This is a Piranesi Press limited edition reprint of De Architectura or The Ten Books on Architecture by Vitruvius. This classic book is the first known book to be written on Roman and Greek architecture, or classical architecture. This edition is limited to 500 Copies World-wide. Vitruvius was a Roman General and Engineer who lived in the 1rst Century AD and is thought to have served under Emperor Julius Caesar. First printed in Latin by Fra Giovanni Sulpitius in Rome in 1486, this classic treatise has been translated into Italian, French, English, German, and Spanish. The first illustrated edition was published in Venice in 1511 by Fra Giovanni Giocondo. It contained woodcuts based on the Vitruvius' descriptions. Leonardo Da Vinci's famous Vitruvian man, depicting a man of perfect proportions is based on the ideas of Vitruvius.

Vitruvius instructed that buildings must contain the elements of strength, utility, and beauty.