Chapter XVIII. Of the Composite Order

THE Composite order, which also called Latin from its having been the antient Romans invention, and also because it partakes of two of the foregoing orders. The most regular and beautiful is that which is composed of the Ionic and Corinthian.

t is made more slender than the Corinthian, and may be formed like that in all its parts, except the capital. The columns ought to be ten modules high.

In the designs of simple colonnades the intercolumniations are of one diameter and a half, which is called by Vitruvius Pienostilo's. In that of arches the pilasters are half the void of the arch, and the arches are two squares and a half high under the vault,

AND because this order, as I have said, ought to be formed more slender than the Corinthian, its pedestal is a third part of the height of the column divided into eight parts and a half; of one the cimacia of that base is made, and five and a half remain for the dado. The base of the pedestals is divided into three parts; two are given to the zocco or plinth, and one to its bastone and gola.

The Attick may serve for the base of this column, as in the Corinthian; and also may be form’'d composed of the Attick and Ionick, as appears by the design.

The profile of the impost of the arches is on one side of the dado of the pedestal, the height of which is equal to the thickness of the membretto.

Tw £ dimensions of the Composite capital are the same as those of the Corinthian, but differs from it in the voluta, ovolo, and fusarolo, which members ure attributed to the Ionick. The method of forming which is thus: From the abaco downwards the capital is to be divided into three parts, as in the Corinthian; the first to be given to the first leaf, the second to the second, and the third to the voluta, which is formed in the same manner, and with the same points with which it was said the Ionick was made, and takes vp so much of the abaco that it seems to grow out of the ovolo near the flower, which is placed in the middle of the curvature of the said abaco, and is as thick in front as the blunt part that is made over the horns thereof, or a little more.

Th x thickness of the ovolo is three parts in five of the abaco. Its lower part begins parallel with the lower part of the eye of the voluta, and projects three parts of four of its height, and is with its projecture perpendicular to the curvature of the abaco, or a little more,

In fusarolo is one third part of the height of the ovolo, and its projecture a little more than half its thickness, and goes round the capital under the voluta always in sight,

Th E gradetto, which is placed under the fusarolo that forms the orlo of the campana of the capital is half the fusarolo. The body of the campana answers directly to the bottom of the flutes of the columns.

T have seen one of this kind at Rome, from which I have taken the said dimensions, because I thought it extremely beautiful, and exceedingly well contrived.

The There are also capitals to be seen formed in another manner, that may be called Com-site, of which mention shall be made and the designs placed in my books of antiquity.

The architrave, frize and cornice are a fifth part of the height of the column, Their proportions and divisions may easily be known by what has been laid in the other orders, and by the numbers placed in the designs,