Research Catalog

Title

Author and audience in Vitruvius' De architectura / Marden Fitzpatrick Nichols, Georgetown University.

Author

Nichols, Marden Fitzpatrick, 1981-

Publication

Cambridge, United Kingdom : Cambridge University Press, 2017.

Items in the Library & Off-site

Details

Description

xvii, 238 pages, 8 unnumbered pages of plates : illustrations; 24 cm

Summary

"Vitruvius' De architectura is the only extant classical text on architecture, and its impact on Renaissance masters including Leonardo da Vinci is well-known. But what was the text's purpose in its own time (ca. 20s BCE)? In this book, Marden Fitzpatrick Nichols reveals how Vitruvius pitched the Greek discipline of architecture to his Roman readers, most of whom were undoubtedly laymen. The inaccuracy of Vitruvius' architectural rules, when compared with surviving ancient buildings, has knocked Vitruvius off his pedestal. Nichols argues that the author never intended to provide an accurate view of contemporary buildings. Instead, Vitruvius crafted his authorial persona and remarks on architecture to appeal to elites (and would-be elites) eager to secure their positions within an expanding empire. In this major new analysis of De architectura from archaeological and literary perspectives, Vitruvius emerges as a knowing critic of a social landscape in which the house made the man" --

Series Statement

Greek culture in the Roman world

Uniform Title

Greek culture in the Roman world.

Subject

• Vitruvius Pollio. > Criticism, Textual
• De architectura (Vitruvius Pollio)
• Authors and readers > Rome
• Architecture and society > Rome
• Architecture and society
• Authors and readers
• Rome (Empire)

Genre/Form

Criticism, interpretation, etc.

Note

• Revision of the author's thesis (University of Cambridge, 2009) under the title: Vitruvius and the rhetoric of display: wall painting, domestic architecture and Roman self-fashioning.

Bibliography (note)

• Includes bibliographical references (pages 195-223) and indexes.

Contents

Greek knowledge and the Roman world -- The self-fashioning of scribes -- House and man -- Art display and strategies of persuasion -- The vermilion walls of Faberius scriba.

Call Number

JFE 17-11644

ISBN

• 9781107003125
• 1107003121

LCCN

2017009165

OCLC

984898699

Author

Nichols, Marden Fitzpatrick, 1981- author.

Title

Author and audience in Vitruvius' De architectura / Marden Fitzpatrick Nichols, Georgetown University.

Publisher

Cambridge, United Kingdom : Cambridge University Press, 2017.

Type of Content

text

still image

Type of Medium

unmediated

Type of Carrier

volume

Series

Greek culture in the Roman world

Greek culture in the Roman world.

Bibliography

Includes bibliographical references (pages 195-223) and indexes.

Research Call Number

JFE 17-11644