‹‹‹ Vitr. 7.0.17 | Table of Contents | Vitr. 7.1.1 ›››
18It therefore appears that our country can boast of as great architects as Greece herself, many of them even within our own times, but since few have left behind them any treatises, I thought it improper to omit any thing, and to treat of the different branches in different books. In the sixth book I have given rules for building private houses; in this, the seventh, I shall describe their finishing, and how that is to be rendered both beautiful and durable.
18Since it appears, then, that our architects in the old days, and a good many even in our own times, have been as great as those of the Greeks, and nevertheless only a few of them have published treatises, I resolved not to be silent, but to treat the different topics methodically in different books. Hence, since I have given an account of private houses in the sixth book, in this, which is the seventh in order, I shall treat of polished finishings and the methods of giving them both beauty and durability.