The Preface to the Reader

HAVING fully treated of private edifices, and taken notice of all the most necessary advertencies that ought in them to be had; and having, besides this, put the designs of many of those houses, that have been by me directed, both within and without cities, and of those which (according to Vitruvius) were made by the antients; it is very proper, that, in directing my discourse to more excellent, and to more magnificent fabricks, I should now pass on to the publick edifices: in which, as they are made more stately, and with more exquisite ornaments than the private, and serve for the use and conveniency of every body, princes have therein very ample opportunity to make the world acquainted with the greatness of their souls, and architects a very fine one to shew their capacity in beautiful and wonderful inventions.

I desire therefore in this book, in which my antiquities begin, and in the others, which, God willing, shall follow, that so much the more attention may be applied, in considering the little that shall be said, and the designs that shall be given, as I have, with far greater fatigue, and much longer vigilancy, reduced those fragments that remained of the antient edifices, to such a form, that the observers of antiquity may (I hope) take delight therein, and the lovers of architecture may thence receive very great utility; there being much more to be learnt from good examples in a little time, by measuring and seeing the entire edifices, with all their parts, upon a small leaf, than in a long time from words, by which, with the imagination only, and still some difficulty, the reader is able to attain to a firm and certain knowledge of what he reads, and with much more difficulty will he put it in practise.

AND to every one, that is not altogether void of judgment, it may be very manifest, how good the method was, which the antients observed in building; since after so much time, and after so many ruins and mutations of empires, there still remain both in Italy and out of it, the vestigies of so many of their sumptuous edifices, by which we are able to get at a certain knowledge of the Roman virtue and grandeur, which perhaps had not otherwise been believed. I therefore, in this third book, (in placing the designs of the edifices contained in it) shall observe this order.

In the first place, I shall put those of the streets, and of the bridges, as belonging to that part of architecture which regards the ornaments of cities and of provinces, and which serves for the universal conveniency of mankind. For, as in the other fabricks which the antients made, one may easily apprehend that they had no regard either to expence, or to any labour to bring them to that pitch of excellency, which has been granted them from our imperfection; so, in directing the roads, they took very great care, that they should be made in such a manner, that also in them might be known the grandeur and the magnificence of their minds. Wherefore, to make them both commodious and short, they cut through mountains, dried up fens, and joined with bridges, and so made easy and plain, those places, that had been sunk, either by vales or torrents.

I shall, afterwards, treat of piazza’s in the manner that Vitruvius shews us the Greeks and Latins made them, and of those places that ought to be distributed round the piazza’s. And because, among these, that place is worthy of great consideration, where the judges administer justice, called by the antients Basilica, the designs of it shall be particularly set down. But because it is not sufficient, that the regions and the cities be well disposed and governed by most sacred laws, and have magistrates, who, as executors of the laws, keep the citizens in awe; if men are not also made prudent by learning, and strong and hearty by bodily exercise, that they may be able to govern both themselves and others, and to defend themselves from those who wou’d oppress them; which is one principal reason why the inhabitants of some countries, when dispersed in many small places, unite themselves, and form cities: wherefore the antient Greeks made in their cities (as Vitruvius relates) some edifices, which they called Palestrae and Xisti, in which the philosophers assembled to dispute concerning the sciences, and the younger men were every day exercised; and at certain appointed times the people assembled there to see the wrestlers contend.

The designs of those edifices hall also be inserted, and an end so put to this third book. After which, shall follow that of the temples belonging to religion, without which it wou'd be impossible that civil society cou’d be maintained.