ABSTRACT

Existence of copies of the treatise De architectura by Vitruvius, dating back probably to the eighth century, with over fifty surviving from the eleventh century onwards, must place this text as a possible source, especially when the importance that Vitruvius gives to geometry and proportion is taken into account. According to him, geometry provides many aids for architecture and proportion results from taking a fixed module for the parts and the whole. With Christian Platonism rooted in the Greek world, it might be reasonable to suppose there might be a Greek origin for a method of architectural design in the West. In addition to Haghia Sophia in Constantinople, the Byzantine archetypes of the inscribed octagon and the cross-in-square clearly show the importance of architectural geometry and so a corresponding method might be expected to have been employed in the layout of Byzantine basilicas as well.