The Vitruvian Architectural Treatise

In 1797, Gaspard Monge, a member of the commission of scholars and artists sent to Italy by General Bonaparte, retrieved around one hundred works from the private libraries of Pope Pius VI and Cardinal Albani. Among them was the work De architectura (On Architecture) by 1st-century Roman architect, Marcus Vitruvius Pollio. Published in 1511, the ten volumes of this prestigious publication on the study of architecture produced for bibliophile, Thomas Mahieu, cover architectural construction, hydraulics and gnomonics, as well as mechanics and its applications for civil architecture and military engineering.