Four volumes. folio. [ii] 12p, lxxii, 320p; [ii] 1-348p, 347-8 repeated, 351-375p; [iv] 266p, xl, 40p; [ii], 52p, 140 plates. Illustrated with copper-engraved plates. Bound in original paper-covered boards with paper spine labels.

Probably written between 27 and 23 BC, DE ARCHITECTURA is the only contemporary source on classical architecture to have survived. Divided into ten sections or "books", it covers almost every aspect of Roman architecture. The ten books are: Town planning, architecture in general, and the qualifications required of an architect; Building materials ;Temples and the orders of architecture, continuation of book 3; Civil buildings ; Domestic buildings ; Pavements and decorative plasterwork ; Water supplies ; Sciences influencing architecture - geometry, mensuration, astronomy etc.; Use and construction of machines.Roman architects were significantly different from their modern counterparts, acting as engineers, architects, artists, and craftsmen combined. Vitruvius was very much of this type, a fact reflected in De architectura. He covers a wide variety of subjects which he saw as touching on architecture. This included many aspects which would not seem obvious to modern eyes, ranging from mathematics to astronomy, to meteorology and medicine. In the Roman conception, architecture needed to take into account everything touching on the physical and intellectual life of man and his surroundings.Avery p. 1071.