On GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE. 9 



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

 cumfcribed, and forced into a regular channel. 



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

 vice laft mentioned ; the building being executed in imitation 

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

 determinate and charadleriftic form. Such was the method fol- 

 lowed by the architedls of ancient Greece, who conflrucfled tem- 

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

 compofed of fquare beams, fupported upon round pofts or ftems 

 of trees ; and who derived the numerous ornaments of that 

 beautiful ftyle, from circumftances which would naturally take 

 place in fuch a ftrudure *. 



Vol. IV. b . A 



* That they really did imitate a building. of wood, is ftated, in the cleareft man- 

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

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

 prefentation, fimagoj, and of the timber fabric as a reality, Ciri veritate), as will 

 appear by the following quotation. 



*' Itaquk, in Graecis operibus, nemo fub mutulo denticulos conftituit, non enim 

 poflunt fubtus cantherios afleres efTe. Quod ergo fupra cantherios et templa in ve.- 

 ritate debet effe collocatum, id in imagiiiibus, fi infra conflitutum fuerir, mendofam 

 habebit operis rationem. Etiamque antiqui non probaverunt neque inftituerunt in 

 faftigiis mutulos, aut denticulos fieri, fed puras coronas; ideo quod nee cancherii nee 

 afleres contra faftigiorum frontes diftribuuntur, nee poflunt prominere, fed ad ftillicidia 

 proclinati collocantur. 



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

 pofle certam rationem habere. Omnia, enim, certa proprietate, et a veris natuiae 

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

 explicationes, in difputationibus, rationem poflTunt habere veritatis." 



In one refpeft, this paflage is extremely obfcure, but, in another view, it is fuffi- 

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

 ty, or rather impofllbility, 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 pradlfed. But, whilft commentators differ as to the 

 precife meaning of the words cantherius, ajfer, and templum, as ufed in this paflage, 

 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 architecture, and 



appropriated 



