or the fuller's, or any other
of the easier kinds--but only architecture, and this is because the
professionals do not possess the genuine art but term themselves
architects falsely. For these reasons I have thought proper to compose
most carefully a complete treatise on architecture and its principles,
believing that it will be no unacceptable gift to all the world. In the
fifth book I have said what I had to say about the convenient
arrangement of public works; in this I shall set forth the theoretical
principles and the symmetrical proportions of private houses.

CHAPTER I

ON CLIMATE AS DETERMINING THE STYLE OF THE HOUSE

1. If our designs for private houses are to be correct, we must at the
outset take note of the countries and climates in which they are built.
One style of house seems appropriate to build in Egypt, another in
Spain, a different kind in Pontus, one still different in Rome, and so
on with lands and countries of other characteristics. This is because
one part of the earth is directly under the sun's course, another is far
away from it, while another lies midway between these two. Hence, as the
position of the heaven with regard to a given tract on the earth leads
naturally to different characteristics, owing to the inclination of the
circle of the zodiac and the course of the sun, it is obvious that
designs for houses ought similarly to conform to the nature of the
country and to diversities of climate.

2. In the north, houses should be entirely roofed over and sheltered as
much as possible, not in the open, though having a warm exposure. But on
the other hand, where the force of the sun is great in the southern
countries that suffer from heat, houses must be built more in the open
and with a northern or north-eastern exposure. Thus we may amend by art
what nature, if left to herself, would mar. In other situations, also,
we must make modifications to correspond to the position of the heaven
and its effects on climate.

3. These effects are noticeable and discernible not only in things in
nature, but they also are observable in the limbs and bodies of entire
races. In places on which the sun throws out its heat in moderation, it
keeps human bodies in their proper condition, and where its path is very
close at hand, it parches them up, and burns out and takes away the
proportion of moisture which they ought to possess. But, on the other
hand, in the cold regions that are far away from t