"Sagma" (Mould)
From Inventions
(Sagma) Name used since the sixteenth century, especially in and around Emilia (documented by Jacopo Barozzi da Vignola and Egnazio Danti).
Description
Strip of paper or wooden ruler for transferring the points of intersection in constructing perspective drawings according to Vignola’s “first rule”. It is described in Egnazio Danti’s commentary to Le due regole della prospettiva pratica [The two rules of practical perspective], p. 122: “Vignola learned the first principles of the art of Drawing in Bologna […] and thus it is unsurprising that he uses this term Sagma, so purely Greek, commonly used among the artists and craftsmen of Bologna, since in that city they frequently use other Greek terms, calling a water bucket Calcedro for instance. But this term Σάγμα, Sagma, which among the Greeks means principally Theca, or “shield covering”, I fail to see why it was used by the Bolognese Architects instead of “moulding” for the elements of Architectural ornamentation, such as the mouldings of the capital or the base of the columns, which they call Sagma.”
Bibliographical Resources
Danti, Egnazio, Le due regole della prospettiva pratica di M. Iacomo Barozzi da Vignola. Con i commentarij del R.P.M. Egnatio Danti dell’ordine de Predicatori, Matematico dello Studio di Bologna, Francesco Zannetti, Roma 1583, II, cap. XII, p. 121, Come si faccino le Sagme erette, et diagonali.
Author of the entry: Filippo Camerota
