One of history's most published architectural treatises, this Renaissance volume identifies the five orders — Tuscan, Doric, Ionic, Corinthian, and Composite — and illustrates them in full-page elevational detail.

The Classical Orders of Architecture elaborates on the classical orders of architecture, including Classicism, Tuscan orders, Doric orders, Ionic orders, and Corinthian orders. The publication first examines the teaching of the orders, need for a new handbook of the orders, Roman and Renaissance theorists, traditional systems of proportion, and metric system of measurement. The text then ponders on historical background and orders in detail. Discussions focus on the Greek orders and comparative Tuscan orders, Doric orders, Ionic orders, Corinthian orders, and Composite orders. The book tackles the orders in detail, including the five orders, Tuscan order, Tuscan capital and entablature, Tuscan base and pedestal, Doric order, Doric base and pedestal, Ionic order and volute, Ionic capital and entablature, Ionic base and pedestal, and the Corinthian order. The manuscript then reviews the use of the orders, as well as diminution and fluting, rustication, pediments, moldings and their enrichment, and characteristics of Classicism. The text is a valuable source of information for architects, historians, and researchers interested in the classical orders of architecture.

Perrault argues that rules of architecture be determined by reason, not by ancient precedent.

"This Dover edition, first published in 2010, is an unabridged republication of The Regular Architect: or the General Rule of the Five Orders of Architecture, printed for William Sherwin, London, in 1669."

Joseph Rykwert is one of the major architectural historians of this century. THE DANCING COLUMN is his most controversial and challenging work to date. A decade in preparation, it is a deeply erudite, clearly written, and wide-ranging deconstruction of the system of column and beam known as the "orders of architecture". Rykwert traces the analogy between columns and/or buildings and the human body. 315 illustrations.