The Vitruvian symmetria means “modular sizes”

Abstract

The Vitruvius'word symmetria is usually translated as the symmetry in English, or  simetrija in Yugoslav languages, or la simmetria, la symétrie, die Symmetrie, etc. in other European languages (1). This is linguistically correct, but since the word means today something else than in Roman times, the whole passages of Vitruvius are obscured. The vitruvian symmetria means "modular sizes" or “standard measures" (2). Today, the word means the composition of an image with its mirror reflection or, according to Webster, the correspondence in size, shape and relative position of parts on opposite sides of a dividing line or median line (3).