Illustrated Companion to the Latin Dictionary/Voluta

Illustrated Companion to the Latin Dictionary, and Greek Lexicon (Rich, 1849)

VOLU'TA (κάλχη. Hesych. and Inscript.). A volute; the spiral scroll (Voluta/1.1) which constitutes the distinguishing feature of an Ionic capital, curling down under each angle of the abacus, and which is said by Vitruvius to have been designed in imitation of a bunch of curls on each side of the female face; but the Greek name, which literally means the murex or limpet, indicates that the idea was suggested by the spirals of a fish's shell. Vitruv. iv. 1. 7. Id. iii. 5. 5.

2. (ἕλιξ). The volute which curls down under each of the four corners of the abacus in a Corinthian capital (Voluta/2.1), and which imitate the stalks of a parasitical plant bent down by a superincumbent obstacle. The two small ones which meet under the rosette (flos) in the centre of each face are distinguished by the term helices minores. Vitruv. iv. 1. 12.

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  Voluta/1.1
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  Voluta/2.1