On The Use of the Term Space (i.e., spatium) in Vitruvius: An Overview

The Latin term ‘spatium’ — in any of its declensions either in singular or plural form — was used as noun 114 times throughout Vitruvius’s text De Architectura. Moreover, in the form of an adjective — with attributes like ‘spatiosus’, ‘spatiosis’, ‘spatiosae’ etc. — it was used 10 times;  3 times out of 10 it was used as a comparative adjective (e.g., ‘spatiosora’ or ‘spatiosores’). No verbal or adverbial forms of space (spatium) were used in the text.

The entire text — De Architectura — counts about 58000 words, which means a ratio bigger than 450 concerning the times the term space — either as a noun or adjective — was used throughout the text with respect to other words. I have taken account of this aspect — the ratio — because if we compare this ancient architectural Treatise with a contemporary work written by a modern architect we will find that there is an enormous difference between the two ratios, that is: there is a huge difference in number between the times the word ‘space’ is used by a modern or contemporary author with respect to an ancient text like De Architectura;[9] we, modern people and especially modern architects, have a special bias toward the use of the term space. This is another consonant proof of the fundamental human bias towards abstraction — space is an abstract concept — as a mode of understanding and describing physical reality. Apart from architecture, this modern tendency to use the term ‘space’ as a privileged mode of expression and description of different environmental situations is well attested by my parallel research — a photographic report on how the concepts of space and place are used with communicative intent through the streets of Milano, the city where I live (see Spatiophilia): the approximate ratio between the use of the two words is 5 to 1 (the word ‘space’ used in signs, billboards, shop windows, public warnings, street banners, description of activities, etc. is five times more recurrent than the word ‘place’).