Centuries’ long search finally comes to fruition
Excavations carried out in January in Piazza Andrea Costa and the adjacent Piazza degli Avveduti have brought to light a basilica (an ancient Roman public building) with dimensions and layout precisely matching that of a building described by Roman architect Vetruvius over two millennia ago. It is the only work which Vitruvius constructed – at least it’s the only one for which he claimed credit in his work.
Writing between 27-23 BCE in order to curry favour with the Emperor Augustus, distinguished architects from run of the mill builders by saying that he, like elites, needed a house with reception rooms because his clients visited him rather than the other way around. Vitruvius expanded on the amount of learning which they had to undertake, including theoretical subjects like astronomy and philosophy and more technical subjects such as mathematics and geometry. He is, above all, crucially important for being the author of the only known textbook on architecture which survived from antiquity.
Its durability lies in his ability to explain the essence of great design, which should be based, he argued, on three qualities: firmitas (strength), utlitas (utility) and venustas (beauty). These precepts and his delineation of perfect proportions laid the basis of the tenets of European architecture. Charlemagne had the De Archectura copied in his scriptorium in Aachen, Brunelleschi found inspiration from this classical treatise in the formulation of linear perspective and Vitruvius was also fundamental to Palladio, who illustrated Daniele Barbaro’s translation of the De Architectura to great acclaim in 1556. It was on the basis of Vitruvius that Palladio based his style which transformed the world.
What is extraordinary about the discovery of the basilica is how precisely it matches its description in Vitruvius’ work. As laid out in the De Architectura, the basilica has a peristyle comprised of 8 columns on the long side and 4 columns on the short side. The columns conform exactly to Vitruvius’ account, being 5 Roman feet in diameter and 50 Roman feet in height. The proof that it is indeed Vitruvius’ basilica lies in the fact that archaeologists were able to project with great precision where the 5th corner column was placed in the Piazza degli Avveduti. The importance of the basilica can’t be overstated as it brings us face to face with the architect who lies at the basis of Western architecture.
