Book excerpt: De Architectura is considered as the first book on architectural theory and as a major source on the canon of classical architecture as as it is the only treatise on architecture to survive from antiquity. It was written by the Roman architect and military engineer Marcus Vitruvius Pollio and dedicated to the emperor Caesar Augustus, as a guide for building projects. It contains a variety of information on Greek and Roman buildings, as well as prescriptions for the planning and design of military camps, cities, and structures both large (aqueducts, buildings, baths, harbours) and small (machines, measuring devices, instruments). De Architectura - Volume I goes into subjects such as town planning and general architecture, the qualifications required of an architect, the building materials, the Temples and the different orders of architecture (includes the section on body proportions that led to da Vinci's drawing) and civil buildings (baths, palæstra, etc.) The descriptions are completed with magnificient hand drawn illustrations by Andrea Palladio and Sébastien Leclerc.