Column Orders Draft
Architecture & Built Form
The classical orders of architecture (Doric, Ionic, Corinthian, Composite) described and illustrated throughout the HP.
The HP contains detailed descriptions of column orders, including measurements, proportions, and ornamental details that rival contemporary architectural treatises. Poliphilo's accounts of columns and their capitals reflect the Vitruvian tradition as filtered through fifteenth-century Italian humanism. The woodcuts depict columns with remarkable architectural precision. Jarzombek (1990) argues that the HP's architectural descriptions are not merely decorative but structurally constitutive of the narrative's meaning.
Why It Matters for the Hypnerotomachia
The HP contains detailed descriptions of Doric, Ionic, Corinthian, and Composite column orders, including measurements and proportions that rival contemporary architectural treatises. The woodcuts depict columns with remarkable precision.
Why It Matters in Scholarship
Jarzombek (1990) argues that the HP's architectural descriptions are structurally constitutive of the narrative's meaning, not merely decorative. Stewering (2000) demonstrates that the column descriptions reflect genuine knowledge of the Vitruvian tradition.
Key Passages / Evidence
- ... c6r Referring to the entrance of the building22 Agate, or, onyx Achates overo onyce p.50 c6r A rock made of chalcedony and quartz in a variety of colours Alabaster Alabastrite p.47; 54... [O'Neill (Durham thesis)]
- ... of the chancel in early churches, lined with shelves for books, vestments etc2 Aquaduct Aqueducti p.22 a7v An artificial channel carrying water, usually in the form of a bridge across a... [O'Neill (Durham thesis)]
- <!-- Page 296 --> THE SILK GARDEN English vernacular Original Page number from the 1999 translation Original passages Definition Aerostyle... [O'Neill (Durham thesis)]
Source Documents
Avesani et al. (Colonna studies); HP primary text; Lefaivre 1997 (Alberti attribution); O'Neill (Durham thesis); Semler 2006 (Dallington)
Page references: p. 291, p. 292, p. 288, p. 289, p. 296, p. 297, p. 293, p. 294, p. 295, p. 302, p. 303, p. 290, p. 300, p. 308, p. 309
Sources: HP passim; Jarzombek 1990; Stewering 2000
Review Status / Provenance
Draft
- Source method: CORPUS_EXTRACTION
- Confidence: MEDIUM
- Notes: Enriched from corpus reading packets on 2026-03-19. 20 passages retrieved from 5 documents.