Opus reticulatum

Additional recommended knowledge

Correct Test Weight Handling Guide: 12 Practical Tips

Better weighing performance in 6 easy steps

8 Steps to a Clean Balance – and 5 Solutions to Keep It Clean

Opus reticulatum (also known as reticulated work) is a form of brickwork that uses diamond-shaped bricks of tufa that are placed around a core of opus caementicium.^[1] The diamond-shaped tufa blocks are placed with the pointed ends into the cement core at roughly π/4, so the square bases form a diagonal pattern, and the pattern of mortar lines resembles a net. Reticulatum is the Latin term for net, and opus, the term for a work of art, thus the term literally translates to "net work."

This construction technique was used from the beginning of the first century BCE was very common until opus latericium, a different form of brickwork, became more common.^[1]

Opus reticulatum was used as a technique in the Rucellai Palace, the skill having been lost with the end of the Roman Empire, and rediscovered by means of archaology in the Renaissance by Alberti.

References

[Sample images]