Research Catalog

Author and audience in Vitruvius' De architectura

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.

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StatusFormatAccessCall NumberItem Location
Book/TextUse in library JFE 17-11644Schwarzman Building - Main Reading Room 315

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.
Subjects
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
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