De Architectura & "De Aquaeductu" - The Most Significant Documentations Towards Architecture
Manuscripts and handwritten documents are one of the most authentic explanations to what life was like in the past, but it also offers us a glimpse into what qualities of society were considered to be of enough importance to have been documented and recorded. In an age when the passing communication of written knowledge from one to another was painstaking, these two historical manuscripts trace back to the development of literacy from a limited and narrowly focused small proportion of educated into becoming a device of communicating technological information across whole societies.
Both manuscripts, De Architectura (The Ten Books on Architecture) and De Aquaeductu allow historians an insightful way of interpreting ancient technologies that were used in Rome. De Architectura promotes expanding past just the field of architecture and encourages the reader to enter the realm of other academics, whereas De Aquaeductu functioned as a manuscript communicating a restructure and a stylistically dull depiction for the management of Rome's water supply system.
De Architectura is a writing found in The Ten Books on Architecture based on the writings by the Roman architect Marcus “Vitruvius” Pollio. De Architectura is still considered to be one of the most renowned and significant documentations towards architecture to this day. Some of the most well-known buildings and architectural designs have been significantly influenced or encouraged by Vitruvius’ book on architecture. In Vitruvius’ De Architectura, he advises that in order for one to become a talented and educated architect “the architect should be equipped with knowledge of many branches of study and varied kinds of learning, for it is by his judgement that all work done by the other arts is put to test. This knowledge is the child of practice and theory”.
Vitruvius divides his book up into ten chapters consisting of architecture and appreciates every realm of academics by acknowledging the physical, as well as the intellectual aspects of life that were important to know and understand in Roman culture during this period. Vitruvius’ influence through his writings to the architectural world was indisputable and he encouraged many designs to be built the way they were built through his detailed transcripts and thoughts on how each aspect can be used in architecture. His concepts on the education of an architect has even influenced the ways in which schools across the world are now incorporating more humanities into their programs today because it encourages an architect to become more educated and knowledgeable in areas outside of just architecture.
This differs from Frontinus’ De Aquaeductu, as Frontinus’ writings don’t attempt to encourage the reader to broaden their knowledge past the expected boundaries of their respective fields. Vitruvius however, does warn and communicates to his audience that the field of architecture is an extensive and long academic study and tries to advise individuals that “I think that men have no right to profess themselves architects hastily, without having climbed from boyhood the steps of these studies and thus, nursed by the knowledge of many arts and sciences, having reached the heights of the holy ground of architecture”.
Vitruvius is asserting that the success of architecture is founded on the deep understanding of different areas of sciences, arts, and nature. Vitruvius returns each chapter back to communicating the technological principles of architecture. It shows how important the knowledge of the principles and other areas of study can greatly affect the design and building process of architect. Vitruvius is attempting to communicate evidence that being educated and knowledgeable in all areas leads an architect to becoming well-rounded and more efficient as he wrote “all the gifts which fortune bestows she can easily take away; but education, when combined with intelligence, never fails, but abides steadily on to the very end of life”.
De Aquaeductu is an official manuscript given to the emperor Nerva on the state of the aqueducts of Rome that was written by Julius Sextus Frontinus. It is also known as De Aquis or De Aqueductibus Urbis Romae. It is the earliest official account of an investigation after Frontinus was appointed as “Water Commissioner” by emperor Nerva. This appointment gave inspiration to Frontinus to write De Aquaeductu. It is regarded as his greatest triumph and is how his name is still mentioned among scholars today.
De Aquaeductu seems to be inscribed in a very detached, unrefined, and dull style. This diverseness in content and nature of the De Aquaeductu involves a reexamining if Frontinus was directing his documents to a broader audience or just to himself and his successor. Frontinus did indeed want to restructure Rome’s water administration, which is obvious if the reader considers his unwillingness to be dependent upon his assistants and subordinates found in the preface of his work, when he penned “in the way of rendering assistance, yet they are, as it were, but the hands and tools of the directing head”.
There are only two direct references to an audience or reader in the De Aquaeductu, specifically found in Chapters 77 and 130. Frontinus writes in Chapter 77 that he will go on to explain how much water each aqueduct delivers to the different areas of Rome but comments that "those who are satisfied with knowing the totals, may skip the details".
It appears that Frontinus is addressing a different category of audience or readers that may not be fully educated on Rome’s water system or perhaps can’t comprehend such a complex system, whom are allowed to move on from that chapter into more “entertaining” areas of his writings. Likewise the warning of consequences for potential violators of the water system in the last chapter of the book ends with a rather ambiguous warning saying “I should call the transgressor of so beneficent a law worthy of the threatened punishment. But those who had been lulled into confidence by long-standing neglect had to be brought back by gentle means to right conduct.
A warning to those who disobey the law prohibiting the violation of the aqueduct system will be punished under the law and should not let themselves be fooled by the ongoing negligence of the previous water administration before. De Aquaeductu functioned as manuscripts communicating on Roman aqueducts and water systems which has been viewed for a long time as a reliable, practical and a stylistically tedious portrayal to his audience on the management of Rome's aqueduct system.
Roman scripts and handwritten documents about technology have allowed us a glimpse into the past history of technology that was developing in Rome. De Aquaeductu was certainly written as a two-book official report but seems to limit itself to its audience and readers whereas, De Architectura had profound influences on architecture and as a handbook for building projects. Through manuscripts and proper documentation, scholars like Frontinus and Vitruvius are continuing to communicate through their books their significance as sources for understanding the history of technology from the past into a modern era.
