Architettura con il suo commento et figure Vetruvio in volgar lingua raportato

...so as not to be long in dividing the habitations of the entire universal circuit of the earth, which contains so many cities, castles, villages, seas, islands, rivers, lakes, and mountains. And these provinces are in the whole world like the parishes in a vast city, which have various domains and are separated one from another, etc. Through these things, Vitruvius teaches Augustus how he ought to gather and distribute men, and rule the inhabitants in different and varied parts of the earth throughout the world. These are called by some, regions. Hence, Vitruvius, with mature expedition, says he gives this science. A woodcut depicts a decorative initial letter M. Majesty of the Empire should have excellent authorities regarding public buildings: here one can consider how many worthy titles Vitruvius has given the Emperor in such a short epistle. Since the majesty of a man takes its name from that in which there is honor, greatness of character, greater reverence, and the power of ruling, etc. And you will also see what the jurisconsults have said about it. But Valerius Maximus, in book 2, chapter 5, says this: Majesty is, as it were, that private reverence for clear men, without the pride of a tribunal, without the ministry of messengers or powerful mandates, in its own greatness to be obtained by a grateful and joyful entry into the minds of men, which someone rightly called: Long and blessed is honor without honor. And therefore, this is the cause that the most excellent men have within themselves such dignity to make themselves honored, conceding offices sought by others through grace, while standing in greater blessedness and majesty. Vitruvius also speaks of this in his own places. Excellent authorities. Excellent is called that which is chosen from the whole flock or set apart as the most excellent. But the Author is he who solely by his own talent and knowledge original: "scie"—this word among the Latins comes from auctor and auctoras author/authority—because to authorize is to choose men for the militia, since the Emperor chooses certain soldiers or appoints them to the militia. And know that an author is called such as much for one who does good as for one who does evil. I have weighed not wanting to omit, etc. Vitruvius, having understood that nature is the teacher of almost all artificial things except for this Architecture, has hastened to give this Book of Architecture to the Emperor. For he has considered that many buildings were being made without true measure, so that such a divine Emperor might have excellent and eminent authority over public buildings, and that his edifices might not appear to be fabricated without reason and ornament. This is unlike the things that some powerful men have common architects work on in the matters of private citizens or the plebeians, and also that it should not be said later that he wishes the plebeians to be fed by mechanics and low conditions, and out of avarice intends to acquire love and honor. And similarly, because in those practices it seems that great works are generated, and by these, such architects take fame; and then, working on some things of excellent and eminent authority for some great princes, or particular nobles, under that vulgar fame, not only the patrons of the works, but also they themselves, by force of their coarse and false profession—the works which they have caused to be built without the order that Vitruvius has instituted, as we will say in full below—do so because of the evil working, so that the faults and not the praises remain eternally, if they are not amended or razed to the ground and well reformed. All that which first, with your father, made me known. Vitruvius touches here with brevity upon the friendship that there was first with Gaius Caesar the dictator, who was called Julius, from whom all the Emperors have succeeded, as if by religion, to the Caesarean name, as we have said. And thus after the death, demonstrated by the celestial signs, as Plutarch has described his life and prodigious death; also Valerius Maximus in the first, likewise in the sixth book; and also Pliny in the 25th chapters of the seventh book; and Horace in the Ode; and Virgil at the end of the first book of the Georgics; and many others; and excellently, Suetonius Tranquillus. This divine Emperor, not only being most learned, delighted in the universalities of the sciences, but was also a student of this virtue and a friend of Vitruvius and most liberal to all other virtuous and clear minds. And that this is true, see his great book which is titled the Commentaries, of which he wrote, keeping an account of his deeds. Suetonius writes, and also Plutarch and Appian, that Caesar, fighting at the bridge of Alexandria, was forced by the impetus of the enemies to jump into a small boat. But many ships of the Egyptians coming upon him, he threw himself into the sea and, swimming, he stayed with his left hand raised above the water, holding certain little books so that they would not get wet, and with the bite of his teeth he pulled his own clothes which had been taken from the enemies, so that they would not boast of the spoils of Caesar, the magnanimous Emperor.

But how, by the counsel of the celestial Gods, he was dedicated to the seats of immortality—that is, he did it after his death—not a God, as we also have from Suetonius in the life of Flavius Vespasian. Because among other prodigies, when the burial of Caesar was suddenly opened and a Comet appeared in the sky, the one prodigy to Julia was a slander of the progeny of Augustus, from the first coming of the infirmity.

But as, by the counsel of the celestial Gods, he dedicated himself to the seats of immortality and the paternal Empire was transmuted into your power, my same study remaining in your memory, I transfer the favor to you.

They were going to pertain: the other to the King of the Parthians, who as Puto says, capillata hairy—that is, dark—and so elegantly Filippo Beroaldo explains and declares. Because after the death of Caesar, he was allocated in the number of the Gods, whence each of the Caesars, by means of the soul, could elegantly be made a God, since after death he goes to divinity, from which suddenly he must be consecrated in the number of the Gods. Honor is never given to the Prince before his life has reached its end.