Vitruvius in the middle ages

Authors

  • Steven Surdèl

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.7480/knob.97.1998.2.400

Abstract

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

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

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

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

Author Biography

Steven Surdèl

Drs. S. Surdèl studeerde kunstgeschiedenis en archeologie aan de Katholieke Universiteit te Nijmegen, met als hoofdvak Kunstgeschiedenis van de Middeleeuwen. Heeft geen plaats op de arbeidsmarkt, maar verdiept zich voor zijn genoegen in het thema 'kennisniveau en kunstambacht' tijdens de Middeleeuwen en de Klassieke Oudheid. Facetten van zijn onderzoek verschenen in 1993 en 1996 als bijdragen in het Jaarboek van de Rijksdienst voor de Monumentenzorg (resp.: 'Met passer en winkelhout': over de mythe der Middeleeuwse "Baugeometrie"' en: 'Het "Boek van de Ladder", met een 'bestek' uit de 11e eeuw'). In october 1995 nam hij deel aan het congres te Heerlen over de Romeinse ingenieur Vitruvius, met een lezing over Vitruvius, kundig ontwerpen tijdens de Middeleeuwen, een thema dat hij heeft gekozen voor zijn dissertatie.

Published

1998-04-01

How to Cite

Surdèl, S. (1998). Vitruvius in the middle ages. Bulletin KNOB, 97(2), 51–68. https://doi.org/10.7480/knob.97.1998.2.400

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Section

Articles

Plaudit