Illustrated Companion to the Latin Dictionary/Mutulus

This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Rich, Anthony (1849). The illustrated companion to the Latin dictionary, and Greek lexicon. p. vi. OCLC 894670115. https://archive.org/details/illustratedcompa00rich. 

MUT'ULUS. In a general sense, any projection of stone or wood, like the end of a small beam or rafter, standing out beyond the surface of a wall (Cato, R. R. viii. 9. 3. Varro, R. R. iii. 5. 13. Serv. ad Virg. Aen. i. 740.); whence specially a mutule in architecture; i. e. an ornament properly characteristic of the Doric order, consisting of a square projecting member, arranged at intervals over the triglyphs and metopes under the corona, and intended to represent in the exterior elevation the end of a principal rafter (canterius) in the timber work of the roof (see woodcut s. MATERIATIO, ff.); consequently it is recessed upwards towards the front of the corona, in order to express the slanting position of the rafter, as shown by the angular mutule in our cut (Mutulus/1.1), representing a portion of the entablature to the temple of Theseus, at Athens. Vitruv. iv. 2. 3. and 5.

2. In the Corinthian order, these members are now styled modillions, and are made of a more elaborate character, resembling ornamental brackets; but in many Roman and modern elevations, their original purpose of representing the ends of the principals rafters of the roof (canterii) is destroyed by the custom of inserting a row of dentils (denticuli), which represent the ends of the common rafters (asseres and woodcut s. MATERIATIO, hh.), below them; a practice always censured and avoided by the Greeks. (Vitruv. iv. 2. 5.) The illustration (Multulus/2.1) represents a portion of the portico in front of the Pantheon at Rome, and shows the order in its pure state, having modillions without the objectionable introduction of dentils underneath.

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  Mutulus/1.1
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  Multulus/2.1