On GOTHIC ARC Hli: ECrU RE. 9 



artift has fucceeded beft, where his imagination has been cir- 

 cumfcribed, and forced, into a regular channel. 



For this purpofe, recourfe has freqiiently been had to the de- 

 vice laft mentioned ; the building being executed in imitation 

 of a flrudlure, compofed of materials, which naturally pofTefs a 

 determinate and charadleriftic form. Such was the method fol- 

 lowed by the architecfls of ancient Greece, who conftrucfted tem- 

 ples, and other public edifices, in imitation of a ruftic fabric, 

 compofed of fquai^e beams, fupported upon round pofts or fterns 

 of trees ; and who derived the numerous ornaments of that 

 beautiful flyle, from circumllances which would naturally take 

 place in fuch a ftrudure *. 



Vol. IV. h , A 



* That they really did imitate a building of wood, is flated, in t!ie cleareft man- 

 ner, in the work of Vitruvius, particularly in his chapter, " De Ornamentis Co- 

 lumnarum." He there fpeaks of architeftural work, in ftone or marble, as a re- 

 prefentation, (itnago), and of the timber fabric as a reality, (in veritatej, as will 

 appear by the following quotation. 



" Itaque, in Graecis operibus, nemo fub mutulo denticulos conftituit, non enim 

 pofl'unt fubtiis cantherios afleres effe. Quod ergo fupra cantherios et templa in iie.- 

 ritate debet effe coUocatum, id in imaginibus, fi infra conditutura fuerit, mendofam 

 habebit operis rationem. Etiamque antiqui non probaverunt neque inftituerunt in 

 fafligiis mutulos, aut denticulos fieri, fed puras coronas; ideo quod nee cantherii nee 

 afferes contra faftigiorum frontes diflribuuntur, nee poffunt prominere, fed ad ilillicidia 

 proclinati collocantur. 



" Ita quod non poteft in veritate fieri, id non putaverunt in imaginibus factum, 

 poffe certam rationem habere. Omnia, enim, certa proprietate, et a veris naturae 

 deduftis moribus, traduxerunt in operum perfeftiones. Et ea probaverunt, quorum 

 explicationes, in difputationibus, rationem poffunt habere veritatis." 



In one refpeft, this paffage is extremely obfcure, but, in another view, it is fufR- 

 ciently clear to anfwer the prefent purpofe. The obfcurity arifes from the ditBcul- 

 ty, or rather impoffibility, of difcovering the meaning of feveral of the technical 

 terms employed, thefe being very rarely ufed by authors, and relating to a mode of 

 building different from any now praftifed. But, whilft commentators differ as to the 

 precife meaning of the words cantherius, ajffer, and templmn, as ufed in this paffage, 

 they all agree in confidering them as denoting parts of the timber frame of a roof. 

 At the fame time, mutulus and denticulus are well known terms of architeflure, and 



appropriated 



