Abstract
The Academie Royale d'Architecture discussed especially three aspects of the Doric capital. (1) As for the vertical proportion, the Academy admitted, besides vitruvius' method of dividing the total height of the capital into three parts (that is, abacus, echinus, and necking) of the equal height, the proportion with a abacus that is taller than the other parts. (2) As far as the moulding under the echinus is concerned, the Academy admitted first the annulets, and then the astragal that is a commun feature of the Doric capitals used in the Parisian churches of the 17th and 18th centuries. (3) As for the projection of the capital from the surface of the columnar shaft, the Academy criticised Vitruvius' small one, and admitted the wider ones. The final capital represented by Tannvot's design is in a sens an amalgam of these complicated arguments on the three aspects.
