ABSTRACT
To some it might seem hard to differentiate the ancient buildings from the modern ones, or the most ancient from the younger ones. To allow no doubt in the minds of those who might wish to gain this knowledge I would say that with a little effort one might succeed in doing it. This is because there are only three styles of building to be found in Rome. The first is the good antique, that lasted from the first Emperors until the time when Rome was ruined and despoiled by the Goths and other barbarians; the second is what lasted from that time until the Gothic domination of Rome and for one hundred years afterwards; and the third is from that age down to our own. The modern buildings are easy to recognise not only because they are new but also because their workmanship is not as good. Moreover they are not built at such great expense as the ancient buildings we see and admire. For although today architecture is active and comes close to the antique style, as may be seen in many beautiful buildings of Bramante, the ornamentation still is not made of such precious material as that used by the men of ancient times who spent a fortune to build what they had imagined, and by their strength of will overcame every difficulty. The buildings of the time of the Goths, however, are so wholly without grace or any style whatsoever that they are different
from both ancient and modern. It is therefore not difficult to recognise the buildings of the period of the Emperors, which are more excellent in style and built more perfectly, at greater expense and with more mastery than all the others. It is only the work of this period that I would like to speak of. There is no need for anyone to question whether the less ancient of this era are lesser in beauty, less well conceived or of a different style because they are all built with the same type of beauty. And although many of the buildings were often restored by the men of that age – for example we read that in the same place where the Golden House of Nero stood the Baths of Titus [editor’s note: luxurious baths in Rome built under the Roman Emperor Titus Flavius Sabinus Vespasianus, c.–] and his House and the Amphitheatre were built – still these were constructed in the same style and manner as the other buildings of a period still older than the time of Nero and contemporary with the Golden House. For although literature, sculpture, painting and almost every art were long in declining and deteriorated right up to when the last Emperors, architecture alone observed and maintained the same principles, and building was carried on with the same kind of greatness and dignity as before. Of all the arts, architecture was the last to decline . . .
