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Leonardo da
Vinci – a basic principle
1. The planning
of temples depends upon symmetry: and the method of this architects must diligently
apprehend. It arises from proportion
(which in Greek is called analogia). Proportion consists in taking a fixed module, in each case, both
for the parts of a building and
for the whole, by which the method of symmetry is put to practice. For without symmetry and
proportion no temple can have a
regular plan; that is, it must have an exact proportion worked out after the fashion of the members
of a finely-shaped human body.
from Vitruvius' De Architectura