If we talk about the Study of the ideal proportions of the human body, it may not sound too much to you. But if we refer to the Vitruvian Man, it is very likely that the famous drawing that Leonardo Da Vinci left in one of his diaries around 1490 will quickly come to mind.
This representation of a naked man within a sphere and a square, marked two different positions of arms and legs and was accompanied by several anatomical notes that indicate the proportions of the human body from the texts of the Roman architect Marco Vitruvio Pollio in the century I before Christ.
Chin, forehead, hands, wrists, chest, nose, feet, elbows... even the proportions of the navel and sternum described Vitruvius. Leonardo followed his instructions, although he took the opportunity to correct and add some details, especially regarding measurements and equivalences.
The architect who was born in Formia around 80 B.C. Not only did he specialize in analyzing human symmetries, but he is also the author of the famous treatise known as De architecture, the only one on this subject that survived from classical antiquity and that served Renaissance artists to reproduce Greco-Latin forms. .
The work of Vitruvius was, for example, the Roman basilica in the city of Fano, a public building located in front of the forum and that would have been discovered after 500 years of incessant search, according to researchers from the Superintendence of Archaeology, Fine Arts and Landscape. from the provinces of Ancona and Pesaro Urbino.
The discovery occurred during construction work in the historic center of Fano. The building is a complex made up of at least five rooms whose walls, of which some 2 meters high remain, are 1.50 meters thick (five Roman feet) and are covered with lime mortar and marble slabs.
Archaeologists have also uncovered floors partially covered in expensive imported marble, cipollino green and pink. The latter, known in Italy as pavonazzetto for its similarity to the peacock's tail, came from quarries in Phrygia, in what is now Turkey.
The basilica can be dated back about 2,000 years and among the recovered materials there is a fragment of marble with an inscription that bears the letters V and I in two lines and still preserves traces of the "ruricature", that is, the red coloring of the grooves of the engraved letters.
"The Vitruvian Basilica has been searched for at least 500 years in Fano," said archaeologist Ilaria Venanzoni, speaking of one of the most famous buildings of antiquity. Until now, however, no trace had been found. Perhaps because during the Middle Ages the structure was used to build homes.
A part of the building is still under modern construction, so "it will not be accessible, otherwise the entire center of Fano would have to be demolished." This will complicate the work of the researchers, who have stated that more analysis will be needed to confirm that this space is really the famous Basilica.
"De Architectura contains thematic chapters dedicated to various types of buildings, including the domus and the basilica, a building intended for civil uses, including the administration of justice, which usually overlooked the city forum", exactly as the remains found these days, says Venanzoni.
Among the elements that support the hypothesis that this discovery is the Basilica, there is a quote in Vitruvio's treatise on architecture that speaks of the "bombasticity of the building, which has thick walls, rich decoration and also important epigraphs".
