Firmitas, Utilitas — Ubi Venustas?

Strength, Utility — and Where Is Beauty?

Vitruvius turres vitreas Europae et Americae inspicit.

Vitruvius inspects the glass towers of Europe and America.

M. Vitruvius Pollio

ArchitectusArchitect · PRINCIPATVS

a.d. V Id. Oct. · MMDCCLXXIX a.u.c.

11 October 2026 · 1 minutae legendimin read

Firmitas, Utilitas — Ubi Venustas?Strength, Utility — and Where Is Beauty?

Textus paragraphis congruitParagraphs aligned for learners

LATINEANGLICE

Omnia aedificia ita fieri debent ut habeatur ratio firmitatis, utilitatis, venustatis. Turres vestrae vitreae aestate ardent, hieme algent, et omni tempore inter se similes sunt. Caeli regionem neglexistis, quam primam architecto observandam praecepi; deinde machinis frigus emitis quod sol vobis gratis negavit.

Every building must be made with regard to strength, utility and beauty. Your glass towers roast in summer, freeze in winter, and in every season look exactly like one another. You ignored the orientation to the sky, the first thing I told every architect to observe — and then you buy with machines the coolness the sun would have given you for nothing.

· FINIS ·

FONTES ANTIQVIANCIENT SOURCES

Vitr. I.3.2; VI.1ut habeatur ratio firmitatis, utilitatis, venustatis.

FONTES HODIERNITODAY’S SOURCES

—Haec sententia ex ipsius ingenio, non ex nuntio singulari.This piece reflects on the times rather than a single report.

Res ex fontibus; sententia Romani.Facts from the sources; the opinion is the Roman’s.

M. Vitruvius Pollio

c. 80–15 a.C.n.c. 80–15 B.C. · Artes · ArchitecturaCulture · Architecture

Architectus et machinator militaris; decem libros de architectura Augusto dedicavit, unicos qui ex antiquitate supersunt.Architect and military engineer; he dedicated ten books on architecture to Augustus — the only such treatise to survive from antiquity.

Haec vox restituta est ex his libris:This voice is reconstructed from:

De Architectura I–X

Omnia scripta →Everything by this writer →