning “graven image” and “molten image.” As the ephod became used more and more as an object to be carried rather than worn, the word Ephod became known to mean idol.

People began to mistakingly think the jewels on the ephod and breastplate themselves were the Urim and Thummim. Since it was regarded as an object of divination, the jewels began to assume a property in people's minds for telling the future.

Perhaps another clue to the function of the Urim and Thummim, later divinations involved looking into the gems. One would look into the jewels and derive an answer from how light would shine back. This practice spread to the pagan looking glass, mirror, crystal ball, or water basin. Cleromancy was often involved. Islamists combined it with the ancient practice of “pulling straws.” They would pull a barren arrow shaft from a container of shafts and read the answer written on it: yes, no, or blank. Pagans ritually divined from bones or sticks.

Egypt, Greece, Europe

The golden diadem can be traced back to Egypt. The diadem had a gold band around the head, with an insignia on the front and two strands hanging from the back. As part of this dressing, gold bands were worn about the shoulders or neck to denote rank or official. This carried on in Greece, where the diadem was often presented to winning athletes. It can perhaps be seen in the most authoritative Greek alpha letter alpha Ω.

Rabbi Elieze claimed the priestly crown of the Hebrews was displayed in Rome after Israel was conquered, which would explain the direction the kingly crown went in Rome and Europe. The gold crown of Charlemagne derives from the ancient Hebrew mitre, and replaces the gold plate the gems of the breastplate.

The evolution of the crown eventually resulted in a metal hat, a combination of the diadem and mitre. Ancient Celts were perhaps the first to wear a gold plate as a crown, called a mime.

Religious clothing in ancient Egypt included an apron that resembled the ephod. Like many other cultures Egypts religious clothing was different for men and women. The men's ephod consisted of several colorful layers of phallic shaped aprons with a large knot for the girdle above. The female's consisted of a simple belt with a knotted girdle.

Tunics were worn beneath. The mitre was also different for the male and female, with a veil coming down over the sides of the female's.

Each wore a shawl over the shoulders, a sort of robe. A bowed knot bound it in front of the heart. This bears great similarity to the Japanese kimono in the Shinto culture. The Greek robe is well known as the one-shouldered toga. The robe also goes over only one shoulder in many Hindu and Shinto cases.

The crusading knights also seemed to adopt many elements of the Hebrew temple clothes. The graduation robes of today include many similarities, including the cut and tassles on the sleeves, and the tassle on the peculiar hat.

Shinto, Hinduism, Buddhism

The Zen Buddhist uses a rectangular apron that resembles the ephod. He also often has a robe that goes over one shoulder. The Hindu priest uses the same kind of robe, a turban with an insignia on the front, and also a necklace much like the ancient Egyptian.

The Shinto priest in Japan distinguishes the male and female clothing like the Egyptians. Both wore baggy trousers with a tunic, robe, and sash on top. The female robe was sometimes pleated. Each wore an apron resembling the ephod.

The male mitre resembles the Egyptian with a rim on the bottom and an insignia in front. The female mitre is a simple band with a bow in the back, like the diadem. The female tunic extended from the back much like the wedding dresses we see today.

In the ancient Japanese shrine Ise-jingu and many other shrines all of the priests had white robes. Shinto priests had fringes on the ends of their sleeves much like the tassels in Hebrew robes.

The stereotypical martial artist wears a headband with the name of his clan written on the front, and a knot in the back with two ends falling down. This is a perfect similarity to the diadem of the ancient Middle East.

Native America

Mayan priests are often portrayed in sculptures with long patterned robes with frills at the bottom. They also wore sandals and wrist-bands much like the Egyptian, Assyrian, and Hebrew priest. A thick necklace denotes authority. The hat bears striking resemblance to the Hebrew mitre. The Mayan priest had a long cord falling from the back of the head, like the diadem. Notice also in that link the frilled apron with the form of a branch on it.

The same ephod can be seen with the Aztecs. The priest in that photo holds a staff like the Egyptian priest often does. The priest on the left is all in white, with a sash, ephod, and robe. The priest on the right wears a hat with an insignia on the front, jeweled cord around the rim, and a pointy top much like the Egyptian hat.

The elaborate headpiece often has long coverings over the ears like the Eygptian diadem. This ear covering is seen throughout tribes in the United States. The stereotypical Native American headpiece is a crown of feathers, a different evolution than the gemmed crown of Europe.

The first Christian priest to come to America, Diego de Landa, wrote of the similarities. The priest wore a long, solemn robe, and children ready for ritual washing would have a white cloths placed on their heads. Women sometimes wore a robe of feathers. He includes this image to the right in Yucatán before and after the conquest of Tutul Xiu, ruler of Maya.

The man wears a hat almost exactly like the Egptian, Hebrew, or even Shinto mitre. He wears a necklace of authority, a sash, and wrist bands (and not much else.)

Landa describes a sash worn about the waste with a knot hanging in the front, which was skillfully embroidered. He describes "large square mantles, which they threw over the shoulders." Here is another image by Friar Landa that shows striking resemblances.

The triangular apron is much like the Egyptian priest. The cape is checkered like the Hebrew tunic, and is tied on the chest like the Egyptian shawl. He wears a thick multi-layered necklace like the Egyptians. He wears a head-piece and sandals. The form of dress is just too similar to ignore.

Conclusion

The function and form of early Hebrew temple clothing reveals a different understanding of the relationship between the human body and architecture, an understanding that spread throughout the world. The need to cover and shelter the body stemmed from the loss of glorious light in the body. The beautiful garment was aesthetic for the purpose of establishing authority among the people and gifts of God. The form of the clothing echoed the form of the building and connected it to the human body. In essence, the clothing fulfilled the functional requirements of the person to establish a space appropriate for all the people.

More Information on the Hebrew temple clothing

images: The following are public domain or used under Fair Use Copyright Rules (in order of appearance):

"Hebrew trumpet" from Filippo Bonanni: Gabinetto Armonico (1723)

"Benito Antiquitatum Iudicarum Libri IX. In quis, praeter Iudaeae, Hierosolymorum, & Templi Salomonis accuratam delineationem, praecipui sacri ac profani gentis ritus describuntur" from Arias Montanus (1593)

"Temptation of Adam and Eve, Expulsion from the garden" At Brarup church in Denmark (1500)

"images from Yucatán before and after the conquest" from Diego de Landa (1524-1579)

All other images copyright Architecture Revived

"The Elements Of Architecture" By Henry Wotton

2009-09-25T23:00:00.000-07:00

Henry Wotton (1568 - 1639) did not intend his book The Elements of Architecture to be just another philosophical treatise for the architecture student. Wotton was the first Englishman to produce a serious work on the subject, and indeed he was placed in a unique and advantageous position to do so, but he himself had not been trained as an architect.

During his time in Florence, Transylvania, Poland, Germany, Rome, and as an ambassador to the Venician Republic from 1604 to 1653, Wotton realized the incomparable advantage of including architecture in the common person's day to day lifestyle. He sought to educate the lay English public with a summary and categorization of true architecture principles. He wrote as a critic.

The Elements of Architecture was a short book that could be found on any person's dresser. It expressed a new enthusiasm for the art of architecture.

He relied heavily on de Architectura by Marcus Vitruvious Pollio. He also heavily referenced drawings by Palladio which Palladio had used for his fundamental work I Quattro Libri dell' Architecttura (The Four Books Of Architecture). Wotton acquired these drawings during his time in Italy. Wotton made a gift of them to rising architect Inigo Jones, who first started the trend of Palladian architecture just before the publication of Wotton's book.

Wotton thus enabled to common man, like in every great step forward in human technology from the printing press to the personal computer, not only by education of timeless principles, but also through practical applications and recommendations for the English context. Thus began Neo-Classicism.

Wotton revered Vitruvious but didn't hold him as the unbending truth. He rejected Vitruvious' reverence for the circle as the foundation of architectural form, as natural forms seemed to pragmatically spring from more useful origins. Wotton cared about function and less about pre-supposed form. Indeed, Wotton totally changed the Vitruvian criteria of form, dismissing proportional order and composition.

This is expressed in Wotton's early assertion that “every part is to be determined by its use.” This swing toward utilitarianism eventually led to Louis Sullivan to say “form follows function,” and finally it was so over-done that modernists were making up useless functions just for the sake of abolishing form.

It is important to realize that under these conditions classical Italian architecture began to prevail in England. The English society became Puritan under King James I, yet values were at the same time shifting away from puritan conservative principles. Wotton himself was famously involved in spying and in thwarting assassination attempts, he was often heavily in debt, and his reputation was besmirched as a dishonest diplomatist for the king. He was hardly the image of a pure soul. Oscar Wilde's character named Henry Wotton in The Picture of Dorian Grey was a Hedonist, superciliously living by the mantra that only beauty and pleasure are worth pursuing.

This books influence on England is profound. Wotton's new value for utility and scientific proof, empirical experience, came along concurrently with Francis Bacon. If the great realm of architecture were to be brought down to the everyman's level, certainly it would need to lose the mystery. It deals less with the spheres of the universe and more with the soil conditions prudent for a single-family home. Beauty didn't come from the names of great artists or styles, but from logical solutions to frequent issues.

As Oscar Wilde wryly noted, however, this could go to far. It could lead to loose morals, over-emphasis of worldly pleasures, dehumanization, and self-defeating close-mindedness. The endeavors of the British Empire are too great for me to discuss here, but it is safe to say England wasn't always humanely-minded. The Italian villa became a popular style following Wotton's new architecture, but the villa in Wilde's story which started out as a pleasure palace ended as a prison.

With the new ability of the larger populace to control their environment with time-tested principles, but also with pragmatic flexibility and conjunction with civic and other scholarly studies, England surged forward.

In my own short experience, I have seen a unique enthusiasm for architecture in England. A map of total visits to my architecture website which documents many projects around the world reaveals two cities that are by far the most interested in architecture: London, and not far behind it, New York City.

The practice of writing about architecture for the common person continued throughout Europe and on in the Americas, a practice that has advanced architecture in ways that are not fully appreciated.

Excerpt from Introduction to The Elements of Architecture by Henry Wotton
Now Available here!

More Resources:

The Life of Sir Henry Wotton by Izaak Walton

More Info on Henry Wotton

Gothic Innovation Of St. Denis Cathedral

2009-07-31T14:46:00.000-07:00

^[1]

Saint Denis Basilica, built under the supervision of Abbot Suger, heralded Europe’s shift from Romanesque to Gothic. The difference can be seen in its pointed arch, the ribbed vault, the ambulatory with radiating chapels, the clustered columns supporting ribs springing in different directions and the flying buttresses which enabled the insertion of large clerestory windows.

Values

Clean up corruption among monks

In the 1120’s, Peter Abelard called the abbey at Denis “completely worldly and depraved” and the monks indulged in a “disgraceful way of life and scandalous practices.” Suger set out to reform the Benedictine Order at Saint-Denis...” ^[a]

The monks were harassed by politicians and invaders, and often became “grand and profane” and struggled to receive classical learning. ^[b] Saint Denis provided a place for this reformation.

Reconcile mystery and oppulent materiality

“The doctrine of original sin created social need for monasteries... few could afford to spend all their days in prayer and worship, and so monks took on this responsibility for the entire community... Thus the community considered monasteries to be engaged in a vital task, perhaps the most vital of all.” ^[c]

The church and monastary became the social and cultural center of the city.

Less initial demands for style

The Ile-de-France never had a particularly strong Romanesque tradition, which is one of the reasons why the Gothic style was able to establish itself there: people did not have strong preconceptions about how a church ought to look.” ^[d]

Liberation from gravity

Gothic was a “transormation of stone into something light and airy” while in Romanesque “the stones are there simply to hold the building up” ^[e] “Vaults are supported by surprisingly slim columns... windows reach almost to the floor, creating what Suger called a ‘crown of light.’ Wilhelm Worringer called this a “vertical ecstasy.” ^[f]

Join architecture elements

Rib vaults date back to 1100 in Normandy. Pointed arches were found in Normandy and Burgundy. Cylindrical columns were in ancient Rome in Egypt before that. St. Denise derived the triple portal of the west front from the arch of Constantine in Rome. The innovative rose window on the front façade of St Denis echoed the Roman Arch of Constantine which had a three-part division and three large portals to ease the problem of congestion.

The architect pulled many things from international sources to make something completely new.

Enlarge the volume using a modular principle

The modern vault could be repeated to create a bay. It’s units are segmented by windows, similarly to how the Romans treated their temples. Rational modulation opened new possibilities in form.

Honest forms, less ornamentation

Cistercian abbot Bernard of Clairvaux lamented “the measureless height of the houses of prayer, their exaggerated length, their useless width, the amount of stonemasons’ work they involved, their paintings which stimulate curiosity and disturb prayer.’”

Suger's solution: “In some ways the Gothic style may be seen not so much as an exaggeration and elaboration of Romanesque features as a simplification of them... the forms became less fanciful, the lines straighter and calmer.” ^[g]

Be like ancient Rome

Carrying on this Romanesque value, the Gothic looks back to the lost fathers of learning in Rome and Greece for knowledge and wisdm.

“A new nave was also projected, but its construction never progressed beyond the foundations, the remains of which indicate that it would have been atypical for its period in having double side aisles and columnar supports, characteristics that were probably meant to evoke earlier churches either in Rome (e.g. Old Saint Peter’s) or in Paris itself” ^[h]

Fresh confidence in the monarchy and church

“[Saint-Denis] had been the royal abbey since Charlemagne’s grandson Charles the Bald became lay abbot in 867, and as such it was the spiritual heart of the state.”

“[Suger] intended to imply a link between these biblical rulers and the monarchs of Suger’s contemporary France, legitimizing the idea that it was France, not Germany, that was the true spiritual home of Christianity in the West.”

“Undertaking the construction of such a model demanded an intellectual and theological confidence that did not exist in Christendom until the twelfth century.” ^[i]

Historian Georges Duby: “The eleventh-century Christians still felt utterly crushed by mystery, overwhelmed by the unknown world their eyes could not see... Man felt as if surrounded by thick bushes, somewhere in them God was concealed.” ^[j]

Moderate political alliances

Suger sought political conciliation and negotiation between the French Kings and the papacy. “An alliance with Rome put the French in a stronger position against their mutual rival in Europe, the German Holy Roman Emperor Henry V, who came to the brink of invading France in 1124 until Louis VI mustered a force that faced him down. Suger urged the kind to make peace with Henry I, king of England... and also with the troublesome Thibaut IV... Henry’s nephew.” ^[k]

The buiding of Saint Denis helped ally France and the Vatican, and the entire wave of projects helped ally the monarchy with unfriendly local rulers, like Thibaut.

Unity of space and experience

”There is a distinct urge toward unity: that the Gothic cathedral is a place to be experienced all at once..."

"The nave of the Gothic cathedral appears to be enclosed in an envelope of space... The nave wall looks like a latticework placed in front of an envelope of space.” ^[l]

“For Gothic churches display, in a way that Romanesque does not, an overarching vision: a sense of wholeness and coherence.” ^[m]

Reveal the invisible universe

As a neo-Platonic celestial Jerusalem, the cathedral sought to reveal the invisible nature of the universe with symbolism. Unlike how we understand symbolism today, it avoided mimicry. It used color, proportion, etc. to convey a moral reality.

“They aimed to depict the underlying nature and structure of a universe that, in the here and now, was transient and imperfect... what is truly real is not the particular event but the concept it embodies... the cathedrals sought to convey not an aesthetic but a moral reality... encode a renunciation of our poor drab and degenerate world and an exhortation to seek only knowledge of God."

“The world was, according to Umberto Eco, ‘God’s discourse to man,’ and the cathedrals sought to reiterate this discourse: they ‘actualized a synthetic vision of man, of his history, of his relation to the universe... The cathedrals, the highest artistic achievement of medieval civilization, became a surrogate for nature.” ^[n]

Glorify the royal burial site & Solidify the Bishop’s power

“Suger’s plans for Saint-Denis were part of his vision for the glorification of France... the painted and gilded statues, the bejewelled golden altar, the wall hangings... made Saint-Denis an Aladdin’s cave of gaudy colour and opulence.” ^[o]

The word “Cathedra” means chair or throne of the Bishop. ^[p]

"Towns became self-sustaining centres of wealth... the bishop took advantage of that situation to build a power base." ^[q]

Less mystical

Saint Denis contributed to a paradigm shift where the people became “less mystical and more inwardly focused, more rational and worldly.” ^[r] This effected its modern structural form and programs.

Facilities for pilgrims

“It facilitated the circulation of pilgrims who came came to see the relics.” ^[s]

“According to an 11th-century legend, the old church had been consecrated by Christ himself; it was thus considered a holy relic and its structure technically inviolable: to avoid criticism Suger obviously took pains not to demolish it all at once.” ^[t]

Timeline

Site: Burial Place of Saint Denis

In the 7th century, at the burial place of Saint Denis, Eligius “fabricated a mausoleum for the holy martyr Denis in the city of Paris with a wonderful marble ciborium over it marvelously decorated with gold and gems. He composed a crest [at the top of a tomb] and a magnificent frontal and surrounded the throne of the altar with golden axes in a circle. He placed golden apples there, round and jeweled. He made a pulpit and a gate of silver and a roof for the throne of the altar on silver axes. He made a covering in the place before the tomb and fabricated an outside altar at the feet of the holy martyr. So much industry did he lavish there, at the king’s request, and poured out so much that scarcely a single ornament was left in Gaul and it is the greatest wonder of all to this very day.” ^[u]

Rise of the Monasteries

^[2]

St. Benedict established monasteries: “To establish due order, to foster an understanding of the relational nature of human beings, and to provide a spiritual father to support and strengthen the individual’s ascetic effort and the spiritual growth that is required for the fulfillment of the human vocation, theosis.” ^[v]

Architect's Statements

Cleaning up corruption and glorifying royal image:

“We resolved to hasten with all our soul and the affection of our mind, to the enlargement of the aforesaid place – we who would never have presumed to set our hand to it, nor even to think of it, had not so great, so necessary, so useful and honourable an occasion demanded it.” (Abbot Suger, De consecratione)

The revitalization of this monastic complex resulted in this desired result among the clergy. But is that really what Suger set out to do, or were political motivations more important and was he just post-rationalizing?

The opulence he put into the building ran counter to the humbleness and material poorness that Bernard demanded is necessary to clean up religious corruption.

Creating social unity:

“Of the diverse counts and nobles from many regions and dominions, of the ordinary troops of knights and soldiers [at the building’s consecration] there is no count.” (Abbot Suger, De consecratione)

So this is a building for every person? Something democratic? No. It does indicate, however, that the building was instantly relevant among all classes in the society... If what he says is correct.

Cleaning up corruption:

St. Bernard to Suger in a 1127 letter: “It was your errors, not at those of your monks, that the zeal of the saintly aimed its criticism. It was by your excesses, not by theirs, that they were incensed.” ^[w]
Bernard praised Suger for his achievement in revitalizing the monastary.

Recently Completed Buildings

^[3]

Cathedral in Chartres, France

By Bishop Fulbert
Began immediatly after 1120 fire
Completed in 1260
Romanesque basilica

The Holy Sepulchre, Cambridge

^[4]

By 11th century Crusaders
Built around 1130
Round Church

Grossmünster Cathedral, Zurich

Originally comissioned by Charlemagne
Built around 1106
Romanesque Church

Related Artists, Architects, Scientists

Bishop Fulbert - Commissioned Chartres Cathedral in 1020, requested funds from the King and other sources.

Beranger - Fulbert’s architect for Chartres, who built with a Gothic plan as constrained by the early Romanesque structure, setting a precedence in Gothic for respecting previous styles.

Geoffrey de Leves - Friend and influence on Abbot Suger. “In the magnificence of the western entrance that Geoffrey commissioned we can see a portent of what Suger had in mind for his own church when he began reconstruction in 1137.” ^[x]

St. Bernard - Established a center for Cistercian Order of monks, and demanded humble simplicity . He “grew to be a man powerful and respected enough to dictate to popes and kings.” ^[y] Influenced St. Denis.

Eligius - A goldsmith by training, worked on many churches and cathedrals including St. Denis.

Nicholas of Verdun - 1180-122 Goldsmith and Enamellist for the Shrine of the Three Kings at Cologne Cathedral
Gerard of Cremona - Translated many texts in the 12th century, especially from Arabic and Latin, to expand the learning and philosophy of Europe.

Master Hugo - 1130-c.1150 Romanesque lay artist, made illustrations for the bible, made bronze doors for the western entry of the Abbey church.

Gislebertus - 1120-1135 French Romanesque sculptor. He worked on the Cathedral of Saint Lazare at Autun, France - made expressive doorways, tympanums, and capitals.

Saint Anselm of Canterbury - 1033 – 21 Benedictine monk, an Italian medieval philosopher, theologian, and church official. Founder of scholasticism.

Saint Denis - 250 Christian martyr and venerated saint. A third century Bishop of Paris.

Eastern Influence:

Ibn Sīnā - 980 Completed 46 works on philosophy, medicine, theology, geometry, and astronomy. About 99 other influencial books can be attributed to Ibn Sina.

Abu Rayhan Biruni - Founder of Indology, the father of geodesy, and “the first anthropologist”. One of the earliest leading exponents of the experimental scientific method, particularly for mechanics and mineralogy, a pioneer of comparative sociology and experimental psychology, and the first to conduct elaborate experiments related to astronomical phenomena.

Alhazen - Contributed to the principles of optics, to anatomy, astronomy, engineering, mathematics, medicine, ophthalmology, philosophy, physics, psychology, visual perception, and to science in general with his introduction of the scientific method.

Summary

People had new hope in their clergy and government, the economy picked up, international influences, and greater values for learning and rationalsim led to the magnificent form. The historical struggle against corruption and mystic fear came to an end and a new struggle against opulence and worldly realities began.

The immensely popular Abbot Suger, who had served as a military leader for the king, put immense effort in the Saint Denis Basillica for the purpose of glorifying the nation and reforming the religious structure.

The highly modern structure used technical innovations from far away to do something that had rarely been sought in architecture: to let architecture contribute to the program rather than just providing shelter and open space. The architecture let in more light, it gestured the people toward the heavens, but most importantly it established itself as a very real symbol for the unseen world, for the moral and theological reality that couldn’t be seen in nature.

People gained courage, and they became less content with not knowing the truths of their environment.

Citations:

^“Universe of Stone- A Biography of Chartres Cathedral” by Philip Ball HarperCollins, 2008: pp.36

^Encyclopedia of the Middle Ages” by André Vauchez, Richard Barrie Dobson, Adrian Routledge, 2000: pp.973

^“Universe of Stone- A Biography of Chartres Cathedral” by Philip Ball HarperCollins, 2008: pp.58

^“Universe of Stone- A Biography of Chartres Cathedral” by Philip Ball HarperCollins, 2008: pp.35-36

^“Universe of Stone- A Biography of Chartres Cathedral” by Philip Ball HarperCollins, 2008: pp.28

^“Universe of Stone- A Biography of Chartres Cathedral” by Philip Ball HarperCollins, 2008: pp.42

^“Universe of Stone- A Biography of Chartres Cathedral” by Philip Ball HarperCollins, 2008: pp.28-29

^“Saint-Denis Abbey” by Stephen Gardner Grove Dictionary Of Art, 2009

^“Universe of Stone- A Biography of Chartres Cathedral” by Philip Ball HarperCollins, 2008: pp.36

^“Triumph of the Midieval Mind” by Philip Ball. Nature: International weekly journal of science, 2008

^“Universe of Stone- A Biography of Chartres Cathedral” by Philip Ball HarperCollins, 2008: pp.39

^“Universe of Stone- A Biography of Chartres Cathedral” by Philip Ball HarperCollins, 2008: pp.48

^“Universe of Stone- A Biography of Chartres Cathedral” by Philip Ball HarperCollins, 2008: pp.63

^“Universe of Stone- A Biography of Chartres Cathedral” by Philip Ball HarperCollins, 2008: pp.55-57

^“Universe of Stone- A Biography of Chartres Cathedral” by Philip Ball HarperCollins, 2008: pp.40-41

^“Cathedra” Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, 2009

^“Universe of Stone- A Biography of Chartres Cathedral” by Philip Ball HarperCollins, 2008: pp.12

^“Universe of Stone- A Biography of Chartres Cathedral” by Philip Ball HarperCollins, 2008: pp.11

^“Universe of Stone- A Biography of Chartres Cathedral” by Philip Ball HarperCollins, 2008: pp.42

^“Saint-Denis Abbey” by Stephen Gardner Grove Dictionary Of Art, 2009

^“Medieval Hagiography: An Anthology” by by Thomas Head. Routledge, 2001: pp.150

^“Wiki: Rule of Saint Benedict” Wapedia, 2009

^“Universe of Stone- A Biography of Chartres Cathedral” by Philip Ball HarperCollins, 2008

^“Universe of Stone- A Biography of Chartres Cathedral” by Philip Ball HarperCollins, 2008: pp.20

^“Universe of Stone- A Biography of Chartres Cathedral” by Philip Ball HarperCollins, 2008: pp.60

[Images by:

^^stevecadman - flickr/cc license

^^Wikipedia public domain

^^ahisgett - flickr/cc license

^^aforero - flickr/cc license

9 Easy Ways To Make Any Building Extaordinary!

2009-07-06T16:15:00.000-07:00

1.Let in the light!

Light in an average room is three times darker than outside. The eye is remarkable for its ability to compensate for low lighting, so you don't even notice. But the eye gets tired three times quicker and your mood is three times as unhappy. Passive solar strategies can brighten things up, and significantly cut energy costs carbon-emitting fossil fuel usage.

When I visited Lockheed Building 157 as a kid, I immediately noticed something different. Light shelves brought light deep into the building and people congregated for lunch in outdoor atriums. The design cut energy usage by 75% and saved $500,000 in the first year. Studies found that additionally workers in that building were twice as productive because they were more motivated.

Here are some easy tips to bring natural light into your home, office, or other building type.

The height of your window should be one-half as tall as the width of the room that you want daylighted. The amount of light in that space will be just right.

Workspaces, such as desks, should be next to windows that bring light in sideways. Any place that requires reading or attentive looking should also have artificial task lighting.

Hallways and lobbies need tall skylights that bring in bluish light from the sky. Intimate or work spaces need orange light from the sun through windows.

Direct light from the sun heats things up quickly and causes extreme glare, so use external shading devices to tone it down. Bedrooms and private spaces of course should have less light.

More info here

2.Get rid of roof gutters!

My home growing up didn't have any roof gutters. The slope of the roof would drain the rain water into valleys, and then just pour down onto the ground below and flow down a concrete path onto the street. We planted tough plants where the water pounded the ground to prevent erosion.

Roof gutters prevent damage to the roof, the side of the house, and the ground below. But think of what benefits to they take away! I remember watching through large kitchen windows as the water poured off the roof. It was beautiful. The noise was actually soothing, and it made a rainy event so much more significant in my memory, like dancing in the rain without getting wet.

Also, roof gutters freeze and rust. Roof gutters get clogged and need to be cleaned. All you need to do is place plants or gravel where water from the roof falls, which adds health and aesthetic anyway, and then give it a pathway to drain onto the street. Or if you're really gutsy, let it drain into a barrel to be reused later for watering plants, which will save on your water bill.

You do need to be careful about the edge of the roof, that the rain water doesn't creep up underneath the shingles or damage the eaves. I also recommend something to prevent water from dripping in front of doorways and pathways.

3.Make an interesting driveway.

^[a]Look at the front of any house and you will see that usually half of the front yard is taken up by a drab concrete drive-way. This is very much a “lost space” because people do hardly anything there except drive across it. It also makes the home uninviting because one must walk up this cracking white mass to get to the front door.

Set-back codes require a minimal distance between the sidewalk and the garage, but be creative with what you do there. Brick or cobblestone looks much nicer and will last much longer. Grass can grow in between the stone blocks to add some natural element and to stop much of the rain run-off.

The driveway becomes part of the procession to the front door, and part of the greenery that makes a front yard so enjoyable.

The same concept can apply to any building's parking lot. Oftentimes the experience of going to a store is ruined even before you even walk in the door. You have to search the precarious parking lot for a free space, exit your car into the boiling hot and dirty parking lot, and walk through the paved maze to the store entrance. How hard would it be to just have some trees for shade and cobblestone for common pedestrian routes?

4.Get cleaner air, naturally warmed or cooled!

The air inside a building is usually much less healthy than outside air. Ancient Greek architects placed heavy importance on what kind of air enters and how it circulates through a building, something that led to Feng Shui.

It's incredibly easy to bring healthier air into your building and save money on heating or cooling:

Never recirculate air from inside the house. Always bring in fresh air from outside. Ducts should be as short as possible, without turns, and cleaned often to get rid of harmful dust. Buildings almost never have enough air circulation so really vamp it up!

How often do you see air conditioning units sitting out in the sun? Probably 99% of the time. Cool the air down before it even enters the unit by placing it in the shade. Then it will also be out of sight. You could cool the air in sub-soil pipes before it enters the unit.

Natural circulation from windows and fans is much healthier than mechanical units, it and naturally cools the house. Nineteenth century homesteaders used ingenious techniques to suck air into homes and out the other side. Tall spaces like staircases will suck warm air to the top where it can be vented out. The air at the top of the building is always much warmer. I will cover this soon in a lengthier blog.

Circulate air through the crawlspace or basement. Radon in the ground is actually a huge problem. The poisonous material seeps through the concrete slab into your home.

Place a vent above your oven, dishwasher, and stove. In the summertime keep in mind that the oven actually produces a large amount of heat.

Place your return vents around incandescent light fixtures. Light bulbs produce a lot of heat and in the summer you might as well vent that out before it heats up the air in the room.

Insulation in the roof is much much more important than in the walls, because the sun beats down on the roof and because air is warmer higher up. The top of the attic should be insulated as well as the base. Thin windows are the next most common culprit for bad insulation. If you plug any drafty element, like a window or door, keep in mind that this makes the air inside more stagnant.

Place all shading devices outside, not inside. Window shades are completely useless for preventing heat gain because the sun hits the shades and is transferred into heat- which stays inside. Most German houses have rollable shades on the outside that completely block light, and plenty of cold or heat, from getting in.

Be creative with the roof. In history and in other countries, the roof was often a heavily used space. Just like the driveway, the roof is a “lost space” in today's culture. But growing up I found it a very fascinating place- in the bright sun, high in the sky, out in the open and yet somehow private. Green roofs, roofs of planted sod, are increasingly popular. Photovoltaic or water-heating panels also make good use of the roof. But why not just make much of the roof a deck to walk around on, bringing you out to the fresh air?

Place fish tanks in front of windows that receive direct sunlight. It looks cool, and water is good for mitigating temperatures- cooling it down when it's warm and warming it up when it's cold. Concrete and masonry also does this, so a bulky fireplace will actually help with your heating and cooling bills. Heavy materials and insulation also block noise.

5.Use less paint!

Renaissance architect Andrea Palladio hated white paint. There's really something to be said about honest materials. Paint looks plastic, feels plastic, chips, and gets painted over.

^[b]Do interior walls have to be drywall? The interior sheathing needs to be fire resistant, well attached, and... well that's it. Work with the fire code to develop a wall system that has interesting materials on the inside. Wood paneling, plaster, even steel sheets can make it really interesting.

Structural honesty also makes a pleasant environment. What if you could see where wall studs are? What if you could actually explain to someone where all the beams are and how they hold up the roof? You would probably feel safer and appreciate it a little more.

Glues and stains often emit toxic gasses, so avoid them whenever you can. Many plastic and fabrics are very flammable.

6.Use less carpet!

I think people have figured this one out. Carpet is harder to clean, it wears out quicker, and it is a fire hazard. Many don't know, however, that carpet is also a breeding ground for allergies and germs.

Hardwood floors are often used because they look nice and feel nicer than concrete. But you would be surprised how nice a cheap veneered wood sheet looks for a floor. Ceramic tile, and even stone also feels pleasant under the feet.

Frank Lloyd Wright often put heaters under the floor so that the room is heated from the bottom up. Many of these alternate materials, especially concrete, work well with that.

7.Don't imitate the sun with electric lights!

Florescent lights in any office building try to give an even light across the ceiling without glare and without you even noticing they are there.

Why? All you get is a cold flickering light that is hard to see things in. Bluish florescent lights filling a ceiling is like a blue sky without any sun: it's a cloudy day.

Wall light fixtures are almost nonexistant these days. Why? Rather than spreading several light fixtures around a room to get even light, people place a cheap chandelier light fixture in the middle, which inevitably leaves uneven light and glare.

So how do you get a good balance of warm light and cool light, and how do you get it even? The first answer is to bring in natural light from the sky and sun, and just to add some task lighting. The second answer is to stop imitating the sun! Let people know that light is coming from a mechanical source. Light fixtures should express how electricity transfers into light. It's okay to use indirect light fixtures, but then remember that these emphasize the roof or wall material as the light source, and the roof or wall should then be designed as a light source.

8.It's all about the transitions!

The ancient Greek column is rather plain except for decoration and design at the top and bottom of the column where it met the floor and ceiling. They understood that expression in architecture is most effective at transition points.

This is a lost art today, as structural expression gets lost in minimalistic walls, floors, and ceilings. The same is true for transitions between spaces. The ancients had dozens of rooms separating their sacred temple rooms and the open outdoors. Today, a common door or window separates our most important spaces from the outdoors.

To really activate the architecture of any building, one must consider how the doors and windows relate two spaces. A bare sliding door, for example, is much more inviting to the backyard than a curtain-covered window.

It's not by chance that people tend to place family portraits along a staircase. This transition between the public first floor and the private second floor of a home is a great place to celebrate the family. How can it be taken further? The fresco-studded doors of cathedrals uber-decorated palaces of Europe can be great examples for placing emphasis on decoration and design at transition points.

9.Surround your building with trees and bushes.

Leave a little space between the planting and the house, and use plantings that don't become dry and flammable.

Place the trees specifically to block dominant winds, noises, and views. Deciduous trees do a lot to block sun in the summer time and let in sun in the winter.

Bushes can add security, but they can also give predators or burglars a place to hide, and they can become a fire hazard. Trees can also provide a way for a burglar to climb up to a second story window.

[images: Architecture Revived,

^Engrave-A-Crete - flickr/cc license

^Lauren Manning - flickr/cc license

Post-Modernism, Engaging The Image Of Culture

2009-03-18T17:38:00.000-07:00

^[h]

Ever since the invention of the printing press and the rise of literature, architecture faded as a method of artistic communication. Victor Hugo lamented, “Architecture is dead, irrevocably dead, killed by the printed book.” ^[1]
Robert Venturi referenced Hugo’s claim in an admission that architecture’s artistic communication had indeed been skewed. Yet he strongly disagreed that “architecture left to itself, abandoned by the other arts, because human thought has deserted it, must employ the artisan in default of the artist.” Human thought had abandoned architecture only because architecture attempted to create culture rather than communicate its image. The role of the architect could once again be significant by how he engages art and human thought.

^[a]

Venturi sought to connect human thought with architecture in order to retain its artistic necessity. Human communication, like in literature, was essential for architecture. Philip Johnson likewise asserted, “Today, architecture is not acknowledged as basic to human activity… Our thinking is dominated by the word… Yet values can change… architecture, as in all the world’s history, could be the art that saves.”^[2] These Post-Modernists used cultural and symbolical references eclectically to communicate in architecture, overturning Modernists ideals. Post-Modernism's emphasis of artistic communication returned architecture's focus to aesthetics and image, which Johnson and Venturi achieved by different means. Focus on aesthetics made architecture a medium of communication rather than the source and its timeless purpose became once again to serve culture rather than dictate it.

It's About Cultural Image, Not Morality

^[b]

Venturi and Johnson ignored moralism as they concentrated on aesthetics and image. This often clashed with the "reformation" effort of Modernism that sought to influence culture. Robert Venturi assimilated the new big cultural influence- “counter-reformation” art into architecture by considering the values of Las Vegas’ flashy, theatrical atmosphere. Las Vegas’s sea of bright signs clashed with Modernist ideals of pure form. In the introduction of his book ‘Learning from Las Vegas,’ he asserted such art was valuable strictly for its “architectural communication”, that “as the analysis of the structure of a Gothic cathedral need not include a debate on the morality of medieval religion, Las Vegas’ values are not questioned here…”^[3] He refused to sacrifice culture for a moral agenda.

The morals of Philip Johnson were also questionable, for example his well-known ties to Nazism. Johnson maintained it was the power of the Nazis that was so attractive rather than their ideals, and when his attention turned to architecture, he remained affixed on the powerful display of an edifice, the aesthetic quality rather than the social, economic, political, or moral values.^[4] As Venturi was focused on culture, Johnson was focused on power. He was a romantic architect, and for this reason he was impressed by “pageantry- the leather jackets, the parades of goose-stepping soldiers, the nocturnal rallies with search lights scanning the skies- at which the Nazis were so skilled.” The fixation seemed to reflect his own career, as he was more significant in how he talked than how he produced architecture; he was a celebrity who produced celebrity architecture, achieving greatness mainly by talking.^[4] Likewise, his designs aimed for greatness by their image rather than by some profound innovation.

It's about Impression, not Function

^[c]

Post-Modernists went on to question Modernism’s purity and pristine demands, starting with throwing out the notion that form depends on function. Philip Johnson studied at Harvard University under Walter Gropius who had Bauhaus training, but made a huge splash in the architectural world when he declared that aesthetic image and monumentality of a design are more important than functionalism. He concentrated on how one viewed the building, including his “procession”, or experience as he moved through it. He played with how the occupant might be tricked; taking advantage of what he expects to him comfortable, something which he called “safe-danger.” His design of the Kirstein Tower included high steps with no railing, giving the user a precarious feeling. The steps of his Fort Worth Water Garden design included a chasm with water running through it. Such sublime devices helped restore architecture’s subliminal influence on people, more so than mere function.^[5]

As well as influencing him as a romantic, concentration on form led him to integrate landscape and natural surroundings into his design. Even though function was less important for the form, the context of the building was all the more pertinent. He was impressed by how Frank Lloyd Wright used landscape to produce an effect. His first major work, the Glass House, took advantage of its natural surroundings and created a wonderful overall impression in this way. The little building was entirely framed glass, in which the outside of the building greatly influenced the inner dwelling.

Complexity and Contradiction

^[d]

Venturi also valued continuity between the inside and outside of a building, finding this a major opportunity for contradiction in architecture, something which he championed in his ground-breaking book ‘Complexity and Contradiction in Architecture.’ He stated “The inside should be expressed on the outside,”^[3] because a building's context changes the meaning of its form. Johnson worked with Mies van der Rohe whose slogan was "less is more," and also had minimalist tendencies himself as he used straightforward forms to achieve aesthetics. Robert Venturi agreed that form is superior to function, but disagreed with Johnson on minimalism and declared "less is bore."

Venturi’s book "Complexity and Contradiction" elevated him to greatness in effecting change in the architectural world.^[6]
It became an important benefit by throwing out the dependence on function. Once again things could be multifarious. Venturi revived the Baroque inclination to change things around merely to discover a more interesting form. In ‘Complexity and Contradiction’ he boldly stated:

"I like elements which are hybrid rather than “pure,” compromising rather than “clean,” distorted rather than “straightforward,” ambiguous rather than “articulated,” perverse as well as impersonal, boring as well as “interesting,” conventional rather than designed,” accommodating rather than excluding, redundant rather than simple, vestigial as well as innovating, inconsistent and equivocal rather than direct and clear. I am for messy vitality over obvious unity. I include the non sequitur and proclaim the duality."^[6]

^[e]

He allowed social or economic issues to exist rather than designing them away, for the design was about the impression over anything else. The entire complexity and contradictory nature of culture was in the impression. Johnson was a romantic, but Venturi was an impressionist, looking for how all the details could create a visual whole. In searching for “image- image over process or form,” Venturi considered how symbolic or representational elements may contradict the form, structure, or program of a building. He gave two examples. The “duck” building’s space, structure, or program is distorted by an overall symbolic form, for example a building shaped like a duck. The “decorated shed’s” space and structure is at service of a program and ornament is applied independently. This is like a shack that is prettied up to sell T-shirts at the beach. Both are contradictory in design, but the important thing is that they use past experience and emotional association rather than function to achieve the form.^[3]

Quoting Icons of the Past

To create a perceptual whole, both Venturi and Johnson utilized past styles and edifices. Venturi worked with the history of architecture, specifically Italian Mannerism, French and German Rococo, and the Early Modern works. He referenced Isfahan, Samarakand, and Samarra styles to respond to Islamic architecture in his design of Iraq’s State Mosque.^[3] He looked at the forms independent of their specific cultural or historical significance, and all that mattered to him was how they might contribute to the perceptual whole experience of his project.

^[f]

Johnson looked at European architecture, particularly Germany’s International Style. He leaned classical in his eclectic choices, and was always varied and indiscriminant. But he was consistent in that he looked at history for impressive forms.^[5] He appeared with Hitchcock in the Museum of Modern Architecture in 1932 and was monumental running the museum through the years. This showed his dedication in keeping the body of architecture through history intact in people.

He looked at Duchamp’s varied juxtaposition of scales in his art piece ‘Drunken Rook’ as inspiration for the contrast of between the larger than normal lamp posts and his tower on Boston 500 Boyston Street. With his Guadalajara, Mexico project he manipulated Platonic solids for his forms. For the famous cap of his AT&T Building in New York, he looked at the broken pediment at Petra in Jordan. He sought a formidable entrance, based the façade on Brunelleschi’s Pazzi Chapel, ^[6] and re-established the stone clad buildings that New York used to know.^[5]

New Perceptions of Old Functions

Venturi was interested in the lost art of using symbols in architecture for human communication. He used the symbol of a window frame on the outside façade simply to accentuate the window’s appearance. But he went further in using symbols, searching for symbols that might be used out of their normal context, like the duck building example, and how they might effect the viewer.

Such rearranging of form, he said, changes the architectural meaning: “Familiar things seen in an unfamiliar context become perceptually new as well as old.”^[3]) Thus, all styles could be used, according to the tastes of society. It was up to society, the social or technological relevance of the day, to decide which elements were relevant to the design.

As an example of this, he referenced electronics, calling that the “relevant revolution today”^[3] in a sculptural design of antennas. This showed that if books had killed architecture, television and other recent media advances were to kill the book. Literature, architecture, television, and all other media had important relationships in art. One could be a symbol in the other’s communicating. Like the book uses symbols to convey messages, and as Cathedrals used statues and other symbols to communicate, Venturi found such symbols to be timelessly relevant to architectural design. Hugo was the first to connect symbols with architecture: “Architecture… developed with human thought; it became a giant with a thousand heads and arms, capable of holding in on visible, tangible, eternal form all this floating symbolism.”^[1] And so, his architectural references to history and symbols were what made Venturi’s buildings artistic, and his ability to eclectically design generated forms that were interesting to the people.

The Ghost of Architecture

^[g]

When Venturi looked upon Modernism and found that what Hugo had predicted was true, that “this architecture… survived only as a specter, a shadow,” that it was “decrepitude and decay,”^[1] what was he to do? In his Franklin Court project, he built a “skeleton” where Benjamin Franklin’s house once stood, called it a “ghost structure,” and said, “Might not this ghost also symbolize the death of architecture predicted by Hugo?”^[3]

For him and Philip Johnson, architecture was still an essential art, which could be saved by admitting that its ability to communicate determined its livelihood. They didn’t attempt to create a new movement; indeed Venturi always removed himself from any ties with the “post-modernist movement.”^[3] But they returned Modernism’s focus to aesthetics through various means, by removing the moralist, social, and political baggage, and the dominance of function over form, and by applying complexity and contradiction to engage the occupant. The use of symbols to communicate, they found, was timeless for this art, and history could be used to find forms which effect people. The final form of the edifice was its saving grace as art, and as the book is essential after the advent of television, so architecture will always be essential to mankind.

It is an art that goes with trends rather than sets them, that reacts to and maintains culture. Can this attitude keep architecture alive, or is it just prolonging the inevitable death? Postmodernism suggested architecture may in fact already be dead, but is still so important to mankind that even its ghost is the art that saves.

[Images by:

^laffy4k - flickr/cc license

^paukrus - flickr/cc license

^garryknight - flickr/cc license

^BFS Man - flickr/cc license

^jskrybe - flickr/cc license

^euthman - flickr/cc license

^roryrory - flickr/cc license

^kjarrett - flickr/cc license

Sources:

^Victor Hugo “The Hunchback of Notre-Dame” Tom Doherty and Associates, 1996 pages 158, 160, 169, 171

*See Robert Venturi’s Reference to Hugo in “Venturi, Rach & Scott Brown” by Stanislaus von Moos (3)

^The Pritzker Architecture Prize, "Philip Johnson” 1979 www.pritzkerprize.com, Retrieved 2005

^Quoted from Stanislaus von Moos "Venturi, Rauch & Scott Brown" Rizzoli New York 1987 pp. 11, 12, 13, 15, 64, 70, 74

^Frank Schulze "Philip Johnson: An Essay by Frank Schulze" Architecture Record. http://archrecord.construction.com Retrieved 2005 (no longer found)

^Philip Johnson, Hillary Lewis, Richard Payne, Stephen Fox “The Architecture of Philip Johnson” Anchorage Press 2002 pp.4

^As quoted in Marian Moffett, Michael Fazio, Lawrence
Wodehouse “A World History of Architecture” McGraw Hill, 2004. pages 542,544

Abu Simbel & Stonehenge: Remarkable Similarities

2009-02-02T18:26:00.000-08:00

^[a]

Entering Salisbury was like entering another world. It reminded me of my visit to the Neuschwanstein on the Bavarian border, a crossover from normalcy into a fairytale setting. I drove past barrows, imagining what they concealed, and approached the epic circle of monoliths. It wasn’t until sunset, however, that the entire vision and meaning of the place changed into a different, ethereal setting. The light from the sky was what made the arrangement of Stonehenge so meaningful. I then realized Stonehenge was probably a predecessor for all significantly arranged places in the world today.

Lighting continues to be major source of significance today. Abu Simbel in Egypt, another noteworthy foundation of the world’s architecture, offers perhaps more clues to its meaning. Stonehenge and Abu Simbel’s architecture tracked the cosmos. They effectively mapped the universe according to the people’s understanding, establishing symbolism in universal architecture. As the light of the solar bodies made the place meaningful, the symbolism of the divine made the place sacred. The solar eclipse, a collision of the sun with darkness, was the foundation for this symbolism, a place where God and man came together. Though their purposes were religious, they provide a universal architecture still today.

The Visitor's Journey Of The Sun

^[b]

The voyage of the sun across the sky was an analogy for the life and death of the pharaoh, providing the basis for the temple of Ramesses II at Abu Simbel. Abu Simbel’s procession begins at the shore of the Nile, where the visitor views a massive frieze depicting the greatness of Pharaoh Ramesses II. Four 67 foot statues of the Pharaoh wearing double crowns of unified Egypt were cut directly from the rock, as well as depictions of Ramesses unifying Egypt and conquering other nations. These statues, and statues of the entire royal family, lay below “a row of baboon statues in adoring attitudes, said to welcome the rising sun.”^[1] The rising of the sun was a symbol for Ramesses rising to greatness. “Above the entrance, a figure of the falcon-headed sun-god Ra is shown worshipped by flanking images of Ramesses.”^[1]

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The god Ra-Harakhte guides the patron through the visit. This is the same god that journeys with the sun each day across the sky. “So that he might rise in the morning, the fiery Ra was compelled to use a boat to avoid being extinguished by the waters.”^[2] Thus, the visit to Abu Simbel holds a significance such as this to the visitor. The first floor court contains statues of Ramesses as Osiris, the god of the afterlife, and the second hall depicts Ramesses with his wife on the boat of Amun, which gives them life together after death.

The final and inmost sanctuary contains statues of Ra (god of the sun), Ptah (the state of the sun during the night), Amun (god of the breath of life), and Ramesses.^[3] Here, where the sun and nighttime meet, with the breath of life, Ramesses sits with the gods. The visitor went through a process like the journey of the sun, including a journey through the night and the afterlife. The visit to the temple ended with this concept that Pharaoh would live after his death, like the sun rises the next day.

The interaction of sunlight and shadow at the sites are crucial to their meaning. The temple at Abu Simbel is situated so that the rising sun directly hits the depicted baboons. It is “oriented toward the sun, rising tangent on the horizon, at midwinter.” ^[4] Stonehenge is likewise carefully situated to the sun, so that the station stones align with the equinoxes. In all, there are 13 solar and 11 lunar precise correlations to the arrangement.^[5] In addition to Stonehenge and Abu Simbel, there are sites in Britain, Central America, and France that are aligned to the sun and moon at solstice equinoxes.^[6] On two days of the year, at midwinter and midsummer the shadow of the heel stone at Stonehenge hits the center of the circle,^[3] which coincidentally, is the symbol of Ra, the guide through Abu Simbel.^[7]

Light And Shadow

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This element of shadows and rays of light hitting precise locations annually is also found at Abu Simbel. Abu Simbel is arranged so that the sun shines on the inmost sanctuary’s statues on two days of the year, with Ptah in shadow, because he is the god of the sun at night.^[8] The sun shone through the earth to the gods within the sacred stone, a path from the earth to the sun, which was vital to the Pharaoh becoming a god. Aymen Mohamed Ibrahem of the Jordanian Astronomical Society claims this is commemoration of the anniversary of a solar eclipse that occurred in ancient Egypt and contained deep significance to them.^[9] Ibrahem claims that the solar eclipse inspired all the solar gods of Egypt.

Facing Abu Simbel tangent to the sunrise at midwinter commemorated the eclipse, because in Egyptian “'Horizon of Heaven', means 'solar eclipse'.” Ibrahem explains the solar eclipse was religiously revered because it contained all four phases of the sun, its “setting, dwelling, transforming, and rising.”^[10] If the journey of the sun symbolized Pharaoh’s journey to eternity, the solar eclipse at Abu Simbel certainly symbolized the entirety of this process and was an appropriate basis to the architecture to make the place sacred.

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It is thus significant that Stonehenge also correlates to solar eclipses. Gerald Hawkins of Harvard University found that the Aubrey Stones at Stonehenge can be used to predict solar eclipses.^[4] This function of Stonehenge must have had religious meaning as well. While we cannot tell what the solar functions of Stonehenge symbolized, it is reasonable to assume it was a place of aspiration and determining relationships to the divine. Stonehenge may have meant a similar connection between man and deity as that at Abu Simbel.

The architecture of each site also suggests angelic assistance to the visitors. The Sphinx, the 'Lord of Solar Eclipses'^[9], which was also oriented according to the solar eclipse,^[10]) and the massive statues of Ramesses on Abu Simbel’s façade, were symbolic guardians of the sacred locations. Temples in China also contained such guardians. The guardian imperial lion statues are said to “feel the pulse of the earth” under one foot and the sun under the other foot, underscoring the significance of the sun and earth at the temple.^[11] The cherubim at Solomon’s temple likewise are of no more significance than guardians of the place.^[12] Hebrew scripture explains that the cherubim guard the way to the tree of life, preventing the unworthy from entering. Within the holy place of the temple of Solomon, indeed, are found “trees of life,” seven lamps, which each have seven candle sticks.

Symbolism And Arrangement

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The symbolic “tree of life” could also have significance in other ancient temples. The tree of life from the mystic Jewish Qabalah is a diagram of phases of existence leading to perfection. This diagram matches Abu Simbel’s floor plan when the two are overlaid. Religious scholar Kerry A. Shirts claims there are also similarities between the Qabalah tree of life and Egyptian depictions of balance in the universe, and of marriage.^[13] Such correlations suggest that these ancient Egyptian sources helped derive the diagram’s concept as well. More recently, the Free Mason’s have understood the floor plans of the temple of Solomon and Egyptian temples to be phases to the divine. These concepts of phases to divine-hood were likely derived from ancient architecture.

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The ancient Celtic and Native American symbols of spirals and circles within each other may have entailed such a meaning. The layout of Stonehenge contains circles within each other, and the center is likely the most significant place since the heel stone’s shadow touches it on a carefully prescribed time. Like Abu Simbel’s procession to the inmost sanctuary, entering each circle may have been a procession through phases to the most sacred place in the middle. From here, it is also worthwhile to note similarities to ancient China’s “altar to heaven.” The T’en T’en consisted of three circular terraces within each other leading to a sacred altar at the center, where the meeting of heaven and earth was worshipped by the emperor.^[14]

And also similar to Stonehenge, a trench of water surrounded T’en T’en.^[14] Water also held significance to other sacred places. In the Hebrew religion, the prophet Elijah dug a trench of water around the altar he built for the purpose of calling fire out of the heavens. The trench around Stonehenge connects to the “Avenue” which leads to the nearest river. And Abu Simbel, indeed all of Egypt’s temples, run almost parallel to the sacred river Nile. The Hebrews believed creation occured from the dividing of waters, the firmament above and the oceans below, out of which came land and life. This is similar to Egyptian mythology that creation came out of dark waters of chaos like Egypt annually comes out of the flooded Nile^[2] These waters are symbolic of the chaotic universe which the earth is in the center of, receiving divine protection and sustenance. The temple was thus mapped out as a diagram of the universe. This provided the perfect setting for man to try to understand the meaning of life and death, and to determine what would happen after life. Perhaps it was a sort of mechanism with which man could take control of his existence and determine the answers to these questions.

The solar alignments of Stonehenge and Abu Simbel, as well as their symbolic arrangement as phases in a procession to the divine, were significant as a sort of mini-universe. Both the physical and the spiritual universe were mapped out, scrutinized in such a permanent way so that the visitor could realize his place in it. The voyage of the sun and the planets around the earth held deep significance as symbols of the journey to the divine. Divine guidance and guardianship at these sacred places was necessary to the process, going through certain stages to divine-hood. Mapping this process chronologically, determining the length of years, solstices, and determining the next eclipse helped to realize this process. The eclipse was held divine, the rare moment when the sun was explained, when God and man met, and it became the basis of universal architecture.

[Images by:

^chuck624 - flickr/cc license

^S J Pinkney - flickr/cc license

^MrSnooks - flickr/cc license

^Computer Science Geek - flickr/cc license

^Milan G - flickr/cc license

^Allie_Caulfield - flickr/cc license

^Mr. T in DC - flickr/cc license]
Sources:

^Marie Parsons “Feature Story: Abu Simbel” Tour Egypt 1999-2005 http://www.touregypt.net 4 September., 2006

^14 Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia “Ra” 15 August, 2006 www.wikipedia.com

^Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia “Astronomy and Stonehenge” 15 August, 2006 4 September., 2006

^G. S. Hawkins “Astronomical alinements [sic] in Britain, Egypt, and Peru” Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series A, Mathematical and Physical Sciences 1974 http://www.jstor.org (4 September., 2006)

^Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia “Chinese Architecture” www.wikipedia.org 15 August, 2006 (4 September, 2006)

^Harold H. Nelson “The Identity of Amon-Re of United-with-Eternity” Journal of Near Eastern Studies 1942

^Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia “Ra” 15 August, 2006 www.wikipedia.org

^Lisa Krause “Sun to Illuminate Inner Sanctuary of Pharaoh's Temple” National Geographic News February 21, 2001 http://news.nationalgeographic.com/ (4 September., 2006)

^Aymen Ibrahem “The Wonders of the Sun” Jordanian Astronomical Society http://www.jas.org.jo (4 September., 2006)

^Aymen Mohamed Ibrahem “The Solar Gods of Ancient Egypt” http://www.eclipse-chasers.com 4 September., 2006 (4 September., 2006)

^Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia “Chinese Architecture” 15 August, 2006 http://en.wikipedia.org (4 September., 2006)

^Robert H. Pfeiffer “Cherubim” Journal of Biblical Literature 1922

^Kerry A. Shirts “A Meditation on the Qabalah” http://www2.ida.net (4 September., 2006)

^Henry Blodget “The Worship of Heaven and Earth by the Emperor of China” Journal of the American Oriental Society 1899

Buddhist Architecture: Expanding Universe

2009-01-30T17:04:00.000-08:00

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The journey to nirvana is as the growth of the sacred Bodhi tree in Buddhism. Like the expanding of the sacred Mandala, the spreading of Buddhism throughout the world is a dilation of this sacred location. Temples realized the spread of Buddhism from Korea into Japan, mainly through political initiatives. This began with the Soga clan’s temple at Asukadera, built to secure the nation. As this politically and socially adaptive religion spread, Buddhist architecture reflected the global spread of social, political, and technological advances. Building technology, culture, and monarchy spread with these temples. Buddhism’s growth and effect on the world can be referenced from its architecture.

Bodhi tree

The beginning point of the Buddhist religion is the Bodhi tree at the Mahadobhi temple in Bodh Gayais. Here Buddhah is said to have received enlightenment by becoming perfectly self-aware and no longer ego-centered. He taught that the purpose of life is to uncover this enlightenment rather than trying to attain it.

"Good sons, it is like smelting gold ore. The gold does not come into being because of smelting ... Even though it passes through endless time, the nature of the gold is never corrupted. It is wrong to say that it is not originally perfect. The Perfect Enlightenment of the Tathagata [Buddha] is also like this." ^[1]

Emulation of the Buddha meant searching for and realizing four noble truths: suffering, the origin of suffering, the cessation of suffering, and the way leading to the cessation of suffering ^[1]. Buddhism thus sought to end suffering by searching and refining rather than creating, ultimately to defeat the ego. For the followers of Buddha, awakening and becoming aware of the universe started with the sacred Bodhi tree. The universe was mapped with four corners, representing the four noble truths of Paramaitas, and the Bodhi tree was in the center.

This region of India is known as Magadha, meaning “holding that which became the center.”^[2] The Buddhist pilgrimage focused on four locations, beginning with Mahadobhi. “This spot is marked by a stone seat, the varasana or ‘diamond seat,’ beneath the tree which represents the very center of the universe according to Buddhist cosmology.”^[2] The nearby Mahabodhi temple is rectangular to further symbolize the four noble truths as points of orientation to the Bodhi. Pilgrimage to the sacred site was encouraged in Buddhism “as an assured method of lay devotees acquiring sufficient merit to ascend to one of the Buddhist heavens, or assist a monk on the path to nirvana.”^[2]

A blue-print of this process can be seen in the mandala. The Mandala is a sacred art, consisting of concentric circles that represent the “container of essence.” The circle represents the “wholeness of the self.”^[3]

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As a representation of the universe, the Mandala can be compared to the temple. Like the spread of temples, it is constructed from the center outward to four corners. Like the five-towered temple, “within the square palace or temple are images of deities, which are usually the Five Dyani Buddhas (the Great Buddhas of Wisdom).”^[3]) It is a guide to the essence of reality, an instrument of connecting physical reality to spirituality. The mandala utilizes ever-present archetypes in an “individuation process- which is [a] version of the phychoanalytic procedure and a growth toward mental and emotional wholeness.”^[4]

Buddhism concentrated on the Bodhi in a collective synthesis of the phyche that sought unity across the land, realized by the spread of its architecture.

The Mahadobhi was a model of the essential elements of the temple that would be emulated through-out the world. Later temples in India and beyond were also rectangular in form, contained towers with amalaka finials, statuesque bodhisallva figures flanking and guarding the entrance, and similar ornamentation.^[5]

This is because pilgrims to Mahadobhi brought back with them miniature statue shrines of forms of the temple. The five-towered mandala and the stupa can be seen across Asia because of these widely distributed sutras.^[2] Mahadobhi thus became the first of the many remarkably similar temples that spread throughout the continent. The pilgrimage and sharing of values made India “a continuous religious space. With the spread of Indian religious practice- particularly Buddhism- beyond the subcontinent, this space was extended further.”^[2]

Hinduism and other influences

Buddhism, and its architecture, is remarkable in its ability to change and adapt after its completion. The Bodhi tree is a fig tree, called ‘Ashwattha,’ meaning “One which does not remain the same tomorrow.”^[6] Buddhists saw constant change as an essential definition of the universe and a vehicle for progress. The Mahadobhi endured centuries of radical changes as it went through phases of neglect, control under other religions, and rebuilding. Most notably, Hinduism intermingled with Buddhism and its architecture. “This absorption of the Buddha into the Hindu pantheon marked a historic shift from ancient Hindu polemics that cast the Buddha into the roles of fraudulent ascetic and heretic.”^[5] Japan’s first Buddhist temple, at Asukadera, saw drastic change over time. Originally, a great temple two hundred meters long was built into three halls clustered around the pagoda.^[7] Today, there are no ruins of the temple remaining. A few relics are all that survived the burned down temple. Rebuilt pagodas and temples stand there as testament of the resurgent victory of Buddhism.

Asukadera was constructed so that the Soga clan- one of many clans on the island- could gain the heart of the people and unite them politically, socially, and culturally. The first temple was built some time in the sixth century when the Soga embraced the new religion from Korea after the emperor had rejected it in favor of the religion they already had. The Mononobe clan warred with the Soga over religion until their defeat in 587AD. It was then the pagoda was built.^[8] The “Asuka Temple became a symbol of the power of Soga no Umako, a position of influence that he later transferred to his son Emishi and grandson Iruka.”^[9]

Umako’s tomb was added to the complex. The Soga clan fell in 645 AD from a coup. The coup occupied the Asuka temple and it was burned down. Asuka was remembered as a spring-board for Buddhism in Japan, though it was really a means for unification and establishing a ruler’s might.^[9]

As Japan became further unified, Buddhism’s political role in Japan increased. The Buddhist temples were established as reflections of China's bureaucratic institutions.

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Korea was another influence on Japan from the Buddhist temple. Korean technological influence is “evidenced in the layout of the buildings and connecting passageways, and even in the designs of the roof tiles.”^[10] Indeed, Japan didn’t build with roof tiles until the introduction of Korean religious architecture. The temple’s construction “was directed by immigrant clans… and involved the participation of artisans, skilled in temple carpentry, metalworking, tiled manufacture and painting, who were sent from Paekche along with Buddhist priests in 588.”^[10] Smaller powers rallied under the Soga as “the work of temple building… symbolized the authority of those clans linked with the Soga-led government and was epitomized by the construction of Asukadera.”^[3] Assimilation of foreign immigrants, technology, and culture largely became the base for the society. Buddhism was so successful across the East because it could be used by the leaders for political gain, its ability to structure and improve society, and its malleability with other religious ideologies.

The Buddhist temple provided an extension of the sacred center of the universe, the bodhi tree. As the mandala which extends unified concentrated space, the spread of temples across the land connected the spiritual with physical reality for societies. Collectively, temples sought to unify mankind, as places for changing perspective so the truth can be learned and one can refining the self. Extension to the far away land of Japan was achieved through political compatibility and the ability to structure and improve societies, and shows the architecture’s success in its religious motivations. It should be noted, however, that both Mahadobhi and Asukadera were razed, for unification of societies and mankind is as the Buddhist cycle of a man- it grows, dies, and rebirths.

[Images by:

^krebsmaus07 - flickr/cc license

^Wonderlane^- flickr/cc license

^mitch59^- flickr/cc license]

Sources:

^Bodhi 25 September 2006. Wikipedia.org 10/24/2006.

^John Guy. “The Mahabodhi temple: pilgrim souvenirs of Buddhist India.” The Burlington Magazine (1991): 356-367
JSTOR www.jstor.org 10/24/2006

^Religion Facts Madalas: Sacred Art and Geometry 2004. 10/24/2006
http://www.religionfacts.com

^Albabanese, Catherine L. “The Multi-Dimensional Mandala: A Study in the Interiorization of Sacred Space” Brill Academic Publishers Vol.XXIV (1977)/ www.jstor.org 10/24/2006

^Alan Traveithick. “British Archaeologists, Hindu Abbots, and Burmese Buddhists: The Mahadobhi Temple at Bodh Gaya Modern Asian Studies 33,3 (1999) pp.635-656
JSTOR www.jstor.org 10/24/2006

^Bodhi Tree. 18 October 3006. Wikipedia.org. 10/24/2006

^Kakichi Suzuki. Early Buddhist Architecture in Japan Kodansha Inter Lrd., 1980.

^
Mayumi. Pagoda. 12 March 2002. 19/24/2006 www.geocities.com/mayuagqui2

^Blankenstijn, Ad G. “Asukadera- A Battered Buddha” The Japan Pages 2003
http://www.xs4all.nl