. The illustrated companion to the Latin dictionary and Greek lexicon; forming a glossary of all the words representing visible objects connected with the arts, manufactures, and every-day life of the Greeks and Romans, with representations of nearly two thousand objects from the antique. ymistaken in referring to sideboards. 6. A square tablet which the earlybuilders placed upon the head of theirwooden columns in order to provide abroad flat surface for the superin-cumbent beam which supported theroof, to lie upon, and thus constitutedthe first step in the formation of anarchitectural capital
. The illustrated companion to the Latin dictionary and Greek lexicon; forming a glossary of all the words representing visible objects connected with the arts, manufactures, and every-day life of the Greeks and Romans, with representations of nearly two thousand objects from the antique. ymistaken in referring to sideboards. 6. A square tablet which the earlybuilders placed upon the head of theirwooden columns in order to provide abroad flat surface for the superin-cumbent beam which supported theroof, to lie upon, and thus constitutedthe first step in the formation of anarchitectural capital. Vitruv. iv. 1. 11. It is credible that this simple tabletremained for a long period as the onlycapital; and in the Doric, the oldestand simplest of the Greek orders, itnever lost its original character, butstill continued with only the additionof one other and smaller member (theechinus) as the most prominent andimposing portion of the capital. Withthe invention of the richer orders thesize, form, and character of the abacuswere materially altered, though thename was still retained, and appliedto the crowning member of any capi-tal. These varieties are fully ex- plained and illustrated under theword Capitulum. The illustration represents one ofthe tombs sculptured in the rock at. Beni-Hassan, which are supposed bySir G. Wilkinson to be as old as 1740b. c. It is highly curious for the earlytraces it affords of that style of build-ing, which the labour, skill, and re-finement of the Greeks gradually im-proved and embellished until it even-tuated in the most perfect of all struc-tures, the Greek Doric temple. Thereis no base, nor plinth ; the columnsare fluted ; the capital consists of amere abacus; a single beam or archi-trave forms the entablature, and sup-ports a sort of sculptural cornice in-tended to imitate a thatching of reeds;and as there is no frieze (zophorus)between it and the architrave, wemay infer that it is illustrative of aperiod when buildings were merelycovered
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookdecade1840, booksubjectclassicaldictionarie
