A complete order
Pedestal, column and entablature built from the proportions of the chosen authority.
The rules it illustrates
The six principles of design. Architecture depends on order (ordinatio), arrangement (dispositio), eurythmy, symmetry, propriety (decor) and economy (distributio).
The Doric module. Divide the front of a Doric temple into modules; the column’s thickness is two modules, its height with the capital fourteen, the capital one, the architrave one, and the triglyphs one and a half high and one wide.
The Tuscan column. Make the Tuscan column seven diameters high, diminish it by a quarter at the top, and give its base and capital each half a diameter.
The three parts of an order. An order consists of a column (base, shaft and capital) carrying an entablature (architrave, frieze and cornice), optionally raised on a pedestal (plinth, die and cap). Each part is proportioned to the lower diameter of the column.
Vignola’s general rule: 4 : 12 : 3. Divide the whole height into nineteen parts: four for the pedestal, twelve for the column, three for the entablature. Without a pedestal, divide it into fifteen, giving twelve to the column and three to the entablature.
Divide, do not multiply. Find every member of an order by dividing the given height into equal parts with the compasses, and those parts again, so that no arithmetic is needed.
The Doric column grew taller and its entablature lighter. Read the age of a Doric order from its proportions: the oldest columns are little more than four diameters high, the finest Greek ones five and a half to six and a half, the Roman seven and a half to eight; as the column rose, the architrave grew lower.
Where it appears in the book
In the chapters How to Use This Book, The Anatomy of an Order, The Tuscan Order, The Doric Order, The Ionic Order, The Corinthian Order, The Composite Order.
The terms it shows
Architrave · Cornice · Dentil · Entablature · Frieze · Modillion · Pedestal · Triglyph