M. Vitruvius per Iocundum solito castigatior factus cum figuris et tabula ut iam legi et intelligi possit

explained according to the rule of grammatical art, forgive. For I have tried to write these things not as a high philosopher, nor a fluent rhetorician, nor a grammarian exercised in the highest reasons of art, but as an architect initiated in these letters. Regarding the power of the art and the reasonings which are contained in it, I promise (as I hope) in these volumes, I will undoubtedly prove myself with the greatest authority, not only to those building, but also to all wise men.

From which things architecture consists. Chapter II.

Architecture consists of ordination original: "ordinatio", which in Greek is called taxis ordering, and of disposition original: "dispositio", which the Greeks call diathesis arrangement, and eurythmy, and symmetry, and decor, and distribution original: "distributio", which in Greek is called oikonomia management/economy. Ordination is the moderate convenience of the limbs of the work separately, and the comparison of the proportion of the whole to symmetry. This is composed of quantity, which in Greek is called posotes quantity. Quantity is the taking of modules from the work itself, and the convenient effect of the whole work from the individual parts of the members. Disposition, however, is the apt placement of things, and the elegant effect of the work in compositions with quality. The species of disposition, which are called ideai ideas in Greek, are these: ichnography, orthography, scenography. Ichnography is the contained use of the compass and rule, from which the forms of descriptions of areas on the ground are taken.

A square floor plan (ichnographia) showing a peristyle courtyard surrounded by rooms, with a faint outline of a building facade visible behind the diagram.

Orthography, however, is the upright image of the front, and the figure of the future work moderately painted by reasons.