Illustrated Companion to the Latin Dictionary/Denticulus

Illustrated Companion to the Latin Dictionary, and Greek Lexicon (Rich, 1849)

DENTIC'ULUS. A dentil in architecture. (Vitruv. iv. 2. 5. Id. iii. 5. 11.) The dentils are a number of small square blocks, with interstices between them, employed in the entablature of columnar architecture. They belong properly to the Ionic and Corinthian orders; and their proper situation is under the bed moulding of the cornice, as in the example (Denticulus/1.1) annexed, from the temple of Bacchus at Teos; for they are intended to represent externally the heads of the common rafters (asseres) in the timber-work of a roof. In some Roman, and many modern buildings, they are placed under modillions (mutuli); but this was contrary to the practice of the Greeks, for it destroys their meaning and intention; and, for a similar reason, the Greek architects never placed them on the sloping sides of a pediment, as the Romans did, because the ends of the rafters do not project in the front of a building, but only at the sides. The Romans, moreover, introduced them into their Doric order (Vitruv. i. 2. 6.), an instance of which application may be seen in the illustration s. TRIGLYPHUS, representing an entablature belonging to the theatre of Marcellus at Rome.

• 
  Denticulus/1.1