Author Description

The Ten Books on Architecture by Vitruvius Pollio is a seminal work in architectural literature, written in the 1st century BCE. It is the only comprehensive treatise on architecture from classical antiquity that has survived to the modern era. In these ten books, Vitruvius covers a wide range of topics, including architectural design, construction techniques, building materials, city planning, and the construction of machines. He also discusses the importance of proportion and symmetry, drawing connections between architecture and the human body. The work was translated into English by Morris Hicky Morgan in 1914, making Vitruvius’s ideas accessible to a broader audience. Morgan's translation is known for its clarity and faithfulness to the original text, and it remains one of the most widely used translations of Vitruvius’s work. This treatise has had a profound influence on Western architecture and continues to be studied by architects, historians, and scholars.