This paper tackles the vexed question of the sources of Vitruvius's De Architectura. A series of passages of De Architectura show affinities with the Pythagorean notions of harmony and number proportions. In these passages the concepts of... more
This paper tackles the vexed question of the sources of Vitruvius's De Architectura. A series of passages of De Architectura show affinities with the Pythagorean notions of harmony and number proportions. In these passages the concepts of symmetria and eurhythmia, both of which Vitruvius draws from his Greek (probably Microasiatic) sources, are of utmost importance. Both of these concepts imply very specific understandings of an illusionistic mimesis that Aristotle defines as a "mimesis of numbers" (Met. A 987b) typical of Pythagoreanism. Philolaus of Croton seems to rely on this very idea when he states that "all things have a number, without which their knowledge is impossible" (fr. B4). Vitruvius's De Architectura may in turn rely on this idea, directly or, more probably, through the mediation of other authors.
