Alberti, Leone Battista, Architecture, 1755

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1they broke one that was only half wrought.
Beſides that by this means they had the Ad­
vantage
of doing their Work at different Times,
according
to the different Seaſons which are re­
quiſite
for building the Wall, and for cloathing

and
poliſhing it.
There are two Sorts of falſe
Apertures
: One is that where the Columns or
Pilaſters
are ſo joined to the Wall, that one Part
of
them is hid within it, and only Part of them
appears
; the other is that wherein the whole
Columns
ſtand out of the Wall, ſomewhat
imitating
a Portico.
The former therefore we
may
call the low Relieve, and the latter the
whole
Relieve.
In the low Relieve we may uſe
either
half Columns or Pilaſters.
The half
Columns
muſt never ſtand more nor leſs out of
the
Wall than one half of their Diameter.
Pi­
laſter
, never more than one fourth Part of its
Breadth
, nor leſs than a ſixth.
In the whole
Relieve
the Columns muſt never ſtand out
from
the Naked of the Wall more than with
their
whole Baſe and one fourth Part of the
Breadth
of their Baſe; and never leſs than with
their
whole Baſe and Shaſt ſtanding out clear
from
the Wall.
But thoſe which ſtand out
from
the Wall with their whole Baſe and one
fourth
Part more muſt have their Pilaſters of
the
low Relieve, fixed againſt the Wall to an­
ſwer
to them.
In the whole Relieve the En­
tablature
muſt not run all along the Wall but
be
broke and project over the Head of each
Column
, as you may ſee in Plate 19. No.
4.
But
in the half Relieve you may do as you
think
fit, either carrying on your Entablature
entire
all the Length of the Wall, or breaking
it
over each Pilaſter with a Sweep, after the
Manner
of the whole Relieve.
We have now
treated
of thoſe Ornaments wherein all Build­
ings
agree: But of thoſe wherein they differ,
we
ſhall ſpeak in the following Book, this be­
ing
already long enough.
But as in this we
undertook
to treat of every Thing relating to
Ornaments
in general, we ſhall not paſs by any
Thing
that may be ſerviceable under this Head.
*
CHAP. XIII.
The principal Ornament in all Archi­
tecture
certainly lies in Columns; for
many
of them ſet together embelliſh Porticoes,
Walls
and all Manner of Apertures, and even
a
ſingle one is handſome, and adorns the Meet­
ing
of ſeveral Streets, a Theatre, an open
Square
, ſerves for ſetting up Trophies, and pre­
ſerving
the Memory of great Events, and is ſo
Beautiful
and Noble that it is almoſt incredible
what
Expence the Ancients uſed to beſtow in
ſingle
Pillars, which they looked upon as a very
ſtately
Ornament: For oſtentimes, not being
content
with making them of Parian, Nu­
midian
or other fine Marbles, they would alſo
have
them carved with Figures and Hiſtories
by
the moſt excellent Sculptors; and of ſuch
Columns
as theſe we are told there were above
an
Hundred and Twenty in the Temple of
Diana at Epheſus. Others made their Capi­
tals
and Baſes of gilt Braſs, as we may ſee in
the
double Portico at Rome, which was built
in
the Conſulſhip of that Octavius who tri­
umphed
over Perſeus. Some made their whole
Columns
of Braſs, and others plated them all
over
with Silver; but we ſhall not dwell upon
ſuch
Things as thoſe.
Columns muſt be ex­
actly
round and perfectly ſmooth.
We read
that
one Theodorus and one Tholus, Architects
of
Lemnos, contrived certain Wheels in their
Workhouſes
, wherein they hung their Columns
with
ſo nice a Poiſe, that they could be turned
about
by a little Boy, and ſo poliſhed ſmooth.
But this is a Greek Story. We ſhall proceed
to
ſomething more material.
In all Columns
we
may conſider two long Lines in the Shaft;
one
we may call the Axis of the Shaft, and the
other
the Out-lines; the ſhort Lines that we
are
to conſider are the ſeveral Diameters of
thoſe
Circles which in different Places gird the
Column
about; and of thoſe Circles, the prin­
cipal
are the two Superficies; one at the Top
and
the other at the Bottom of the Shaft.
The
Axis
of the Shaft is a Line drawn through the
very
Center of the Column from the Center of
the
Circle which forms the flat Superficies at
the
Top, to the Center of the Circle which is
the
flat Superficies at the Bottom, and this
Line
may be alſo called the Perpendicular in
the
Middle of the Column.
In this Line meet
the
Centers of all the Circles.
But the out Line
is
one drawn from the Sweep of the Fillet at
the
Top along the Surface of the Column to

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