The Channellings are so called, because they are as it Lib. 4.
Chap. 1.were Demi-Channels, which descend from the top of the Pillar to the bottom; they represented the Plaites of the Garments of Women, which the Pillars resembled.
There are three sorts of Channellings, the two first are particular and proper to the Dorick Order; the third is common to the Ionick, Corinthian Lib. 4.
Chap. 3. and Compound: The two first are more plain and simple, and fewer in number than the others.
The most Simple is that which is not hollowed at all, and which hath only Pans and flat Fronts or Faces.
The other is a little hollowed; to make this hollowness, a Square must be made, whose Side must be equal to the Pan, in which the Channelling is to be made, and having put one foot of the Compass in the middle Lib. 3.
Chap. 3. of the Square, make a crooked Line from one Angle of the Channelling to the other, both these Channellings are made up to the number of Twenty.
Lib. 4.
Chap. 1.
Lib. 4.
Chap. 4.The other Orders have 24, and sometimes 32, when it is design'd to make the Pillars seem greater than they are; for the Eye judgeth that all things are greater when they have more and different Marks, which lead as it were the Sight to more Objects at once.
These Channellings are deeper than those of the Dorick Order, and the depth ought to be just so much, that a Carpenter’s Rule being put into the Cavity, touch with its Angle the bottom, and with its sides the two Corners of the Channelling. Vitruvius hath not taught us what the Proportions of the Channelling should be, in respect of the Fillet which makes up the space between the Channellings, nor what the breadth of the Fillet should be, which he hath establish'd for the rule of the swelling Belly of the Pillar.
The Piedement is composed of a Tympan and Cornices; to have the true height of the Tympan, we must divide the breadth which is between the two ends of the Cymatium of the Larmier, or Drip which supports the Piedement, into 9 parts, and give one to the Tympan.
The thickness of the Cornice being added to this 9th part, makes up the height of the whole Piedement or Fronton.
The Tympan ought to be Perpendicular upon the Gorge of the Pillar, the things that are common to all Cornices are, that the Cornice of the Piedement must be equal to that below, excepting the last great Cymatium, which ought not to be upon the Cornice below the Piedement, but it ought to go over the Cornices which are sloping upon the Piedement or Fronton.
This great Cymatium ought to have of height an 8th part more than the Crown, or Drip, or Larmier.