The “Quadrivium” in the pantheon of rome

Abstract

The Pantheon complex has been the object of countless interpretations. There is no certainty as to how and why it was created and what it is meant to express, because there are no documents concerning the identity of the architect, the exact datas of conception, its origin and its function. Since ancient times we find vague references to its symbolic function: according to Cassius Dio, it resembles the heavens. But the cosmological interpretations do not take into consideration the real metrical dimensions of the whole complex nor the relation between its numbers, shapes, forms and proportions. Even the modules are identified very differently, so that it is difficult to compare the various analyses (De Fine Licht 1966; Brunés 1967: 38). This present analysis is based on a 1989 survey of the rotunda by Marco Pelletti (1989: 10–18).1