Columna

“A pillar or column. The use of the trunks of trees placed upright for supporting buildings, unquestionably led to the adoption of similar supports wrought in stone. As the tree required to be based upon a flat square stone, and to have a stone or tile of similar form fixed on its summit to preserve it from decay, so the column was made with a square base, and was covered with an abacus. Hence the principal parts of which every column consists are three, the base, the shaft, and the capital. In the Doric, which is the oldest style of Greek architecture, we must consider all the columns in the same row as having one common base, whereas in the Ionian and Corinthian each column has a seperate base, called spira. The capitals of these two latter orders show, on comparison with the Doric, a much richer style of ornament; and the character of lightness and elegence is further obtained in them by their more slender shaft, its height being much greater in proportion to its thickness. Of all these circumstances some idea may be formed by the inspection of the three accompanying specimens of pillars. The first on the left hand is Doric, the second Ionic, and the third Corinthian.” — Smith, 1873

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