ViTruV in Der neuzeiTlichen DeuTschsPrachiGen WelT

Abstract

The profession of the architect in the North is not assigned to
the (‘fine’) arts as in Italy, but remains closer to that of the
‘engineer’ and has survived into modern times under the name
BAUMEISTER. It has made it difficult for the narrower
(aesthetically interested) history of art to see architectural
competences together.
The humanistic interest in the ever-familiar - incidentally
newly discovered in St. Gallen - ‘Vitruvius’ has primarily brought
forms oriented towards antiquity to the North. Here, too, Vitruvius’
comprehensive knowledge was very quickly reduced to the doctrine
of the architectural orders, in which Vitruvius was then carried
along primarily as an authority. Rarely has the whole of Vitruvius
been looked at.
There are two focal points of an in-depth study of Vitruvius
in the German world that stand out within fundamental,
‘theoretical’ architectural endeavours. In 1543, the first edition of
Vitruvius north of the Alps was published in Strasbourg, and in
1550 it was also reprinted for the first time, including the treatise
of Philandrier. A variant of the 1543 edition brings Walter
Hermann Ryff’s name into play, who outlines and propagates a
Vitruvian project including a German translation in a preface.
This project is realised in Nuremberg in 1547 and 1548 with the
first German translation by Ryff and a volume printed in advance
of it of related texts on perspective, among other things, and by
authors such as Tartaglia, and is compiled into a ‘Corpus
Vitruvianum’ never repeated on this scale.
The second conspicuous consolidation of Vitruvian studies
starts from Erdmannsdorf and his Roman studies and is
transplanted from Dessau to Berlin around 1800, where Rode
publishes a Latin edition and a new German translation, triggers
a broad discussion and enlivens antiquities research (Aloys Hirt)
as well as penetrating philological studies (Genelli). From here -
now at a certain distance from the contemporary architects - the
‘scientific’ treatments of Vitruvius’ text develop, which never really
come together again - outside the invocation of Vitruvius’ authority.