Unlike some other reproductions of classic texts (1) We have not used OCR(Optical Character Recognition), as this leads to bad quality books with introduced typos. (2) In books where there are images such as portraits, maps, sketches etc We have endeavoured to keep the quality of these images, so they represent accurately the original artefact. Although occasionally there may be certain imperfections with these old texts, we feel they deserve to be made available for future generations to enjoy.

Active in the first century BCE, Marcus Vitruvius Pollio wrote his influential architectural treatise in ten books. It remained the standard manual for architects into the medieval period. The topics which Vitruvius considered essential are diverse, including aspects of design as well as geometry and engineering. In the nineteenth century, the English architect and author Joseph Gwilt (1784 1863) won greater acclaim for the books he published than for the buildings he designed. His most celebrated achievement, The Encyclopaedia of Architecture (1842), is also reissued in this series. Gwilt's one-volume translation of Vitruvius's Latin text was first published in 1826. Supplanting previous versions, this work was long regarded as the standard edition in English. It contains a brief life of Vitruvius as well as an annotated list of previous editions since the fifteenth century. A number of detailed illustrative plates accompany the text."