INTRODUCTION 
The House of the Vestals has presented, since its excavation, many 
problems of great interest to the student of Roman topography and Roman 
architecture. It was clearly seen that the magnificent building was not 
the work of one period alone, but that it had been enlarged and beautified 
in succeeding epochs. The later builders, however, did their work in such 
a way as to fit it as far as possible into that of their. predecessors, and 
thus produced the impression of a uniform structure. Consequently it is 
often very difficult to distinguish the different periods. 
Valuable monographs on the Atrium Vestz have been published by 
Lanciani (1884), Jordan (1886), and Auer (1888); but since their time 
new researches in the field of Roman architecture and methods of con- 
struction have thrown additional light upon several questions, while our 
material for the study of the building has been essentially increased by the 
most recent excavations (1900-1901). For these reasons a new invyestiga- 
tion of the Atrium Veste had become a necessity. 
In the following pages Professor Van Deman undertakes this task with 
great energy and with an accurate knowledge of the situation. ‘The House 
of the Vestals is taken up in her monograph not as an isolated problem, 
but in connection with a thorough and extensive study of Roman brick- 
work. As a result of these studies the author has been able to reconstruct 
the history of the Atrium Vestz in the first and second centuries A. D. 
For the history of the republican building also, the remains of which are 
deeply buried under the imperial Atrium and are sketched for the first time 
in Professor Van Deman’s work, valuable suggestions are given. Although 
some of the author’s statements may be subjected to criticism and even 
corrected by later researches, her work marks a decided advance in the 
investigation of one of the most interesting monuments of the Roman 
Forum, and is besides a valuable contribution to the history of the architec- 
ture of the Romans and to our knowledge of their methods of construction. 
Rome, Fuly, 1909. CH. HULSEN. 
IX 
