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THE / VILLAS / OF THE / ANCIENTS / ILLUSTRATED. / BY /
Robert Castell. / Vos sapere & solos aio bene / vivere, quorum /
Conspicitur nitidis fundata pecunia Villis. / Hor. / LONDON: / Printed
for the AUTHOR. / MDCCXXVIII.

Folio. Title page (1 leaf); dedication (1 leaf); preface (1 leaf); list of
subscribers (1 leaf); text (1-128); index (1 leaf); 13 engraved plates,
of which 6 are folding.

The engravers were P. Fourdrinier, who may be supposed to be either
Paul or Pierre Fourdrinier (fl.1720-60), Paul being known as "Old"
Fourdrinier and Pierre as "Young" Fourdrinier, both having worked in
London; and G. King, who may be George King, an English engraver
said to have flourished ca.1740, though that date seems a little late for
this book.

The crafts or professions are not listed on the pages of subscribers,
but a copy went to Paul Foudrinier and to a clergyman, and two copies
to James Oglethorpe.

Very little is known about Robert Castell other than the evidence
of this book. It has been lately established that he was not the German
architect who settled in Ireland in the second decade of the eighteenth
century under the name of Robert Castele, Castle, Cassel, or Cassels.

Castell says that he

resolved to take for my Subject the Rules that were observed in the situating
and disposing of the Roman Villas, . . . and to this End I have been at the
Pains to peruse many ancient Authors, who have treated more at large of that
Part, not the meanest of the Architect's Business.

Most of the Roman Writers upon Agriculture that are remaining, have
thought fit, at the Beginning of their Works, to tell us what were to be
consider'd in the Situation and Disposition of Villas. Cato, the eldest of them
left the fewest Rules on that Head . . . ; but Varro that was the next after
him, has been more ample and judicious in his observations. . . .

Pliny the Younger alone has exceeded Varro in this Particular; he has
left us two Epistles, containing an exact Description of his Villas of Laurentinum
and Tuscum, and tho' we find not in him any direct Rules for the Disposition
of the Villa Urbana or Country House of Pleasure, yet he gives us to
understand, that those Buildings were contriv'd according to the strictest.
Rules of Art. . . . He speaks only of the Situation, and Disposition of those
Buildings, knowing his Friends to whom he wrote, could not but be sensible
that the Rules laid down by Vitruvius with respect to Beauty and Proportion
were equally to take Place in the City and Country. . . .

The whole Work consists of three Parts. The first contains the Description
of a Villa Urbana, or Countrey House of Retirement near the City, that
was supplied with most of the Necessaries of Life from a neighbouring
Market-Town. The second sets forth the Rules that were necessary to be observed
by an Architect, who had the Liberty to chuse a Situation, and to
make a proper Distribution of all Things in and about the Villa; but particularly
with relation to the Farm-House, which in this Sort of Buildings, according
to the more ancient Roman Manner, was always join'd to the Master's
House, or but very little remov's from it. In the third Part is shewn the Description
of another Villa Urbana, on a Situation very different from the
former, with the Farm-House and its Appurtenances so far remov'd as to be
no Annoyance to it, and at the same Time so near as to furnish it conveniently
with all necessaries. [Preface]

He also tells us that "the Antients esteem'd four Things essential to
that of a good one [i.e., situation], viz. good Roads for themselves and
Carriages, or the Conveniency of a navigable River; next, fertile Land to
produce what was necessary for the Support of Man and Beast; wholesome
Water; and, lastly, an healthy Air; which last-mentioned, as it
immediately regarded the Life of the Inhabitant, was chiefly to be
considered" (p. 17).

It is not known at what date this rather literary work, with its
restorations based on ancient texts (see Plate VIII), came into Jefferson's
hands. Sowerby suggests that he probably bought it in England,
and Kimball (p. 92) states that he bought it between 1785 and 1789.
His own copy was sold to Congress. Although it was ordered for the
University in the section on "Architecture" of the want list, there is no
record of its having been acquired during Jefferson's lifetime. The
present copy has come into the collection recently, the gift of an anonymous
donor.

U. Va.

*NA324.C3.1728

Sowerby 4191

University of Virginia Library

21. Castell, Robert.

Plate VIII. From No. 21. Title page.