In making of Stair-cases, (the Ancients) recommend the making of the Steps in odd Numbers, and especially in their Temples: Because they said that by this Means we always set our right Foot into the Temple first; which was accounted a Point of Religion. And I have observed, that the best Architects never put above seven, or at most nine Steps together in one Flight; imitating, I suppose, the Number either of the Planets or of the Heavens; but at the End of these seven or nine Steps, they very considerately made a Plain, that such as were weak or tired with the Fatigue of the Ascent, might have Leisure to rest themselves, and that if they should chance to stumble, there might be a Place to break their Fall, and give them Means to recover themselves.
--Leon Battista Alberti,
Book I, Chap. XIII
