The architecture of humanism; a study in the history of taste

THE

ACADEMIC TRADITION

195

founded his great work upon it, and

its influence

reachedEngland by

1563

inthe

briefessayof

John

Shute.

Through the

pagesofSerlio, Vitruvius

sub-

jugated France, till then abandoned

to the trifling

classicism of Franqois i.

;

through those

of Pal-

ladio hebecame supreme in England.

'Nature,O

Emperor,'wrotetheAugustancritic,

'

hasdeniedme

a

fullstature

:

myvisageislined

withage: sickness

has

impaired

my

constitution.... Yet,

though

deprived ofthese nativegifts, Itrust

togain some

praisethrough theprecepts

I

shall

deliver. Ihave

notsoughttoheapupwealththrough myart..

..

Ihaveacquiredbutlittlereputation. Yet

Istillhope

bythisworktobecomeknownto

posterity.' Never

was a hope more abundantly fulfilled. Upon

this

obsequious, short, and unprospering architect

the

wholegloryof antiquitywasdestined

tobeconcen-

trated. Europe, forthreehundred years,bowed to

himastoagod.

The treatise

which hassoprofoundly

altered the

visibleworld wasindeed exactlydesignedto fitthe

temperof the Renaissance. It is less a theory of

architecture than

an encyclopaedia of

knowledge,

general and particular, in easy combination.

'

On

theOriginofAllThingsAccordingtothePhilosophers'

is
thetitleofonechapter: the

next

is

named

'

Of

Bricks.' The influence of older Greek treatises is

everywhere apparent, particularly in

the

subtle