_Of the_ Compound _Order._
[Sidenote: _Lib._ 4. _Chap._ 1.]
_Vitruvius_ hath not spoke of the _Compound Order_, as of an _Order_
distinct from the _Corinthian_, the _Ionick_ and the _Dorick_; He only
tells us, that sometimes upon the _Corinthian Pillar_ was placed a
_Capital_ composed of several parts, which were taken from the
_Corinthian_, the _Ionick_ and _Dorick Orders_.
But a Consequence may be drawn from thence, that the _Order_ at present
called the _Compound_, might have been in use in the time of
_Vitruvius_, although they then did not make a distinct _Order_ of it;
Since that, our _Compound Order_ is not essentially different from the
_Corinthian_, but by its _Capital_; and so one may say, that this sole
difference of the _Capital_ ought to make it a distinct _Order_ from the
_Corinthian_, since according to _Vitruvius_, the _Corinthian Capital_
alone, made the _Corinthian Order_.
The parts that our _Compound Order_ borrow from the _Corinthian Order_,
are the _Abacus_, and the two Ranks of the Leaves of _Branch-Ursin_,
which it has retained, although the _Corinthian_ have quitted them for
the Leaves of the _Olive_.
The other part that it takes from the _Ionick_, are the _Volutes_; which
it forms in some manner according to the Model of the _Volutes_ of the
_Corinthian Order_, in bending them even as the _Abacus_; for they are
direct upon the _Ionick Capital_, as well as the _Abacus_.
The _Echine_, or Quarter Round, which it has under the _Abacus_, it
borrows rather from the _Dorick Order_, than from the _Ionick_; because
this _Echine_ is immediately under the _Abacus_, as it is in the _Dorick
Order_, which is not in the _Ionick_, which between the _Echine_ and
the _Abacus_, places the _Channel_ which makes the _Volute_; it may
notwithstanding be said, that it imitates the _Echine_ of the _Ionick
Order_, in that it is cut with _Oves_ or _Eggs_, which is rarely found
in the _Dorick Capital_, but are always in the _Ionick_.