How to Make a Home

Name: How to Make a Home
Price: 29.99 AUD
Availability: InStock
ISBN: 9780691249124

An Ancient Guide to Style and Comfort

Vitruvius, Marden Fitzpatrick Nichols

$29.99

Hardback

In stock
Ready to ship

QTY:

English

Princeton University Pres
01 November 2025

Palaces, chateaux, country houses; History of architecture; Western philosophy: Ancient, to c 500; Latin

Series: Ancient Wisdom for Modern Readers

An entertaining and enlightening collection of ancient Roman writings about home design and decoration.

The idea that our homes can communicate professional as well as personal identities may seem as new as the work-from-home revolution. But it was second nature to the ancient Romans, for whom the home was in many ways the center of public and private life. Roman authors saw infinite practical and symbolic value in houses, and they have much to say about them. How to Make a Home presents some of the best Roman writings on houses

from buying and selling to designing and decorating.

Edited and elegantly translated by Marden Fitzpatrick Nichols, How to Make a Home gathers selections by Cicero, Vitruvius, Seneca, and others, with the original Latin or Greek on facing pages. These writings reveal the pleasures and pitfalls of the Roman practice of making one's home a cornerstone of self-expression. While the ideal home enshrined Roman virtues and could make a career, lavish building projects could lead to financial ruin and moral condemnation. These authors memorably describe such travails as deceptive staging, decorators run amok, know-it-all owners, unsupervised contractors, and buyer's remorse. Along the way, they also explain why simplicity is bliss, privacy is for nobodies, a neglected house is a sign of a neglected soul, and much more.

A unique and charming introduction to Roman domestic architecture and its cultural significance, How to Make a Home reveals that the obsession with house and home has a long and fascinating history.

By: Vitruvius
Edited and translated by: Marden Fitzpatrick Nichols
Imprint: Princeton University Pres
Country of Publication: United States
Dimensions: Height: 171mm, Width: 114mm,
ISBN: 9780691249124
ISBN 10: 0691249121
Series: Ancient Wisdom for Modern Readers
Pages: 240
Publication Date: 01 November 2025
Audience: General/trade , ELT Advanced
Format: Hardback
Publisher's Status: Active

Marden Fitzpatrick Nichols is Provost's Distinguished Associate Professor and Chair of Classics at Georgetown University and the author of Author and Audience in Vitruvius' 'De architectura'.

Reviews for How to Make a Home: An Ancient Guide to Style and Comfort

""Most enjoyable.""---Peter Jones, Classics for All ""Marden Fitzpatrick Nichols comes to the rescue with a beautifully conceived handbook of little-known classical sources on domestic architecture. . . . With witty chapter titles such as 'Don’t Be Upstaged by Your House' and 'Unless You Have Deep Pockets, the Big City Is a Death Trap,' [Nichols] . . . guides us through a series of Roman writers with subjects as varied as interior decoration, new construction, infrastructure and real estate.""---Cammy Brothers, Wall Street Journal