Alberti, Leone Battista, Architecture, 1755

List of thumbnails

< >
51
51 		52
52
53
53 		54
54
55
55 		56
56
57
57 		58
58
59
59 		60
60
< >
page |< < of 320 > >|
    <archimedes>
      <text>
        <body>
          <chap>
            <p type="main">
              <s>
                <pb xlink:href="003/01/054.jpg" pagenum="42"/>
              certainly, but to begin immediately from
                <lb/>
              thence to erect our Wall. </s>
              <s>At
                <emph type="italics"/>
              Siena
                <emph.end type="italics"/>
              there are
                <lb/>
              huge Towers raiſed immediately from the na­
                <lb/>
              ked Earth, becauſe the Hill is lined with a
                <lb/>
              ſolid Rock. </s>
              <s>Making a Foundation, that is
                <lb/>
              to ſay, digging up the Ground, and making a
                <lb/>
              Trench, is neceſſary in thoſe Places, where
                <lb/>
              you cannot find firm Ground without digging;
                <lb/>
              which, indeed, is the Caſe almoſt every where,
                <lb/>
              as will appear hereafter. </s>
              <s>The Marks of a good
                <lb/>
              Soil for a Foundation are theſe; if it does not
                <lb/>
              produce any kind of Herb that uſually grows
                <lb/>
              in moiſt Places; if it bears either no Tree at
                <lb/>
              all, or only ſuch as delight in a very hard,
                <lb/>
              cloſe Earth; if every Thing round about is
                <lb/>
              extremely dry, and, as it were, quite parched
                <lb/>
              up; if the Place is ſtony, not with ſmall round
                <lb/>
              Pebbles, but large ſharp Stones, and eſpecially
                <lb/>
              Flints; if there are no Springs nor Veins of
                <lb/>
              Water running under it; becauſe the Nature
                <lb/>
              of all Streams is either to be perpetually car­
                <lb/>
              rying away, or bringing ſomething along with
                <lb/>
              them: And therefore it is that in all flat
                <lb/>
              Grounds, lying near any River, you can never
                <lb/>
              meet with any firm Soil, till you dig below
                <lb/>
              the Level of the Channel. </s>
              <s>Before you begin
                <lb/>
              to dig your Foundations, you ſhould once
                <lb/>
              again carefully review and conſider all the
                <lb/>
              Lines and Angles of your Platform, what Di­
                <lb/>
              menſions they are to be of, and how they are
                <lb/>
              to diſpoſed. </s>
              <s>In making theſe Angles we muſt
                <lb/>
              uſe a ſquare Rule, not of a ſmall but of a
                <lb/>
              very large Size, that our ſtrait Lines may be
                <lb/>
              the truer. </s>
              <s>The Ancients made their ſquare
                <lb/>
              Rule of three ſtrait ones joined together in a
                <lb/>
              Triangle, whereof one was of three Cubits,
                <lb/>
              the other of four, and the third of five. </s>
              <s>The
                <lb/>
              Ignorant do not know how to make theſe
                <lb/>
              Angles till they have firſt cleared away every
                <lb/>
              Thing that incumbers the Area, and have it
                <lb/>
              all perſectly open, almoſt level before them:
                <lb/>
              For which Reaſon, laying furiouſly hold of
                <lb/>
              their Tools, they fall like ſo many Ravagers
                <lb/>
              to demoliſhing and levelling every Thing be­
                <lb/>
              fore them; which would become them much
                <lb/>
              better in the Country of an Enemy. </s>
              <s>But the
                <lb/>
              Error of theſe Men ought to be corrected;
                <lb/>
              for a Change of Fortune, or the Adverſity of
                <lb/>
              the Times, or ſome unforeſeen Accident, or
                <lb/>
              Neceſſity, may poſſibly oblige you to lay aſide
                <lb/>
              the Thoughts of the Undertaking you have
                <lb/>
              begun. </s>
              <s>And it is certainly very unſeemly, in
                <lb/>
              the mean while, to have no Regard to the
                <lb/>
              Labours of your Anceſtors, or to the Conve­
                <lb/>
              niencies which your Fellow-Citizens find in
                <lb/>
              theſe paternal Habitations, which they have
                <lb/>
              been long accuſtomed to; and as for pulling
                <lb/>
              down and demoliſhing, that is in your Power
                <lb/>
              at any Time. </s>
              <s>I am therefore for preſerving
                <lb/>
              the old Structures untouched, till ſuch Time
                <lb/>
              as it is abſolutely neceſſary to remove them
                <lb/>
              to make Way for the new.</s>
            </p>
            <p type="head">
              <s>CHAP. II.</s>
            </p>
            <p type="head">
              <s>
                <emph type="italics"/>
              That the Foundation chiefly is to be marked out with Lines; and by what
                <lb/>
              Tokens we may know the Goodneſs of the Ground.
                <emph.end type="italics"/>
              </s>
            </p>
            <p type="main">
              <s>In marking out your Foundations, you are
                <lb/>
              to remember, that the ſirſt Ground-work
                <lb/>
              of your Wall, and the Soccles, which are
                <lb/>
              called Foundations too, muſt be a determinate
                <lb/>
              Proportion broader than the Wall that is to be
                <lb/>
              erected upon it; in Imitation of thoſe who
                <lb/>
              walk over the Snow in the
                <emph type="italics"/>
              Alps
                <emph.end type="italics"/>
              of
                <emph type="italics"/>
              Tuſcany,
                <emph.end type="italics"/>
                <lb/>
              who wear upon their Feet Hurdles made of
                <lb/>
              Twigs and ſmall Ropes, plaited together for
                <lb/>
              that very Purpoſe, the Broadneſs of which
                <lb/>
              keeps them from ſinking in the Snow. </s>
              <s>How
                <lb/>
              to diſpoſe the Angles, is not eaſy to teach
                <lb/>
              clearly with Words alone; becauſe the Method
                <lb/>
              of drawing them, is borrowed ſrom the Ma­
                <lb/>
              thematicks, and ſtands in Need of the Ex­
                <lb/>
              ample of Lines, a Thing ſoreign to our Deſign
                <lb/>
              here, and which we have treated of in another
                <lb/>
              Place, in our Mathematical Commentaries.
                <lb/>
              </s>
              <s>However, I will endeavour, as far as is neceſ­
                <lb/>
              ſary here, to ſpeak of them in ſuch a Manner,
                <lb/>
              that if you have any Share of Ingenuity, you
                <lb/>
              may eaſily comprehend many Things, by
                <lb/>
              Means of which you may afterwards make
                <lb/>
              yourſelf Maſter of all the reſt. </s>
              <s>Whatever may
                <lb/>
              chance to ſeem more obſcure, if you have a
                <lb/>
              Mind to underſtand it thoroughly, you may
                <lb/>
              apply to thoſe Commentaries. </s>
              <s>My Method,
                <lb/>
              then, in deſcribing the Foundations, is to draw
                <lb/>
                <arrow.to.target n="marg4"/>
                <lb/>
              ſome Lines, which I call radical ones,
                <lb/>
              in this Manner*. From the Middle
                <lb/>
              of the Fore-front of the Work, I draw a Line
                <lb/>
              quite thro' to the Back-front, in the Middle </s>
            </p>
          </chap>
        </body>
      </text>
    </archimedes>
Impressum