M. Vitruvii Pollonis de architectura libri decem ad Caesarem Augustum omnibus omnium editionibus longe emendatiores collatis veteribus exemplis

We venerate them. Thus, deterred by the difficulty of the subject, those who possessed the books of Vitruvius did not want to read them, distrusting their ability to achieve understanding. From this, architecture began to flow away and slide backward, so that to those who built, it appeared they were delighted by new ravings of nonsense, unless perhaps it is not foolishness, having put aside the most approved methods of the most praised works, to vainly and ambitiously invent inept and idle ornaments, not to say those abhorrent to the nature of things, and with these deceptions and prestige, to lead others away from what is right and to deceive them. For those who say that the form of buildings is varied and mutable according to one's whim are not to be heard. For it would be necessary to be tossed about and carried here and there, unless what we should strive for were previously known and understood by us. But, he says, this is a common vice of ignorance: to profess that you know nothing of what you do not know. Since these things were so, I could not help but think often and long about correcting Vitruvius, and to do so in Rome, where some vestiges of antiquity still remained. It is now the third year that I have strove during my spare time in summer to restore those things that appeared to me corrupted, disjointed, and mutilated. In a few months, I purged it of so many errors that I dare to affirm with every assertion that, except for one or two places that even Apollo himself could not heal, little is lacking for this author to reach the hands of men as corrected as possible. While correcting, many difficult and obscure things offered themselves, which I thought would be worth the effort if I were to illustrate them with a commentary. This has been done by me to the best of my ability. Whatever that labor had been, when I understood it was approved by the Supreme Pontiff, and when several leading men of this sacred college of scarlet-clad fathers urged me to publish it—as if it had been expected by almost all of Italy for two years with incredible desire—I hesitated to let it go into the public domain under whose name (if I could perhaps bring some utility to students by this thing) I might...