Vitruvio tra contraddizioni e fraintendimenti sugli ordini architettonici

This article examines several inconsistencies between Vitruvius’ account of the development of the architectural orders and the evidence of their use in ancient architecture. The historical context of De architectura remains the principal starting point for approaching it, alongside the buildings on which Vitruvius drew to formulate his canon. Although his treatise dates from the early Augustan period, as far as the architectural orders are concerned Vitruvius adopted in toto architectural precepts established in the late Classical and Hellenistic ages prevail, which only occasionally did he metabolise and revise. The lack of correspondence between certain Vitruvian ‘rules,’ such as omitting dentils from pediments, and the archaeological remains reveals his failure to bring the De architectura up to date, at least as far as the syntax of the orders went. The complete absence of any allusion to the “Theatermotiv”, which became widespread from the end of the 2nd century B.C. and into the next, is proof of this. This contribution therefore reflects on the various layers of Vitruvius’ thought as well as the philological and antiquarian character of his work, which is already evident in his theory of the historical origins of the architectural orders.