Alberti, Leone Battista, Architecture, 1755

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1of the Branca Urſina. Upon the Mutules lies
the
Corona, which is allowed four Minutes,
and
this Corona conſiſts of a Plat-band or Drip
and
a Cima Recta, which laſt takes up one
Minute
and a Half.
If you are to have a Pe­
diment
over your Building, all the Members of
the
Cornice muſt be transferred to that, and
every
Member in the Pediment muſt correſpond
with
the ſame in the Cornice, and anſwer to
the
ſame Perpendiculars and Proportions.
There
is
only this Difference between Pediments and
the
firſt Cornices, that in Pediments the high­
eſt
Member of the Cornice is always the Drip,
which
in the Doric Order is a Cima-reverſa,
four
Minutes in Height, whereas this Drip or
Cima
has never Place in a Cornice that is to
have
a Pediment over it; but in thoſe which
are
to have no Pediment it is conſtantly uſed.
But of Pediments we ſhall ſpeak by and by.
This was the Entablature of the Dorians. The

Ionians were of Opinion, and not without Rea­
ſon
, that the Proportion of the Architrave
ought
to encreaſe according to the Bigneſs of
the
Column; which muſt certainly have a good
Effect
both here and in the Doric Order too.
The Rules they gave for enlarging this Pro­
portion
were as follows: When the Column
was
twenty Foot high the Architrave ought to
be
the thirteenth Part of that Length; but
when
the Column was to be five-and-twenty
Foot
, the Architrave ſhould be the twelfth
Part
of the Length of the Column.
Laſtly,
if
the Column was to be thirty Foot high, the
Architrave
was to be the eleventh Part, and for
higher
Columns in the ſame Gradation.
The
Ionic Architrave, beſides its Cymaiſe, conſiſted
of
three Faſcias, and the Whole was divided
into
nine Parts, two of which were allowed to
the
Cymaiſe, which was an upright one.
The
Remainder
below the Cymaiſe they divided in­
to
twelve Parts, three of which went to the
lower
, four to the middle, and five to the up­
per
Faſcia, which lies juſt below the Cymaiſe.
Some made theſe Faſcias without any Sort of
Mouldings
between them, but others made
them
with Mouldings, and theſe were ſome­
times
a ſmall Cima-inverſa, taking up a fifth
Part
of the Faſcia, and ſometimes a Baguette
taking
up a ſeventh Part.
We may obſerve in
the
Works of the Ancients, that the Linea­
ments
or Members of the ſeveral Orders were
often
mixed, one borrowing from another, and
often
with a very good Effect.
But they ſeem­
ed
chiefly pleaſed with an Architrave of only
two
Faſcias, which I take to be entirely Doric
without
its Reglets and Drops.
Their Man­
ner
of deſigning this Architrave was thus.
They
divided
the whole Height into nine Parts, aſ­
ſigning
one Part and two Thirds to the Cy­
maiſe
.
The upper Faſcia had four Parts and
one
Third, and the lower Faſcia the other three.
Half the upper Part of this Cymaiſe was taken
up
with a Cima-inverſa and a Fillet, and the
other
half with a ſmall Quarter-round.
The
upper
Faſcia for its Cymaiſe had a Baguette,
which
took up an eighth Part of the Faſcia,
and
the lower Faſcia had a Cima-recta of the
third
Part of its whole Breadth.
Upon the
Architrave
lay the Rafters; but their Heads
did
not appear out, as in the Doric Order, but
were
cut away Perpendicular to the Archi­
trave
, and were covered with a flat Pannel
which
I call the Freze, the Breadth of which
was
the ſame as the Height of the Architrave
which
is under it.
Upon this they uſed to
carve
Vaſes and other Utenſils belonging to
their
Sacrifices, or Skulls of Oxen at certain
ſtated
Diſtances, with Feſtoons of Flowers and
Fruits
hanging between their Horns.
This
Freze
had over it a Cima-recta, which was
never
higher than ſour Parts of the Freze, nor
lower
than three.
Over this ran the Denticle,
four
Parts high, ſometimes carved and ſome­
times
left quite plain.
Above this was the
Ovolo
, out of which came the Mutules, three
Parts
in Height, and carved with Eggs, and
from
hence came the Mutules ſupporting the
Drip
, which was four Parts high and ſix Parts
and
a half Broad in its Soffit, or that Face un­
derneath
which lay over the Mutules.
Over
this
Drip was a ſmall Cima-recta, or elſe a Ba­
guette
two Parts in Height, and at the Top of
all
was a Cymaiſe or Cima-inverſa of three
Parts
, or if you pleaſe of four.
In this Cy­
maiſe
both the Ionians and the Dorians uſed to
carve
the Mouths of Lyons, which ſerved for
Spouts
to throw out the Water; but they took
Care
that they ſhould neither ſprinkle any Body
that
was going into the Temple, nor beat back
into
any Part of the Temple itſelf; and for this
Reaſon
they ſtopt up thoſe Mouths that were

over
the Doors and Windows.
The Corinthi­
ans
added nothing either to the Architrave,
Freze
or Cornice, that I can call to Mind, ex­
cept
only that they did not make their Mutu­
les
ſquare like the Dorians, but with a Sort of
Sweep
like a Cymaiſe, and made the Diſtances
between
them equal to their Projecture from
the
Naked of the Building.
In all other Re­
ſpects
they followed the Ionians. Thus much

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