Alberti, Leone Battista, Architecture, 1755
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1will order the ſacred Ceremonies with religious
Minds, and frame Laws with Juſtice and
Equity, and themſelves ſet the Example of
Living orderly and happily.
They will watch
continually for the Defence and Enlargement
of the Authority and Dignity of their Fellow­
Citizens.
And when they have determined
upon any Thing convement, uſeful, or neceſ­
ſary; being perhaps themſelves worn out
with Years, and fitter for Contemplation than
Action, they will commit the Execution of it
to ſuch as they know to be well experienced,
and brisk and courageous to bring the Matter
to effect, to whom they will give an Oppor­
tunity of deſerving well of their Country, by
the Proſecution of their Deſign.
Then theſe
others, having taken the Buſineſs upon them­
ſelves, will faithfully perform their Parts at
home with Study and Application, and abroad
with Diligence and Labour, giving Judgment,
leading Armies, and exerciſing their own In­
duſtry, and that of thoſe who are under them.
And laſtly, as it is in vain to think of effecting
any Thing without Means, the next in Place
to thoſe already mentioned are ſuch as ſupply
theſe with their Wealth, either by Husbandry
or Merchandize.
All the other Orders of
Men ought in Reaſon to obey and be ſub­
ſervient to theſe as chief.
Now if any Thing
is to be gather'd from all this to our Purpoſe,
it is certainly that of the different Kinds of
Building, one Sort belongs to the Publick,
another to the principal Citizens, and another
to the Commonality.
AND again, among the principal Sort, one
is proper for thoſe who bear the Weight of
the publick Counſels and Deliberations, an­
other for thoſe who are employ'd in the Exe­
cution, and another for ſuch as apply them­
ſelves to the amaſſing of Wealth.
Of all
which one Part, as we obſerved before, having
Relation to Neceſſity, and another to Con­
venience; it will be no Preſumption in us
who are treating of Buildings to allow another
Part to Plcaſure, while inſtead of claiming
any Merit upon this Account to ourſelves, we
confeſs that the Principles of this Diviſion are
to be drawn from the firſt Rudiments of the
Philoſophers.
OF this, therefore, we are now to treat,
what belongs to a publick Building, what
to thoſe of the principal Citizens, and what
to thoſe of the common Sort.
But where ſhall
we begin ſuch great Matters?
Shall we follow
the gradual Courſe of Mankind in their pro­
curing of all theſe, and ſo beginning with the
mean Huts of poor People, go on by degrees
to thoſe vaſt Structures which we ſee of Thea­
tres, Baths, and Temples.
It is certain it was
a great while before Mankind encloſed their
Cities with Walls.
Hiſtorians tell us that
when Bacchus made his Progreſs thro' India,
he did not meet with one walled Town; and
Thucydides writes, that formerly there were
none in Greece itſelf: And in Burgundy, a
Province of Gaul, even in Cæſar's Time, there
were no Towns encompaſs'd with Walls, but
the People dwelt up and down in Villages.
The firſt City I find any Mention of is Biblus,
belonging to the Phænicians, which Saturn
girt in with a Wall drawn round all their
Houſes: Whatever Pomponius Mela may ſay
of Joppa built even before the Flood. Hero­
dotus informs us, that while the Æthiopians
had Poſſeſſion of Ægypt, they never puniſh'd
any Criminal with Death, but obliged him to
raiſe the Earth all round the Village he lived
in; and this, they ſay, was the firſt Beginning
of Cities in Ægypt. But we ſhall ſpeak of
them in another Place.
And though it muſt
be confeſs'd that all humane Inventions take
their Riſe from very ſmall Beginnings, yet I
intend here to begin with the Works of the
greateſt Perfection.
CHAP. II.
Of the Region, Place, and Conveniencies and Inconveniencies of a Situation
for a City, according to the Opinion of the Ancients, and that of the
Author.
All the Citizens are concerned in every
Thing of a publick Nature that makes
Part of the City: And if we are convinced of
what the Philoſophers teach, that the Occaſion
and Reaſon of Building Cities is that the In­
habitants may dwell in them in Peace, and,
as far as poſſibly may be, free from all Incon­
veniencies and Moleſtations, then certainly it

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