10

th
International Conference on Urban History | City and Society in European History
Ghent, 1
st
4
th
September 2010

Further reflections on urban limits: the fortified city in Albertis De re
aedificatoria and the Vitruvian tradition


Margarida Tavares da Conceio
University of Coimbra - Centre for Social Studies, Portugal
1




1 !The matter of the wall: city, fortifications and treatises
2 !Alberti: the art of building and the city
3 !City and fortifications in De re aedificatoria
4 !Vitruvius and the gromatic tradition
5 !Castrametation and land surveying
6 !The urban limit: city and camp



1 !The matter of the wall: city, fortifications and treatises
Given the long historiographic tradition surrounding the subject of the fortified city in
classical architecture treatises, the topic of the city wall and its significance would
seem to have been largely exhausted. The very process of defining, classifying and
analysing these texts conceived in the cultural climate of the Renaissance has also
circumscribed the notion of the ideal city (a concept more often used than
explained). However, while it might seem that there is little new to say about the
subject in general terms, some aspects, previously held to be of secondary
importance, are deserving of closer attention.
In fact, although the fortified city, as a form of expression, would appear to be a
unitary concept, almost a typological statement, it may nevertheless be
deconstructed into its component terms: the city on the one hand, the fortifications on
the other. This paper looks again at the primary link between them the walls and
explores their significance, distinguishing between their dual function as foundational

1
Translated from the Portuguese by Karen Bennett.

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limit of the urban space and fortification mechanism, successively renewed and
updated.
Research into the origins of fortification treatises (i.e. texts that codified the
fortified city and/or the link between city and its fortifications) involving known works
produced up to the last quarter of the 16th century
2
has revealed a network of
connections between various disciplinary areas. Indeed, the links between them shed
an important new light on certain aspects of the question.
The fortification treatise as a genre is not identifiable until the mid 16th century,
and only really achieves full maturity in the second quarter of the 17
th
century
3
. This
means that these texts are a product of modernity. They do not transmit a concept of
the city wall or even of the city itself that is exclusively or truly urban; on the contrary,
the city is conceived as the inner part of a fortress, from which perspective it
becomes a citadel or nucleus within a more complex urban network, part of a
defensive strategy of clearly territorial reach. Over time the wall was modified,
changed its name (to curtain wall) and became a component of a military machine,
just as the city itself could be also be perceived as a (central) part of a geometrically-
calculated martial system.
In fact, the complexity and relative specialization of texts dealing with
fortification after the mid 16th century only becomes comprehensible if we perceive it
as the coming together of three essential lines of knowledge: architecture, geometry
and the art of warfare. It is also significant that each of these is governed by a source
text written by an ancient author: Vitruvius De Architectura; Euclids books of
geometry (as the absolute basis for a method of spatial reasoning) and the military
arts (including tactics, the organization of armies and castrametation) of Vegetius,
and before him Polybius, not to mention the numerous reports of the Romans
famous martial strategies.
In this context, it is indicative that architecture now appears as an autonomous

2
The first printed books that can be categorised as fortification treatises are: (with some reservations)
Albrecht Drer (1527), Etliche underricht zu befestigung der Stett, Schlosz und Flecken. Nuremberg
(Latin translation in 1535); and later, Giovanni Battista Zanchi (1554), Del modo di fortificar le citt
trattatoVenetia. Before this, there were only the manuscripts of Francesco di Giorgio de Martini (ed.
Corrado Maltese,Trattati di architettura, Ingegneria e Arte Militare. Milan, Il Polifilo, 1967) and the printed
treatise of Pietro Cataneo (I quattro primi libri di Architettura di Pietro Cataneo Senese. Vinegia, 1554),
none of which were exclusively about this subject.
3
The fortification treatise is here understood as a book that presents and compares the various
procedures used to construct permanent and temporary fortifications. Such texts usually include general
definitions of the defensive perimeter and rampart concept, and compare the various methods in detail,
teaching the precepts underlying its design and material construction. There is generally also a
discussion of the types of fortification used in various topographic locations and urban situations, and
chapters (or appendices) dealing with elementary rules of geometry and the principles of tactical
warface (offensive and defensive), troop movements and castrametation (cf. Conceio, 2008: 30-31).

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discipline, which places it on a new (higher) level between ars and scientia, while at
the same time giving the architect the responsibility of designing the city. Such
disciplinary autonomy presupposes the written recording of knowledge, inevitably
based upon the Vitruvian model and humanistic interpretations of it, but with a new
base, centred upon Albertis treatise De re aedificatoria.



2 ! Alberti: the art of building and the city
One approach to the walled city that has been particularly fruitful for clarifying
theoretical aspects was a re-reading of one of the most cited treatises in the history
of architecture, the foundational text De re aedificatoria (c. 1450/1485)
4
by Leon
Battista Alberti (c.1404-1472). As Franoise Choay (1980)
5
has so usefully
established, the De re aedificatoria became a prototype for the whole genre of
architectural treatise, marking the opening-up of a new theoretical field, laying the
foundations for the discipline of architecture, and implicating the city as a field of
construction.
However, the Albertian paradigm is rarely associated with the question of the
city walls and military matters. Certain aspects thus need to be re-contextualised to
clarify some of their more specific urbanistic details, particularly as this text is
frequently cited with regard to the theme of the ideal city (an equivocal subject,
which is largely a historiographic construct).
While Choays interpretation of this text highlights its almost radical modernity
with regard to the discipline of architecture, other historians
6
have raised questions
about the treatise as a genre and how to contextualise it. Indeed, it covers a vast
time frame, extending from the construction rituals used in ancient societies (when it
functions essentially as a synthesis of experience) to the Renaissance (where there

4
The manuscript De re aedificatoria was presented to Pope Nicholas V in 1452 and printed
posthumously in 1485 [1486] (Florence, Nicolau Alamari).

5
Albertian historiography is a subject in its own right and deserves more attention than permitted by a
mere footnote. The work of reference in the field is Franoise Choays La Rgle et le modle (1980),
which characterises the concept of the architectural treatise in very narrow terms. The proceedings of a
conference on Renaissance architecture treatises, organized by the University of Tours in 1981
(Guillaume, ed., 1981/1988), is an important collective work, which clearly shows the complexity of the
subject, examining the treatises not only in terms of their internal discursive coherence, but also in their
historical context.
Amongst more recent studies, the most important include: Hart & Hicks, 1998; Carpo, 1998/2001 and
Deswarte, 2004.

6
Cf. previous note.

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was a need to create new knowledge). Thus, treatises of this era inevitably oscillate
between the codification of previous knowledge and the establishment of new
epistemological models.
Architectural discourse in this period needed to define and orient an activity,
and the discursive model that resulted could not have appeared earlier as it was
dependent upon two prior developments, one linguistic (the recovery of Classical
Latin) and the other graphic (design and geometric perspective). Alberti effectively
installed this new paradigm, and was the first to substantiate the principle of design,
not as graphic representation of the architectural work, but as the outcome of a
purely intellectual process of conception. Thus, drawing and design were definitively
distinguished: Let lineaments be the precise and correct outline, conceived in the
mind, made up on lines and angles, and perfected in the learned intellect and
imagination. (Alberti, ed. Rykwert, Leach & Tavernor, 1988: 7).
As such, it is nevertheless disconcerting that Albertis work (especially his
masterpiece, De re aedificatoria) did not make much of a mark in the 16th century as
the long-awaited and much divulged treatise
7
. In fact, it was only translated into the
vernacular after the 1540s
8
, and its popularity grew in a way that was almost
inversely proportionate to the interest in Vitruvius, the ancient authority. This was in
part because the status and skills of the architect, as we understand them today,
were still developing in the 15
th
and 16
th
centuries. With his patrician upbringing and
broad university education, Alberti arrived at architecture via humanist culture, not
through the world of practice.
Writing in clear but learned Latin, and basing his assertions on an in-depth
knowledge of Classical culture, Alberti did not include drawings of any kind in his
work, although he codifies graphic representations and the use of models
9
. The
discipline would have been learned as a set of construction principles and rules,
which were still based upon the three Vitruvian categories of firmitas, utilitas and
venustas, now mutated into necessitas, commoditas and voluptas. However, there is
a social purpose underlying this treatise, as declared in its opening pages the
existence and significance of the notion of civitas.

7
This aspect was noted by Andr Chastel (intr., Guillaume, 1981/1988: 11) and is explained by Mario
Carpo (1998/2001: 127-131).

8
First printed translations: by Pietro Lauro (Venice, 1546) and Cosimo Bartoli (Venice, 1550).
9
This absence of drawings is still being critically debated, according to Luciano Patetta (2004: 3-6). The
first translation into Italian, a manuscript produced in 1538 by Damiano Pieti (I dieci libri de architettura
di leon battista di alberte fiorentino...), contained around 150 illustrations.
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With regard to this, a frequently cited commonplace is the analogy of the city
with a large house (or the inverse, the house with the small city)
10
, and therefore the
city as complex public building, an analogy which in itself (as Alberti points out) is
derived from Classical (and Medieval) thought. It suggests that there is no essential
distinction between architecture and town planning beyond the matter of scale, as
indicated by Franoise Choay. The proportional relationship between house and city
therefore justifies occasional intervention in the urban fabric, leading to
transformations in the overall urban layout through subsequent construction, though
without suggesting a rigid urban layout design. This is an important aspect, which
forms an identifiable trend in the long process by means of which the modern notion
of the city was gradually constructed.

In Book IV of De re aedificatoria, which is dedicated to public works
(universorum opus), Alberti makes it abundantly clear once more that the city is first
and foremost a political entity (in the Platonic/philosophical sense of the term). As
polis, it has its source in social differentiation and is dependant on a particular style
of government.
From this premise, other principles related with the city are explained. The
configuration of the city depends mainly upon its location, about which he notes two
essential questions the problems of self-sufficiency and provisioning, and the need
for protection through boundaries, in accordance with the place. As sites may vary
considerably, a range of advantages and disadvantages have to be taken into
account, meaning that a standard model cannot be applied in all situations; thus
closed models are rejected in this statement of universal rules. After another
quotation from Plato, Alberti claims: We too should project a city by way of example,
which the learned may judge commodious in every aspect, yet which nonetheless
conform to the requirements of time and necessity. (Alberti, ed. Rykwert, Leach &
Tavernor, 1988: 96).
On this point, as in many others, Alberti remains the learned scholar, who
conceives the city intellectually, refusing to present any single or ideal design:

Everyone relies on the city and all the public services that it contains. If
we have concluded rightly, from what the philosophers say, that cities
owe their origin and their existence to their enabling their inhabitants to
enjoy a peaceful life, as free from any inconvenience or harm as

10
(as the philosophers maintain) the city is like some large house, and the house is in turn like some
small city (Alberti, ed. Rykwert, Leach & Tavernor, 1988: 23).
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possible, then surely the most thorough consideration should be given to
the citys layout, site and outline. Yet opinions vary on these matters.
(Ibidem: 95).

Constantly referring to examples in ancient literature and Classical philosophy,
Albertian theory implies that it is impossible to provide a universal layout that will
give form to the urban space as a whole. Of course, this may be read from a modern
perspective as anticipating planning freedom and favouring a flexible approach to
the urban space. But it may also be interpreted in a more conservative light, as still
related to the culture of the manuscript and the Aristotelian categories of Medieval
Scholasticism (Carpo, 1998/2001: 119-124).
Thus, rather than adhering to the notion of the ideal city, Alberti reasons in a
flexible and informed way, going beyond the well-worn metaphor of the city as large
house and the house as small city. In fact, the Albertian city was a fundamentally
political entity, the seat of civitas, community and civilization. This is of course
nothing new; indeed, it is the aspect of Albertis town planning that has attracted the
most attention from commentators.



3 ! City and fortifications in De re aedificatoria
Albertis reflections on the bond between the city and its fortifications have not
attracted much attention from historiographers, who usually consider him to be more
concerned with civil matters. As he was not a practising architect, he does not offer
any prescriptions that can easily be applied in the daily life of the profession, nor
does he provide solutions to practical problems. However, as far as fortification was
concerned, responses were urgently required. In this aspect, Albertis treatise would
have been of no use whatsoever in 1485-1486, and even less so during the first
decades of the 16th century, the period when the ditch-and-rampart principle of
fortification was being developed in response to advances in artillery.
In fact, Alberti is of little importance from the point of view of defensive
technique at the end of the 15
th
century. The question of defence is dealt with in a
limited and traditional fashion, in general terms, which is why it has often been
overlooked. However, if we look more closely at the problem of the city and
fortification, we will see that Alberti is much more forthcoming on this issue than he is
usually given credit for by commentators, who tend to overvalue the more innovative
aspects of the De re aedificatoria. Very few have examined the theme of fortification
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in this treatise, and then only in a very summary way, as in the short article by
Brunetti (1986/1988: 391-395), which points out how the architects skills extended
to matters of constructed defences and territorial organization (military roads,
bridges, ports, camps, fleets).
However, from the prologue to Book I, dedicated to planning and design,
Alberti demonstrates that he is able to deal with the whole complex of territorial
features (of the civitas), including engineering works and defence mechanisms
11
. In
Book IV, mentioned above (on works of public utility), he provides traditional data
about fortifications, discussing the defensive wall as marker of the citys perimeter,
the distribution of its parts in accordance with different types of location and the
layout of the walls, highlighting that there is not one single method of enclosing a city
that will be valid for all sites. He gives special attention to the placement of gates in
accordance with the roads and their respective classification as military or civil.
Particularly important, however, is his discussion of the conceptual significance
of the walls. Although he was writing in the mid 15th century, he explains that its
meaning harks back to the rituals used in ancient (particularly Etruscan) civilizations
for the founding of cities. He expressly mentions the originary mark made by the
plough furrow and the sacred nature of the outline of the wall, emphasising that the
ritual did not touch the spaces destined for the gates:

The fathers of the settlement would follow the plough, the cow on the
inside and the bull on the outside, turning any uprooted and scattered
clod back onto the furrowed line, and piling them up to prevent their
being dispersed. When they reached the point where the gates were to
be, they carried the plough by hand, leaving the whole course and fabric
of the walls consecrated, with the exception of the gates, which could not
rightly be called sacred. (Alberti, ed. Rykwert, Leach & Tavernor, 1988:
101).

In fact, what is made explicit in this treatise, from the theoretical point of view,
are the strong connections to an ancient fund of urbanistic knowledge, which is
worth exploring, as it is in keeping with the conceptualization of the city as civitas
and with Albertis own intellectual personality.

11
Nor should you forget ballistic engines and machines of war, fortresses and whatever else may have
served to protect and strengthen the liberty of our country, and the good and honor of the state, to
extend and confirm its dominion. (Alberti, ed. Rykwert, Leach & Tavernor, 1988: 4).

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In Book V (which focuses on works of restricted use, singulorum opus) and
with regard to the political power and social zoning, Alberti defines the internal
defences of the city, anticipating the unexpressed principle of the citadel. This
highlights the military basis of princely power, the theme of the princely residence, so
popular in courtly literature. In fact, he defines the urban requirements of the princes
palace, which almost blends with the description of the princes fortress in the centre
of the city, as opposed to the fortress of the tyrant, which was tangential to or outside
the city. Ultimately, he is still rehearsing the Late Medieval theme of good and bad
government, updated in the subject of the role of citadels which would become
crucial in certain contexts of modern fortification.
After the chapters dedicated to systems of access to the fortress
12
, Chapters
10 to 12 are entirely dedicated to military encampments, a subject that almost
disappears from printed architecture treatises. Presenting the military camp as a
specialized organization of space and even as the city in embryo, it is worth
transcribing the first paragraph that introduces the subject:
When laying out a camp, everything mentioned in previous books
concerning the planning of cities must be reviewed and considered. For
a camp is like a city in embryo; and you will find that many a city has
been founded on sites chosen by experienced generals for camps.
(Alberti, ed. 10, pp. Rykwert, Leach & Tavernor, 1989: 131).

He goes on to describe the characteristics of each the three types of camp
(temporary, permanent and maritime
13
), a considerable body of knowledge,
grounded in various Classical literary and historical sources that are mentioned
throughout the text. These include Plato and Aristotle (essential for the concept of
the city); Vitruvius, of course, and Vegetius, alongside names from Classical
historiography, such as Caesar, Straban, Euripides, Herodotus, Pliny, Plutarch,
Polybius
14
, Thucydides, Varro and Virgil an impressive philological and

12
Layout, dimensions, moat, towers, drawbridges, sentry posts and annexes and even the organization
of the interior of the fortress, with water supply and drainage systems (Bk V, Ch. 4 & 5).

13
In the case of the permanent camp, which was circular or square in layout, he goes into detail about
the system of ditches, levels, towers, the praetorium (headquarters building), porta quinta (fifth gate),
porta decumana (back gate). Then, he describes the siege camp, with its movable turrets and
entrenchments, including some notions of tactics. The following chapter is given over to the maritime
camp, the fortification of ports and shipbuilding.

14
Polybius, the main codifier of the Roman military camp, is not quoted in that respect, although his
name appears occasionally in Books VII and VIII (Alberti, ed. Rykwert, Leach & Tavernor, 1988: 221
and 268).

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philosophical cast, whose names would subsequently figure routinely in any kind of
treatise.
Alberti expressly quotes Vegetius, but only in relation to ditches (Bk IV, Ch. 3).
However, it is clear that the chapters devoted to the Roman military art of
castrametatio reveal his influence (and that of Polybius), and clearly expound two
important aspects: firstly, the continuous line of transmission of this knowledge, as
Vegetius (Late Roman author and probably Christian) was widely divulged
throughout the Middle Ages; secondly, the demonstration of a fundamental
connection between the fortification and the city through the theme of military camps
and the foundational rites of the city.
There are two essential substrata which demonstrate how two essential
aspects of urban design were linked in the De re aedificatoria: firstly, Albertis
rejection of the drawn model and the closed-town format (a stance that is related to
his political and social conception of the city); secondly, his awareness, as humanist
and scholar, of the existence of an ancient fund of knowledge, according to which
the demarcation and materiality of the urban limit is present at the point of origin, that
is, the moment of founding. However, Albertis interpretation is a modern one in
respect to this, as it takes a historical perspective of the foundation of the
Vitruvian/Roman-Etruscan city.
The association between the founding of the city and its fortifications is
ultimately presented as part of an ancient (perhaps even primordial, and therefore
permanent) cultural fund, which is updated in each period in accordance with political
circumstances and the technology available. This fund was expertly explained in
Joseph Rykwerts, The Idea of a Town (1976/1999). Differences between the notions
of the Etruscan urbs, Latin civitas and Greek polis (as regards their physical,
ritualistic and legal shape, citizenship and social freedom) are brought together by
Alberti into a conceptual and non-morphological unit.
Alberti thus explains how to interpret the tradition contained in Vitruvius De
architectura. Referring to Etruscan rituals, and particularly the moment of limitatio, he
explains how the foundation of a city was essentially rooted in the operation of
delimiting a space for protection and territorial belonging, creating a boundary line.
But, paradoxically, when the theme of castrametatio (which Vitruvius excluded) is
inserted into the broad spectrum of architecture, it coincides with his urban analogy.
That is to say, the military camp is perceived as a mobile city, which makes it explicit
that the city may dispense with the wall, but not with the limit and the order. Thus, the
wall constitutes the materialization of a foundational limit.

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4 !Vitruvius and the gromatic tradition
Vitruvius De architectura, the ancient prototype of the architecture treatise and the
disciplines foundational text, was not totally unknown in the Medieval period
15
.
However, in the Renaissance, it was subjected to detailed exegesis and became a
source text of architectural knowledge, inspiring the De re aedificatoria, which
presented itself as a modern treatise (indeed, the first printed edition of De
architectura coincided with the publication of De re aedificatoria in 1486
16
). Of
course, the development of the printing press and techniques of illustration
contributed to significantly expand the study of Vitruvius as a basis for the learning of
architecture.
Despite the complexity (and obscurity) of Vitruvius text, it was very widely
diffused, translated and commented upon as it contained the foundational principles
of urban planning. These principles incorporate and summarize previous traditions,
and were still relevant, particularly as regards the choice of site, delimitation of
boundary or perimeter, the wall as material element of demarcation and as
fortification, and the organization of the layout around a central point. These aspects
are, therefore, almost timeless, and featured in various periods, mostly in connection
with ancient cosmogonic representations
17
. Despite this, they have always included
the delimitation-foundation of any city, and although more systematized in modern
town planning, are undoubtedly present in what has conventionally been called the
ideal city and in the military city of the fortification treatises.

Right away, in Book I of De architectura, the basic principles of the discipline
are laid out, along with the knowledge necessary for the profession of architect,
described in the chapters devoted to the city. Chapter 4 is dedicated to the salubrity
of the site, while Chapter 5 focuses on the construction of walls, towers and

15
The Vitruvian codices are all Medieval. See Pagliara (1986: 14-15) on the incorporation of Vitruvian
knowledge into Medieval writings, such as in Isidore of Seville or even St Augustine.
16
It may have been printed in Rome in the summer of 1486 (Carpo, 1998/ 2001:152), although
commentators do not agree about the first printed editions of Vitruvius text. Pagliara (1986: 32), for
example, dates the Sulpicio edition between 1486 and 1492. The most important editions are: first
illustrated edition, still in Latin, published by Fra (Giovanni) Giocondo (Venice, 1511); first translation into
the vernacular, also illustrated, by Cesare Cesariano (Como, 1521) and soon afterwards the translation
by Giovan Battista Caporali (Peruggia, 1536). The translation with commentaries by Daniele Barbaro,
illustrated by Andrea Palladio (Venice, 1556), appeared in another cultural context.

17
Both Western and Eastern representations, a subject broached by Giuseppe Muratore (1975/1980)
and also explored in some depth by Joseph Rykwert (1976/1999) with relation to the Etruscan-Roman
legacy.

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fortifications, as well as the delimitation of the circular perimeter wall, from which the
urban perimeter is deduced.
Chapter 6 of this first book deals with the disposition of squares and streets
inside the walls. After defining the walls, the inner surface is marked out, oriented
around a central point in accordance with the four cardinal points of the compass
and marked using the gnomon. This would have involved, firstly, tracing the
circumference, which was then divided into equal parts corresponding to the
directions of the eight main winds, forming an octagon shape.
There is, therefore, an ambiguity, caused by verbal and visual omission,
between a radial and square-shaped layout within the walls. The outline of the
squares and streets is aligned by indicating the angles between the two wind zones,
and then the divisions-directions of streets are drawn in, and the squares accurately
situated. The site of the forum also had to be carefully chosen, near the seaport or in
the centre of the city. It was this ambiguity in the layout option that commentators-
illustrators felt the need to resolve, an ambiguity present in the very terms of the text
and which aroused great interpretative passion (Morolli, 1986/1988: 301-302).
Despite the fact that none of the original drawings have survived, Vitruvius
refers to figures which would have accompanied the text (schemata). In fact, a
problem persists about the presence and significance of the diagrams in De
architectura. There is little consensus regarding on this subject (Gros, 1981/1988:
57-59), beyond the fact that written reference is made to it and that they appear to
have been largely geometric diagrams concerning the winds and town layout. That is
to say, they were schemas and not architectural designs, as Mario Carpo explains
(1998/2001: 19 onwards.). Underlying this were the demands of the rhetorical
method, according to which communication was assured through rigorous rule-
bound verbal discourse and diffused through oral and handwritten reproduction,
where an image could be described in words, but not copied with precision.
The Renaissance interpreters of Vitruvius tried to reconstruct the text and
illustrations, and fix them in drawings. But before embarking on this issue, it is
important to highlight some aspects that were prior to these and which are related to
the significance of the wind rose diagram and the main lines of the urban layout.
For one, it is significant that, during the process of textual transmission through
medieval codices, there is one case that includes a wind diagram (Pagliara, 1986:
22-23). This contains the so-called Vitruvian octagon, which is explained and also
drawn in the Corpus Agrimensorum Romanorum (Ibidem: 14). Therefore, the terms
in which Vitruvius based his city is unequivocally and explicitly gromatic.
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Secondly, the gromatic legacy in the Roman era also brought with it an earlier
fund, particularly a set of ritualistic procedures of Etruscan origin, archetypal in
nature. The Etruscan ritual of inauguratio involved tracing a diagram in the ground
whose form consisted basically of a circle with a cross-shape inside it, which could
be identified as the umbilicus of the place. This was the principle of the groma or
gnomon which Vitrivius wrote about, though without mentioning the cardo and
decumanus, documented only by the gromatici or land surveyors, responsible for a
document fund that will be mentioned again below in the context of castrametatio
or the geometric principle of marking the central point and four main solar-
cosmogonic directions.
This cross-shaped form is repeated or amplified in the Etruscan ritual of
limitatio, the definition of the urban limits or perimeter through a plough furrow
18
.
Alberti was fully aware of this. Rykwert (1976/1999: 45-47) observed the coincidence
of the words used in the foundational rituals and procedures of the gromatici, a
connection confirmed by Martines (1976). These religious rituals and land-surveying
procedures became effective through design, whether through the cross-shape at
the centre or the outline of the perimeter furrowing the terrain. The transformative
power of design lies in the act of delimitation, the demarcation of space that
becomes territory
19
. This is not a normative matter but a question of the abstract and
symbolic organization of the world, whose realisation implies the use of astronomical
knowledge, however elementary this might have been.
The essentiality of the limit (limes) and the act of delimiting raises another
point and a question. The point is that it was mentally and physically manifested in
the protective wall, while the question resides in the morphological interpretation of
the cross-shaped diagram. The axial cross may not necessarily imply a circular or
square-shaped perimeter; for to be squared may not mean the shape of a square but
rather division into four parts. In fact, when Vitruvius text was first typeset (the
princeps edition of 1486-1492), the wind rose as basic scheme of urban layout was
the only illustration (Pagliara,1986: 22-23).


18
From the Classical authors, it would seem that the root of the word urbs may have derived from
urvum or urvo (i.e. the curved furrow of the plough); another possibility is that it derives from orbis, which
meant the globe or sphere of the world (Rykwert, 1976/1999: 134 and 223). In either case, it is evident
that there was a connection between the city and the notion of demarcation and orientation of/in
territory.

19
The augurs act in drawing his diagram on the ground changed the earth he touched from anywhere
to this unique and only place. (Rykwert, 1976/1999: 89).

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The first illustrated edition, that of Fra Giocondo (1511), included in Book I four
diagrams related to urban implantation: one with the winds inscribed in a quarter
circle; a second with a referential octagon; a third forming a double referential
octagon, centred using the gnomon and with indication of radial schema; and finally,
the figure with De electione locorum ad usum comune civitatis, a superimposition of
the wind octagon on a square that exceeds it, in order to define the angulation of
roads.
The Cesariano and Barbaro editions (of 1521 and 1556 respectively) adapted
the radial and grid schemes inserted into the octagon, which could be interpreted as
the perimeter or as merely the starting point for the plan. Indeed, in both Fra
Giocondo and Daniele Barbaro (the most rigorous interpreter), the definition of the
layout is left open, inscribing it only in a long interpretative chain which brings
together the octagonal perimeter form with the road grid. This was less influenced by
what Vitruvius effectively wrote than by the weight of Roman castrametation, about
which texts also survive.



5 !Castrametation and land surveying
Castrametatio is a technical term in Latin, made up of the word castra, meaning
military camp (castrum), and metor (delimitation or measurement). Thus, it referred
to the procedures necessary for the implantation of the castrum, carried out by land
surveyors or gromatici. The rules regarding this operation were transmitted by
various sources, although in reality archaeology has shown a normal and reasonable
degree of irregularity when these were adapted to the terrain. The terms gromaticus,
metator and mensor seem to have been used differently by different sources
20
.
The connections between castrametation and land surveying have long been
established, both within the Roman written tradition itself and in the complex chain of
subsequent transmission. Similar methods were used, with similar meanings, for the
division of territorium, ritual founding of the city and demarcation of the military
camp. They were all based on the delimiting power of the design on the ground and
shared the ancestral meaning of the Etruscan limitatio, as mentioned earlier.
Therefore, the perception, rooted in Polybius, that the city was mirrored in the

20
Philologists have pointed out the relative rarity of the term gromaticus, and the lack of any clear
distinction between the role of the metator (who chose the site for the camp) and the mensor (who
measured out and delimited the terrain). The distinction between them is based upon a late source,
namely Vegetius (Bk II, Ch. 8), cf. Lenoir, ed. Pseudo-Hygin, 1979: 116-117.

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ephemeral military camp is logical, since the aim was indeed to simulate the
inhabited city. In fact, given the dangers involved, the stationing of an army always
implied the ritual establishment of the encampment
21
.
Moreover, the procedures used in castrametation seemed to provide a
condensed set of ready-to-use rules that could be applied to town planning in any
situation. These range from the choice of site to the definition of the form of the
perimeter and respective defences (moat or wall), the road network distributed in
accordance with the intersection at right angles of a cardo / decumanus, and the
organization of the housing units.
In fact, underlying the whole concept of the Roman military camp were the
basic tenets of Roman town planning: the delimitation of a square; the regular
format; the principles of axiality and orthogonality in the layout, and the intersection
of the four main axes in the area of the praetorium (the equivalent of the forum, in its
ideal centrality, as the Latin terms make clear). Indeed, there is rare historiographical
unanimity as regards the close connections between castrametation and town
planning, and their sharing of a common spatial conception.
However, on this subject, it is important to know which classical authorities
were used, as there are substantial variations between them as regards content and
meanings. The historicity of those sources not completely visible in the 15
th
and
16
th
centuries should also be borne in mind. With regards to castrametation, the
main sources are undoubtedly the texts of Polybius (c. 203 BC 120 AD),
particularly the description contained in Book VI of the Storiae
22
. This is the most
complete ancient source, written by a Greek author with great experience of the
politics of the Roman expansion. However, it is quite elaborate and sheds no light on
the origins of the rules of castrametatio. As Rykwert (1976/1999: 69, 88) noted, that
origin is obscure and its supposed relationship to the Greek tradition of the
orthogonal (hypodamic) plan has not been completely clarified. More importantly for
the modern context is the fact that Polybius explicitly draws an analogy between the
military encampment and urban layout (transl. Weil & Nicolet, 1977: 106, 109) in

21
The first act was the ceremonial implantation of the praetorium, marked by plunging the generals
standard into the ground. All the other procedures were similar to those described by the gromatici. The
groma in the camp, like the foundation of the city, was inscribed in a site chosen auspiciously; cf.
Rykwert (1976/1999: 68-69), who draws upon Polybius and Hyginus Gromaticus (in fact, the book on
castramentation by the so-called pseudo-Hyginus; ed. Lenoir, 1979: 6).

22
Storiae, Book VI, Chapters 26-42, ed. Raymond Weil & Claude Nicolet, 1977, translated from the
Greek. First printed edition by Giovanni Lascaris, Venice, 1529, in Latin and Greek; first translation into
French, Paris, 1545; first in Italian Polibio del modo daccampare tradotto di greco per M. Philippo
Strozzi, Florence, 1552.

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terms that justify its repetition by modern authors, starting with the military art of
Machiavelli (1521).
Other Classical authorities on castrametation have been shown to have been
involved in the production of written rules of land surveying. The famous Corpus
agrimensorum romanorum
23
includes contributions from Frontinus, Hyginus and
Hyginus Gromaticus, demonstrating just how standardised was the procedure of
marking a centre that contains the four cardinal points. Indeed, this pattern is also
observable in Vitruvius and Polybius and is confirmed in this text, which was the
most important group of technical texts on land surveying. Moreover, some of the
illustrations, drawings and schematic diagrams given in more than one manuscript
confirm this sharing of principles (cf. Dilke,1971).
But, in addition to the more elementary procedures of land division, this
documental corpus does not in itself supply any specification relative to military
encampments, nor even the demarcation of the adjacent territory (territoria legionis),
used exclusively by the army for pasture and military exercises.
The oldest manuscript in the Corpus agrimensorum romanorum includes a text
about military encampments, attributed to Hyginus (a third Hyginus or, as sometimes
called, the pseudo-Hyginus), which acquired the title De munitionibus castrorum, and
this might reflect the close relationship between the military encampment and land
surveying, as transmitted through various manuscripts down to the 16
th
century.
From a later date than Polybius, this fragmentary and somewhat confused text uses
a different method for defining the camp, and the reiterated metaphorical analogy
between camp and city is notably absent. In fact, it is probably these differences with
regard to Polybius that dictated the fact that less attention was given to it. Indeed, it
was only printed in 1607 in a collection of texts dealing with the military arts, and
only began to be compared with the Polybian encampment at the end of the 17
th

century (ed. Maurice Lenoir, 1979: XXIII).
We should stress once more the continuity in the line of transmission of
knowledge throughout the medieval period, despite the fragmentary nature of some
texts and the many additions. Hence, there was no radical new discovery or
recovery in the Renaissance of either the texts on re militari or specifically about
castrametatio. This is something to be taken into account, as the association

23
On the content and nature of this complex group of codices, see the study by Castillo Pascual, 1996.
Hyginus and Hyginus Gromaticus are two different personalities, which has often caused errors of
attribution. The most well-known is Hyginus Gromaticus, who best described the division of space using
the groma and the four geographic directions. The publication of the printed edition of Corpus
agrimensorum romanorum was a long and problematic process, although the first complete edition of
the codices dates from 1554.
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between castrametation, land surveying and town planning constitutes a
contemporary methodological reading, although an interesting conceptual nexus.
Though the association of the printing press with humanistic culture meant that
Classical sources were now being divulged on a whole new scale, we should bear in
mind that this reinterpretation of the classics resulted from a selection of materials,
where some texts were more privileged than others. So while 16th century
castrametation did not represent any novelty or even practical operability beyond the
strict implantation of military camps; while the bond with the city was not at all
original, it nevertheless continued to arouse interest, even in Albertis treatise De re
aedificatoria, which, as we have seen, reveals a consciousness of its debt to the
Classical legacy with regard to the procedures used.



6 !The urban limit: city and camp
An attraction for military design in town planning is detectable in the work of some
Renaissance architectural treatise writers, such as Serlio, Palladio and Cataneo.
Serlios interest in castrametation
24
is that of the antiquarian and civil architect (Fiore,
2004: 212). Based on Polybius, his manuscript (an assumedly creative exercise)
suggests variations on the theme, resulting in an authentic proposal for urban
planning: a closed city, regular and classical. This text contrasts an interpretation of
the Polybian encampment with an exercise in ambiguous urban design, where the
classical military base supports a modern city allantica. This symbolic approach to
the military theme is also visible in Palladios illustrated translation of Julius Caesars
Commentaries
25
, the title of which reveals that his interest in the subject is primarily
historical.
The case of Pietro Cataneo is somewhat different. Despite ignoring the subject
in the 1554 edition of his treatise, he later deemed it necessary to add to three short
chapters on military camps to the first book (ed. Bassi & Mariani, 1985: 250-258).

24
Entitled Della castrametatione di Polibio ridutta in una citadella murata per Sebastiano Serlio
bolognese, sometimes known as Book VIII; this was probably produced in France around 1546 and was
conserved in manuscript form until very recently: ed. F. P. Fiore & T. Carunchio (1994). Architettura
civile. Libri sesto, settimo e ottavo nei manoscritti di Monaco e Vienna. Milano, Il Polifilo; ed. V. Hart & P.
Hicks (2001), Sebastiano Serlio on Architecture. Books VI and VII with Castrametation of the
Romans and The Extraordinary Books of Doors. New Haven - London, Yale University Press, vol. II,
pp. 387-512.

25
I commentari di C. Giulio Cesare, con le figure in rame de gli alloggiamenti, de' fatti d'arme Venetia,
1575.

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His concern, however, was defensive, and the urban analogy is absent; indeed, he
focuses on the differences between ancient castrametation and the modern way of
lodging armies
26
. However, he nevertheless offers a brief stylized diagram of the
modern camp as urban synthesis. This consists of a square-shaped perimeter with
an open space at the centre, containing the emperors (commandants) pavilion,
which was divided into four parts, each with its own smaller central square.
In fact, this interest in castrametation on the part of Renaissance architects
and scholars seems to illustrate their general taste for humanistic culture, combined
with the continuing prestige of the military in society. In practice, the design of
military camps gradually modified in accordance with technical advances and
changing political circumstances. However, given the incorporation of Classical
urbanistic principles, which thus continued to be diffused in educated circles,
castrametation continued to play a part in military culture and training. Indeed,
training in it practically equipped the educated soldier with the skills needed to
design built structures of any scale and in any kind of terrain.
In a broader time frame, castrametation (a Classical practice that offered no
innovations) continued to be relevant as a kind of basic course in town planning,
surviving as the first proposal the military city. In fact, the city was almost reduced to
the condition of a military camp in the treatises and fortification manuals produced
between the 15
th
and 18
th
centuries. This can probably be understood not only on
the level of the military defence network but also as theory or metaphor, constituting
a kind of exercise in design that insists on recreating the founding notion of a
regulated and defended (and therefore delimited) urban settlement.
As described above, the subject of wall and city, centre and limit, is a very
ancient one (archetypal even), which has a paradox at its root. That is to say, the
limit is transformed into a boundary, whose very existence only makes sense in
opposition to the gate, the point of opening and crossing. While the city as civitas
cohabits uneasily with militia, as a total lack of permeability makes it unviable, its
connections with the camp clearly reveal the need for order in the design of the
urban layout. Classical town planning, which survived, with military overtones, into
the modern age, required a limit (with or without walls) that could constitute not only
a safe perimeter, but also a link of territorial belonging, a limit that is not so much a
means of social segregation as a line of demarcation that orients and consecrates
culturally-appropriated humanized space.

26
For this, he presents first De la castrametatione over figura antica del campo deRomani, which is
obviously based on Polybius, though it also quotes Livy. But he warns that, due to the impact of the
modern artillery, he will concentrate upon contemporary camps (Forma di castro secondo luso doggi),
taking as an example the camps used in the wars of Charles V.
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