Chapter XXVIII. Of stairs, and the various kinds of them; and of the number and size of the steps

GREAT care ought to be taken in the placing of stair-cases, because it is no small dissi cult to find a situation fit for them, and that doth not impede the remaining part of the fabrick: A proper place must therefore be principally given them, that they may not obstruct other places, nor be obstructed by them,

Three openings are required in stair-cases; the first is the door thro’ which one goes up to the Hair-case, which the less it is hid to them that enter into the house, so much the more it is to be commended. And it would please me much, if it was in a place, where before that one comes to it, the most beautiful part of the house was seen; because it makes the house (altho it should be little) seem very luge; but however, let it be manifest, and easily found. The second opening is the windows that ase necessary to give light to the Heaps; they ought to be in the middle, and high, that the'light may be spread equally every where alike. The third is the opening thro’ which one enters into the floor above; this ought to lead us into ample, beautiful, and adorned places. _ Tree Hair-cases will be commendable if they are clear, ample, and commodious to ascend, inviting, as it were, people to go up: They will be clear, if they have a bright light, and it (as I have said) the light be diffused equally every where alike: They will be sufficiently ample, if they do not seem scanty and narrow to the largeness and quality of the fabrick; but they are never to be made less wide than four foot, that if two persons meet, they may conveniently give one another room: They will be convenient with respect to the whole building, if the arches under them can serve to lodge some necessities; and with rested to men, if their ascent is not too steep and difficult: therefore their length most be twice their height.

The steps ought not to be made higher than six inches of a foot; and if they are made lower, particularly in long and continued Hairs, it will make them the more easy, because in rising one’s self the foot will be less tired; but they must never be made lower than four inches: the breadth of the steps ought not to be made less than one foot, nor more than one and a half,

T 1 £ antients observed to make the steps uneven in number, that beginning to go up with the right foot, one might end with the same; which they look’d upon as a good omen, and of greater devotion when they entered the temple: The number of steps is not to exceed eleven, or thirteen at most, before you make a floor or resting-place, that the weak and weary may find where to rest themselves, if obliged to go up higher, and be able more easily to stop any thing that should happen to fall from above,

Stair-cases are either made straight or winding; the straight are either made to spread into two branches, or square, which turn into four branches: To make these, the whole place is to be divided into four parts, two are given to the steps, and two to the void in the middle, from which these stairs would have light, if it was left uncovered: They may be made with the wall within, and then in the two parts which are given to the steps, this wall is also included; and they may also be made without.

These two sorts of stair-cases were invented by the magnificent Signor Luter Corner, a gentleman of an excellent judgment, as may be known by the most beautiful loggia, and the most elegantly adorned rooms which he built for his habitation at Padua.

T ne winding stair-cases (that are also called a chiocciolaj) are in some places made round, in others oval, sometimes with a column in the middle, and sometimes void, in narrow places particularly, because they occupy less room than the straight, but are somewhat more dissi cult to ascend. They succeed very well that are void in the middle, because they can have the light from above, and those that are at the top of the stairs, see all those that come up, or begin to ascend, and are likewise seen by them: Those that have a column in the middle, are made in this manner; the diameter being divided into three parts, let two be left to the steps, and one given to the column, as in the design A, or let the diameter be divided into seven parts, and three given to the column in the middle, and four to the steps; and in this manner early is made the stair-case of the column of Trajan. And if the steps are made crooked, as in the design B, they will be very beautiful to look at, and longer than if they are made straight: but in those that are void, the diameter must be divided into four parts; two are given to the steps, and two remain for the place in the middle.

Besides the ufuaf manners of stairs, there was another sort of winding flair-case invented by the Clarissimo Signor Marc’ Antonio Barbaro, 2 Venetian gentleman of a fine genius, which in very narrow places serves very well: it has no column in the middle; and because the steps are crooked, they are very long, and must be divided as the abovesaid.

The oval flair-cases are also divided in the very same manner as the round; they are very beautiful and agreeable to see, because all the windows and doors come to the head of the oval, and in the middle, and are sufficiently commodious.

I wave made a stair-case void in the middle, in the monastery de le Caria in Venice, which succeeds admirably.

¥, The oval flair-case without a column.

Another beautiful sort of winding flairs was made at Chambor, (a place in France) by order of the magnanimous King Francis, in a palace by him erected in a wood, and is in this manner: there are four stair-cases, which have four entrances, that is, one each, and ascend the one over the other in such a manner, that being made in the middle of the fabrick, they can serve to four apartments, without that the inhabitants of the one go down the stair-case of the other, and being open in the middle, all see one another going up and down, without giving one another the least inconvenience: and because it is 2 new and a beautiful invention, I have inserted it, and marked the stair-cases with letters in the plan and elevation, that one may see where they begin, and how they go up.

There were also in the portico’s of Pompey in Rome, going into the piazza Giudea, three winding stair-cases of a very laudible invention, because being placed in the middle, where they could receive no light but from above, they were made upon columns, that the light might spread equally every where,

In imitation of these, Bramante, 2 me excellent architect in his time, made one in Belvedere without steps, and with the four orders in architecture, that is, the Dorick, Ionick, Corinthian and Composite, To make such flair-cases, the whole space is to be divided into four parts; two are given to the void in the middle, and one of 2 side to the steps and columns.

Many other sorts of stair-cases are to be seen in antient edifices, such as triangular; of this kind are the stairs that lead to the cupulo of Santa Maria Rotonda, and are void in the middle, and receive the light from above. Those were also very magnificent that are at Santo Apostolo in the said city, and go up to Monte Cavallo: those stair-cases were double, from which many have since taken example, and did lead to a temple placed on the top of the mountain, as I that shew in my bosk of temples; and the last design is of this sort.