Abstract/Summary

This article considers how the writer of the celebrated De architectura got his full name. Known simply as Vitruvius in the manuscript tradition, various hypotheses were advanced, associating him with 'Lucius Vitruvius Cerdo Architectus', whose signature appears on the Arco de' Gavi in Verona or with Marcus Vitruvius, whose name appears on a monument near Naples. These variant names provoked a debate that was fuelled by a sense of civic status that in turn affected the status of the surviving antiquities themselves. The article considers the range of names used for the writer and how they contributed to the wider debate.