Vitruvian Man: Rome under Construction

by John Oksanish

Overview

Professionalism is political. This book offers a new assessment of the Roman architect Vitruvius and his treatise, On Architecture, dedicated to Augustus in the 20s BCE. Once reviled by scholars, Vitruvius emerges as an imperial expert par excellence when read alongside literary coevals through an intertextual lens. No building of Vitruvius' name survives from antiquity, but his treatise remains a formidable literary construction that partakes of Rome's vibrant textual culture. The book explores Vitruvius' portrait of the ideal architect as an imposing "Vitruvian man" at the dawn of Augustus' empire. In direct dialogue with his republican model, Cicero's ideal orator, the architect embodies a distinctly imperial civic ethos in which technically skilled partisans supersede old elites as guarantors of Augustan authority. Vitruvius promises to shape not only the emperor's legacy with architecture, but also the notion of a Roman citizen through his ideal architect.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780190696986
Publisher:	Oxford University Press
Publication date:	11/04/2019
Pages:	264
Product dimensions:	6.10(w) x 9.30(h) x 1.00(d)

About the Author

John Oksanish is Associate Professor in the Department of Classical Languages at Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem North Carolina. Professor Oksanish received his PhD in Classical Philology from Yale University in 2011 and has published scholarship on Vitruvius's work De architectura (On architecture) and Latin pastoral poetry.

Table of Contents

Preface and Acknowledgments
Introduction
Chapter 1: Vitruvius, man?
Chapter 2: History from the ground up: Vitruvius's"textual" monuments
Chapter 3: The body in brief: De architectura and the limits of somatic synopsis
Chapter 4: Introducing the architectus
Chapter 5: Bodies as Behavior: Corpus architectorum
Epilogue: Alternate realities: a palimpsestic corpus
APPENDIX: SUMMARY OF CONTENTS OF DE ARCHITECTURA
Works cited

Editorial Reviews

"This elegantly written book can be seen as part of an ongoing 'Vitruvius moment' generated by the encounter of the European tradition of scholarship on technical treatises and the Anglophone tradition of literary studies in classics.... This extremely readable volume constitutes an important contribution to scholarship, not least because it indirectly raises an important question: by concentrating on Vitruvius the literary author at the expense of Vitruvius the historical figure, by moving him from the margins to the centre of the canon, is his potential for disrupting our view of ancient culture lost?" — Journal of Roman Studies

"[A]s a keen reader of Vitruvius [Oksanish] has delivered a substantial contribution in weeding out old prejudices against Vitruvius and building up a worthy position for him as a qualified literary writer well versed in the literary traditions." — The Classical Review

"An exciting contribution to the study of Vitruvius, Augustan Rome, and the authorial voices of technical authors, this volume offers a glimpse into the scholastic and interpretive avenues opened by treating technical literature as literature. Oksanish successfully advocates for DA's rich connections with the Greek and Roman literary traditions relevant to those working on the intellectual and literary milieu of late republican and Augustan Rome.... Vitruvian Man can (and should) catalyze scholarship on other technical literature, as well." — Bryn Mawr Classical Review

"A recent notable example of the determination to rescue Vitruvius from obscurity... Compelling... Classicists..., most particularly Vitruvius scholars, should not overlook it." — Phoenix

"As a keen reader of Vitruvius he has delivered a substantial contribution in weeding out old prejudices against Vitruvius and building up a worthy position for him as a qualified literary writer well versed in the literary traditions." — The Classical Review

From the Publisher