Rereading Vitruvius

By Henry Petroski

The best of books stand the test of time—both physically and intellectually

Engineering

Current Issue

This Article From Issue

November-December 2010

Volume 98, Number 6
Page 457

DOI: 10.1511/2010.87.457

A good book rewards rereading. We find on returning to it things that we did not remember being in it, things that we had not noticed there before, things that we forgot that we had read. Coming back to a book after years away from it means bringing a fresh perspective of our own to that of the author’s unchanged words. Revisiting a classic can be a special treat.

Illustration from Vitruvius, The Ten Books on Architecture, Dover, 1960.

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