CHAPTER VII — Critical Commentary & Notes

Wherein the Three Species of Columns—Ionic, Doric, and Corinthian—Differ from One Another, and Vitruvius’s Account of Their Origin and of Callimachus’s Invention of the Corinthian Capital.

Historical & Mathematical Commentary

  • :person:`*Vitruvius * <vitruvius>`De architectura IV.1.1–10**: Pacioli quotes the entire famous Latin passage of Vitruvius IV.1 on the anthropometric origins of the Doric (\(1:6\) then \(1:7\)), Ionic (\(1:8\) then \(1:9\)), and Corinthian orders, including the story of :person:`*Callimachus <callimachus>`* (katatexitechnos) and the Corinthian maiden’s tomb basket (calathus) covered by a square tile (tegula, which became the abacus) overgrown by an acanthus plant.

  • Comparison with Earlier Draft Track: In the earlier winterberg_en draft, the long Latin quotation from Vitruvius IV.1 was left untranslated or summarized in a sentence. Here both Pacioli's Italian commentary and the complete English translation of the Latin Vitruvian text on Folios 0073.rst–0074.rst (f. 29r–f. 29v) are provided in full.

Constantin Winterberg’s Commentary (1889 Edition)

  • Winterberg Footnotes 1–2 (Arch. Cap. VII, pp. 309–310): (1) Baladere (ballatoio)—literally, the uppermost gallery or deck. (2) In the 1509 Italian text, read poco (‘little’) instead of però. (Winterberg Fussnoten 1–2 (Arch. Cap. VII, S. 309–310): 1) Baladere eigentlich: oberstes Verdeck. 2) Text soll poco statt però heissen.)

Philological and Folio Apparatus

  • 1509 Paganini Witness Folios: 0073, 0074 (f. 29r–f. 29v)

  • Winterberg 1889 Italian Source: winterberg/02_architectura_italian/007_cap_VII.txt

  • Winterberg 1889 German Source: winterberg/04_architectura_german/007_cap_VII.txt

  • Marginal Woodcut Diagrams: 0 figure(s) extracted from the 1509 Venice witness.