
Transcriber’s Note: It would be wise to approach this book with a reference guide to Latin scribal abbreviations to hand. The Unicode characters used to render these are not supported by all fonts and may not display correctly. Additionally, there are a number of symbols on pages, 263-8,, 275-6 that have no Unicode equivalent, in particular those represented here by ◌ and ⊙ (circles of varying numbers of dots); these pages are included as images.
Vitruvii codices antiqui habentur hi
In supplementum editionis prioris (a. 1867) sequitur eorum quae vel addenda vel corrigenda tunc fuerant adnotatio (cf. praef. p. VII not.).
In codd. HG rubricae capitulorum in textu primi libri litt. unc. scribuntur hae
Quae omittuntur in codice Harleiano (eisque qui hunc sequuntur), servata autem leguntur in G, haec sunt verba - libri I
Contra quae omittuntur in Gudiano, habentur in H sqq., haec - libri I
Duplices lectiones codicis Gudiani - libri I
Appendicula codicum Vitruvii Harleiani Leidensis (Escorialensis) Scletstatensis.
Propter Vitruvii IX praef. 9 sqq. (cf. Zeitschr. f. D. Alt. N. F. VI, 333) et Appendiculae Harl. c. 1 (Uncia caerae …) ex compilatione chronologica et astronomica saeculi noni incipientis (quae servatur in codice Vaticano Regin. 309 s. X: cf. Bethmann in Pertz Archiv XII, 273) addo capita duo (l. V c. 1-2) iam a. 1849 edita in Catalogo (bibl. Montispess.) gallico (I p. 421 sq.).
De probatione auri et argenti.
A first‑century Roman treatise on building, this ten‑book manual offers a systematic look at everything from timber, stone and brick to the proportions of temples, houses and public works. It records the practical knowledge of engineers and architects of the imperial era, explaining how materials were sourced, how structures were planned, and why certain decorative details mattered. Readers gain a clear sense of the technical language and the aesthetic ideals that shaped the ancient built environment.
The edition presents the original Latin text in two parallel forms: a faithful reproduction of the printed page, complete with marginal notes, line numbers and the occasional scribal abbreviation, followed by a clean version for smoother listening. A detailed transcription key helps decode the many special symbols and erased passages, while scanned images preserve pages whose characters cannot be rendered in Unicode. Together, these features make an otherwise scholarly manuscript approachable for modern audiobook listeners.
Language
la
Duration
~20 hours (1208K characters)
Publisher of text edition
Project Gutenberg
Credits
Produced by Ted Garvin, abi278, Stephen Rowland and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net
Release date
2016-04-20
Rights
Public domain in the USA.

Best known for the ten-book treatise De architectura, this Roman writer and engineer shaped how later ages understood architecture, building, and design. Though little about his life is certain, his ideas traveled far beyond ancient Rome and helped inspire Renaissance thinkers centuries later.
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