Page:Architectural Review and American Builders' Journal, Volume 1, 1869.djvu/272

 228 Sloan's Architectural Review and Builders' Journal. [October, But no such pains-taking process occurred to any architect; and the pro- fession settled comfortably into the belief, that while the result was often enravishing, still the process had been entirely one of chance. Finally — as will occasionally happen, with good fortune, to man — sheer acci- dent brought to light, what complacent indolence had failed to find. As before hinted, among the many commentators on the "Architecture" of Vitruvius, was Cassar Caesarianus, who was one of the architects of the Cathedral of Milan, circa, 1491, coeval with the discovery of America [1492.] Gwilt says* that, " as late as the year " 1810, it was in contemplation to finish " some parts of that Cathedral according " to drawings left by him ;" and that, " among the curious plates inserted in " this [Cesare Cesariano's] translation, " are, on folio 14, and on the recto and " reverse of folio 15, [edition of 1521,] a " plan and two sections of the Cathedral "of Milan." Previous to the publica- tion of Gwilt's Vitruvius, John Sidney Hawkins, F A. S., issued, in 1813, " A History of the Origin and Establish- ment of Gothic Architecture, Ac.""]" Through Mr. John Thomas Smith — for whose intended architectural work he was at the time engaged to write — Mr. Hawkins had casually become acquaint- ed with an anonymous print, which finally led to his seeking and securing possession of Csesariano's translation of and Commentary on Vitruvius. Gwilt does not seem to have found any thing remarkable in the "plan and two sections" of Milan Cathedral, although he was not treating of Gothic architecture in Vitruvius, and might consider any amplification irrelevant ; but to Hawkins they seem to have brought a revelation. He made them a published in 1826. 1 1 vol. Svo. pp. viii., 2-51 and 20, with 11 copperplates. London: Printed by S. Gosnell, Little Queen street, Lin- coln's Inn Fields. Sold by J. Taylor, at the Architectural Library, No. 59 High Holborn. 1813. subject of special study ; and quite rea- sonably claims to have deduced from them the true proportions of Gothic churches and minsters, as copied from those of the Church of the Holy Sepul- chre at Jerusalem. Of these proportions we shall speak somewhat later, merely observing that we know there must have been a set of well-ascertained and— to proficient architects in the Pointed Style — familiar rules ; as, in the year A. D. 1321, while the erection of the Duomo of Sienna was proceeding, Laurentius Magri Ma- tani and Nicola Nuti, of Sienna, and Cinus Francisci, Jone Johannis, and Vannes Cionis, of Florence, were ap- pointed to inspect the works going on ; and by a Latin instrument, dated Febru- ary 17th, 1321, which Delia Valle has printed at length in his Lettere Senesi, Vol. II., p. 60, from the archives of that Cathedral, these persons declare, as their opinion, after stating several other ob- jections, "th#t the new work ought not "to proceed any further, becauss, if " completed as it had been begun, it " would not have that measure in length, "breadth and height, which the rules "for a church require. And they fur- "ther add, that the old structure, to "which, as it seems, the new adjoined, " was so justly proportioned, and its " members so well agreed with each other "in breadth, length and height, that if "any part in addition were made to it, " under pretence of reducing it to the " right measure of a church, the whole "would be destroyed." " This passage, it is true, does not speak precisely of the proportion of the members, of which the style of archi- tecture consisted. But is it possible to suppose, that the architects should, in one instance, have been such nice and careful observers of rule and proportion ; and, when those guides had produced excellence, have neglected them in an- other? The contrary is the fact; and the [Gothic] proportions * * * will be shown * * * to be much nearer
 * Pages xxix. and xxx. of his edition of Vitruvius,