In the mid-20s B.C. an aged Roman architect named Marcus Vitruvius Pollio wrote down everything he knew about architecture on ten scrolls. He presented the work to the emperor Augustus, hoping to change what he perceived as a rampant lack of professionalism and educational rigor in the practice of architecture. Vitruvius sought to revive the architectural rules and ideals of the antiqui, or ancients, the Hellenistic builders of monumental Ionic temples on the southwestern coast of present-day Turkey. By synthesizing the Greek treatises they wrote between 350 and 100 B.C. and adding lessons from personal experience, Vitruvius created the most comprehensive architectural text written in antiquity and the only such text to survive. Today it is the most complete and authentic source we have for cataloguing the elements, proportioning systems, and ideas underlying the classical architectural systems.

I hope that this edition of five of Vitruvius's original ten books will provide practitioners with renewed access to the ancient author. Although materials and methods of construction have changed, the core concerns of the profession remain unaltered. Vitruvius’s recommendations are still germane to solving problems of strength, function, and beauty in modern circumstances.

Although Vitruvius cites ten illustrations he made to elucidate his manuscript, his drawings were lost in antiquity. In the fifty editions of Vitruvius published since 1500 the legacy of visual interpretation of what Vitruvius wrote has been rich and provocative. Vitruvius has often been used as a vehicle to promote new visions of classicism. This new edition is intended for practical application. I have provided illustrations to convey my conception of what Vitruvius can teach us and have produced new drawings to explain how his practical and theoretical systems function.