Canon of the Five Orders of Architecture

By David Watkin and Giacomo Barozzi da Vignola

One of history's most published architectural treatises, this Renaissance volume solidified the architectural canon of the past five centuries. In these pages, the distinguished architect known as Vignola identified the five orders — Tuscan, Doric, Ionic, Corinthian, and Composite — and illustrated them in full-page elevational detail.
Vignola's engravings have been copied countless times since their original publication in 1562. The clear images with brief captions constitute a practical rather than theoretical work, offering even lay readers a system of tools that provide accurate proportions. An essential reference for professional architects, this book has guided generations of architects, including those who rebuilt London after the Fire of 1664. This new edition features an Introduction by architectural historian David Watkin.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Dover Publications
• Release date: Apr 29, 2013
• ISBN: 9780486278643

David Watkin

David Watkin was Professor of Architectural History at the University of Cambridge. He has written major studies of architects like Soane and Thomas Hope and the influential polemic Architecture and Morality. He is now retired and lives in Chicago.

Book preview

CANON OF THE

FIVE ORDERS OF

ARCHITECTURE

GIACOMO BAROZZI DA VIGNOLA

Translated by

JOHN LEEKE

Introduction to the Dover Edition by

DAVID WATKIN

Professor Emeritus of the History of Architecture

University of Cambridge

DOVER PUBLICATIONS, INC.

MINEOLA, NEW YORK

Copyright

Introduction copyright © 2011 by David Watkin

All rights reserved.

Bibliographical Note

This Dover edition, first published in 2011, is an unabridged republication of The Regular Architect: or the General Rule of the Five Orders of Architecture, printed for William Sherwin, London, in 1669. A new Introduction by David Watkin has been specially prepared for this Dover edition.

Thanks to the Avery Library at Columbia University for supplying an image of plate #18.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Vignola, 1507–1573.

[Regola delli cinque ordini d’architettura. English]

Canon of the five orders of architecture / Giacomo Barozzi da Vignola; translated by John Leeke ; introduction to the Dover edition by David Watkin.

p. cm.

This Dover edition, first published in 2011, is an unabridged republication of The Regular Architect: or the General Rule of the Five Orders of Architecture, printed for William Sherwin, London, in 1669.

ISBN-13: 978-0-486-47262-1 (pbk.)

ISBN-10: 0-486-47262-0 (pbk.)

1. Architecture—Orders. I. Leeke, John. II. Watkin, David, 1941– III. Title.

NA2810.V4813 2011

721'.36—dc22

2010026889

Manufactured in the United States by Courier Corporation

47262001

www.doverpublications.com

INTRODUCTION

It is always necessary to know what we want our eyes to see.

—Vignola, Regola 1562

The Life and Work of Vignola

Vignola, author of what has been seen as the most influential of all architectural treatises, was employed for over thirty years in the papal service, notably that of Alessandro Farnese, Pope Paul III (reigned 1534–49), and his grandsons, Alessandro (1520–89), Ottavio (1524–86), and Ranuccio Farnese (1530–65). Pope Paul III was a major architectural patron, responsible for the monumental Palazzo Farnese in Rome, and for commissioning Michelangelo to renovate and rebuild the Campidoglio. He was also a central figure in the Counter Reformation, summoning the Council of Trent in 1545, and authorising the foundation of the Society of Jesus for which Vignola was to build its mother church in Rome, the hugely influential Gesù (1568–73).

Despite attracting such powerful patrons, Vignola was himself modestly born in 1507 in the village of Vignola, hence the name he acquired. He was raised in nearby Bologna where he was trained as a painter, but turned to architecture, probably in early