HOUSES are built to live in, and not to look on; therefore let use be
preferred before uniformity, 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 unwholesome; 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 therefore 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 banquet,
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 divided
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
servants' 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 quarters 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 cannot 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 environed 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 garden; 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,
antecamera, 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 likewise, an open gallery, upon pillars, to take the prospect and
freshness of the garden. At both corners 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 distance, with some low galleries, to pass from them to
the palace itself.