Marcus Vitruvius Pollio was a Roman architect, author, and civil and military engineer who lived during the 1st century BC. Known only through his ten-volume work ‘De architectura’, even his full name is in doubt; only ‘Vitruvius’ has been confirmed. The first printed edition of his work was by Fra Giovanni Sulpitius in 1486 in Rome, and the first illustrated edition was published in 1511 in Venice. His revelation about the perfect proportions in architecture and the human body helped Da Vinci make the famous Renaissance drawing of the Vitruvian Man. His famous work on architecture, which was written almost at the end of his life, has accounts of the history of ancient architecture and engineering with the author's personal experiences. It was treated as an architect's manual till the middle ages. The books reveal that architecture had a much wider scope in the 1st century as it mentions water clocks, water pumps, etc, which are not considered a part of the study of architecture today. The volumes not only talk about Greek and Roman architecture, but also deal with topics like philosophy, mathematics, and medicine. His designs for buildings were lost to the world for many centuries, till his books were re-discovered in some form during the Renaissance, which guided the European architects for many years. Vitruvius also had interests in history and travelling, and he travelled widely with the army.