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.
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