23 October 2019

Note: this is a continuation of my previous post. Please see that post for the abstract/description and my thoughts on how this relates to scenography.

Work cited:

Alberti, Leon B, Joseph Rykwert, Neil Leach, and Robert Tavernor. On the Art of Building in Ten Books. Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press, 1997.

Orginal title De re aedifactoria.
Written by Leon Battista Alberti in Latin circa 1452.
Originally published 1485.

Notes (continued from previous post)

Book 4: On Public Works

4.1 Public categories necessitating different types of buildings
4.2 Defense of city against enemies, walls
4.3 Layout of city walls
4.4 Construction of city walls
4.5 Gates and roads
4.6 Bridges
4.7 Drains
4.8 Harbors

Book 5: On the Works of Individuals

5.1 Defense of citizen against citizen
5.2 Houses for princes (king or tyrant)
5.3 Layout of houses for princes
5.4 Citadels
5.5 Layout of citadels
5.6 Houses for a ruling class of leaders
5.7 Monasteries, cloisters
5.8 Palestra, hospitals
5.9 Public halls [wherever people are to be heard reciting, singing, or debating, stone vaulting will not be suitable because it reflects sound, whereas a composite timber ceiling will be, because it resonates.]
5.10 Camps
5.11 Camps cont.: layout, siting
5.12 Ships
5.13 Granaries, treasuries, latrines, prisons
5.14 Private houses (not for rulers) [house as miniature city]
5.15 Country houses
5.16 Animal housing: dovecotes, livestock, ponds
5.17 Villas
5.18 Villas versus townhouses

Book 6: Ornament

6.1 Ornament: pleasing in appearance, noble & necessary
6.2 Definitions of beauty and ornament: Beauty is that reasoned harmony of all the parts within a body, so that nothing may be added, taken away, or altered, but for the worse. Also: beauty is some inherent property, to be found suffused all through the body of that which may be called beautiful; whereas ornament, rather than being inherent, has the character of something attached or additional.
6.3 History of ornament, ornament vis a vis “lineaments”
6.4 Ornament vis a vis “area”
6.5 Ornament vis a vis “compartition”
6.6 Revetments [I understand this to be something like “wall ornaments”
6.7 Wheels, pulley blocks, screws, and levers
6.8 Tackles & blocks
6.9 Plastering
6.10 Paneled revetment
6.11 Roof adornments: gables, easves, corners
6.12 Openings: false openings, two kinds: engaged and detached [pilaster conversation]
6.13 Columns: definition, history, geometry, material, entasis, vocabulary