GREEK HORIZONTAL CURVES IN MAISON CARREE AT NIMES. 577 



Tlie measurement of the liorizontal curves was the greatest achieve- 

 ment of Penrose, but their existence was not his discovery, as many 

 of the facts were which I liave just enumerated. In all cases it is the 

 measurements of Penrose which have established the facts as not being 

 accidental and as being in masonry construction; but the observation 

 which discovered the curves was made in 1837 by Mr. John Penne- 

 thorne, and in the same year and about the same time the curves of the 

 Parthenon w^ere noticed by two German arcliitects, Hofer and Schau- 

 bert. These gentlemen were the first to publish the discovery in 1838. 

 This i^ublication appeared in a Viennese architectural journal, the 

 AVeiner Bauzeitung, 



What is the peculiar constitution of the modern eye which had over- 

 looked the existence of these curves til! 1837? What is the pecuhar 

 constitution of the modern reader who had anxiously been conning his 

 A^itruvius since 1500 without considering the passage in which this 

 Eomau author directs the construction of these curves? Why is it that 

 when AAUkins made his excellent translation of A'itruvius in 1812 he 

 added a footnote to the passage on the curves to say that "this great 

 refinement suggested by physical knowledge does not appear to have 

 entered into the execution of the works of the ancients" ? Why is it 

 that AA' ilkins did not do in 1812 what Pennethorne did in 1837 — that is, 

 test the author by the buildings? 



Here at least are the facts. It is forty-four years only that the world 

 of science has had the proper ■measurements of the Greek temples. 

 . Stuart and lievett had measured the whole Parthenon as far back as 

 1756. Lord Elgin and his workmen had had their scafiblds on it in the 

 early nineteenth century, and yet the curves had not been seen. It was 

 not even known until 1810 that the Greek columns had an entasis. 

 This was the discovery of Cokerell, but he did not notice that all lines 

 of the entire building exhibited a similar refinement. Donaldson dis- 

 covered in 1829 the lean of the columns, but it was left for Penrose to 

 discover the inward lean of the door jambs and forward lean of the 

 antiC and the inclined faces of the entablature. 



Let us, then, emphasize for a moment the discovery of Pennethorne as 

 leading to all the later ones, and crowning all the earlier ones, and let 

 us relate the way in which he made it. Mr. John Pennethorne, who was 

 then a young architect, had first visited Athens in 1832, and he did not 

 then make this discovery. In 1833 he made a trip to Egyijt and was 

 astounded to find in the Theban tem])le of Medinet Habou a series of 

 convex curves m the architraves of the second court. On his return 

 from Egypt he visited Athens a second time in 1835, again without 

 observing the existence of the curves in Athens. It appears that after 

 his second return to England the passage in A^itruvius attracted his 

 attention. He says that he saw no reason to doubt the implications of 

 the passage in Vitruvius, and thus was lead to make a third visit to 

 Athens and reexamine the Parthenon. Thus was the discovery made. 

 SM 94 37 



