Of Building

HOUSES are built to live in, and not to look on;

therefore let use be preferred before uni-

formity, except where both may be had.  Leave

the goodly fabrics of houses, for beauty only, to

the enchanted palaces of the poets; who build them

with small cost.  He that builds a fair house, upon

an ill seat, committeth himself to prison.  Neither

do I reckon it an ill seat, only where the air is un-

wholesome; but likewise where the air is unequal;

as you shall see many fine seats set upon a knap of

ground, environed with higher hills round about

it; whereby the heat of the sun is pent in, and the

wind gathereth as in troughs; so as you shall have,

and that suddenly, as great diversity of heat and

cold as if you dwelt in several places.  Neither is it

ill air only that maketh an ill seat, but ill ways, ill

markets; and, if you will consult with Momus, ill

neighbors.  I speak not of many more; want of

water; want of wood, shade, and shelter; want of

fruitfulness, and mixture of grounds of several

natures; want of prospect; want of level grounds;

want of places at some near distance for sports of

hunting, hawking, and races; too near the sea, too

remote; having the commodity of navigable rivers,

or the discommodity of their overflowing; too far

off from great cities, which may hinder business,

or too near them, which lurcheth all provisions,

and maketh everything dear; where a man hath

a great living laid together, and where he is

scanted: all which, as it is impossible perhaps to

find together, so it is good to know them, and think

of them, that a man may take as many as he can;

and if he have several dwellings, that he sort them

so  that what he wanteth in the one, he may find in

the other.  Lucullus answered Pompey well; who,

when he saw his stately galleries, and rooms so

large and lightsome, in one of his houses, said,

Surely an excellent place for summer, but how do

you in winter? Lucullus answered, Why, do you

not think me as wise as some fowl are, that ever

change their abode towards the winter?
 
 

To pass from the seat, to the house itself; we will

do as Cicero doth in the orator's art; who writes

books De Oratore, and a book he entitles Orator;

whereof the former, delivers the precepts of the

art, and the latter, the perfection.  We will there-

fore describe a princely palace, making a brief

model thereof.  For it is strange to see, now in

Europe, such huge buildings as the Vatican and

Escurial and some others be, and yet scarce a very

fair room in them.
 
 

First, therefore, I say you cannot have a perfect

palace except you have two several sides; a side for

the banquet, as it is spoken of in the book of Hester,

and a side for the household; the one for feasts and

triumphs, and the other for dwelling.  I understand

both these sides to be not only returns, but parts

of the front; and to be uniform without, though

severally partitioned within; and to be on both

sides of a great and stately tower, in the midst of

the front, that, as it were, joineth them together

on either hand.  I would have on the side of the ban-

quet, in front, one only goodly room above stairs,

of some forty foot high; and under it a room for a

dressing, or preparing place, at times of triumphs.

On the other side, which is the household side, I

wish it divided at the first, into a hall and a chapel

(with a partition between); both of good state and

bigness; and those not to go all the length, but to

have at the further end, a winter and a summer

parlor, both fair.  And under these rooms, a fair

and large cellar, sunk under ground; and likewise

some privy kitchens, with butteries and pantries,

and the like.  As for the tower, I would have it two

stories, of eighteen foot high apiece, above the two

wings; and a goodly leads upon the top,railed with

statuas interposed; and the same tower to be di-

vided into rooms, as shall be thought fit.  The stairs

likewise to the upper rooms, let them be upon a

fair open newel, and finely railed in, with images

of wood, cast into a brass color; and a very fair

landing-place at the top.  But this to be, if you do

not point any of the lower rooms, for a dining place

of servants.  For otherwise, you shall have the ser-

vants' dinner after your own: for the steam of it,

will come up as in a tunnel.  And so much for the

front.  Only I understand the height of the first

stairs to be sixteen foot, which is the height of the

lower room.
 
 

Beyond this front, is there to be a fair court, but

three sides of it, of a far lower building than the

front.  And in all the four corners of that court, fair

staircases, cast into turrets, on the outside, and not

within the row of buildings themselves.  But those

towers, are not to be of the height of the front, but

rather proportionable to the lower building.  Let

the court not be paved, for that striketh up a great

heat in summer, and much cold in winter.  But

only some side alleys, with a cross, and the quar-

ters to graze, being kept shorn, but not too near

shorn.  The row of return on the banquet side, let it

be all stately galleries: in which galleries let there

be three, or five, fine cupolas in the length of it,

placed at equal distance; and fine colored windows

of several works.  On the household side, chambers

of presence and ordinary entertainments, with

some bed-chambers; and let all three sides be a

double house, without thorough lights on the sides,

that you may have rooms from the sun, both for

forenoon and afternoon.  Cast it also, that you may

have rooms, both for summer and winter; shady

for summer, and warm for winter.  You shall have

sometimes fair houses so full of glass, that one can-

not tell where to become, to be out of the sun or

cold.  For inbowed windows, I hold them of good

use (in cities, indeed, upright do better, in respect

of the uniformity towards the street); for they be

pretty retiring places for conference; and besides,

they keep both the wind and sun off; for that

which would strike almost through the room, doth

scarce pass the window.  But let them be but few,

four in the court, on the sides only.
 
 

Beyond this court, let there be an inward court,

of the same square and height; which is to be en-

vironed with the garden on all sides; and in the

inside, cloistered on all sides, upon decent and

beautiful arches, as high as the first story.  On the

under story, towards the garden, let it be turned

to a grotto, or a place of shade, or estivation.  And

only have opening and windows towards the gar-

den; and be level upon the floor, no whit sunken

under ground, to avoid all dampishness.  And let

there be a fountain, or some fair work of statuas, in

the midst of this court; and to be paved as the other

court was.  These buildings to be for privy lodgings

on both sides; and the end for privy galleries.

Whereof you must foresee that one of them be for

an infirmary, if the prince or any special person

should be sick, with chambers, bed-chamber, ante-

camera, and recamera joining to it.  This upon the

second story.  Upon the ground story, a fair gallery,

open, upon pillars; and upon the third story like-

wise, an open gallery, upon pillars, to take the

prospect and freshness of the garden.  At both cor-

ners of the further side, by way of return, let there

be two delicate or rich cabinets, daintily paved,

richly hanged, glazed with crystalline glass, and

a rich cupola in the midst; and all other elegancy

that may be thought upon.  In the upper gallery

too, I wish that there may be, if the place will yield

it, some fountains running in divers places from

the wall, with some fine avoidances.  And thus

much for the model of the palace; save that you

must have, before you come to the front, three

courts.  A green court plain, with a wall about it;

a second court of the same, but more garnished,

with little turrets, or rather embellishments, upon

the wall; and a third court, to make a square with

the front, but not to be built, nor yet enclosed with

a naked wall, but enclosed with terraces, leaded

aloft, and fairly garnished, on the three sides; and

cloistered on the inside, with pillars, and not with

arches below.  As for offices, let them stand at dis-

tance, with some low galleries, to pass from them

to the palace itself.