Patterson, What Vitruvius Said
Vitruvius’s De architectura has long been subject to critical commentary on the grounds
that its language is irregular and even untranslatable, that its technical treatment of the
Orders is incomplete and inconsistent, and that its organization does not present its technical
material in the most coherent way. Yet, it has also been referred to as the origin of
the theoretical basis of architecture through its citation of Greek metaphysical concepts
as the grounding principles for an architectural science. This paper argues that Vitruvius’s
substantial contribution lay not in theoretical speculation but, through the invention of
technical discourse, in the introduction of critical values to ‘technical’ matters and, through
the submission of technical matters to the dynamic of language, in the constitution of
technology as a developmental process.
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