Vitruvius

Vitruvius was a Roman architect and engineer of the first century BC, known for his multi-volume treatise De architectura, the only architectural treatise to survive from antiquity. From the Renaissance onward it has been regarded as the first book of architectural theory and a major source on the canon of classical architecture. He held that a building should have firmitas, utilitas and venustas, meaning strength, utility and beauty, and his discussion of ideal proportion in architecture and the human body led to Leonardo da Vinci's Vitruvian Man. Little is known of his life; by his own account he served as an artilleryman and probably as a senior officer responsible for artillery experts, specialising in siege engines such as the ballista and scorpio. His book was copied widely in the Middle Ages, was rediscovered in 1414 by Poggio Bracciolini in the library of Saint Gall Abbey, and was first printed in Rome in 1486. The first illustrated edition appeared in Venice in 1511.