Architectural Theory: Volume I - An Anthology from Vitruvius to 1870

Preface.

Acknowledgments.

General Introduction.

Part I: Classicism and the Renaissance.

A. The Classical and Medieval Traditions.

Introduction.

1. Vitruvius.

from De architectura,Book 1 (c.25 B.C.).

2. Vitruvius.

from De architectura, Book 2 (c.25 B.C.).

3. Vitruvius.

from De architectura, Book 3 (c.25 B.C.).

4. Vitruvius.

from De architectura, Book 4 (c.25 B.C.).

5. Old Testament.

from I Kings.

6. Old Testament.

from The Book of Ezekiel (c.586 B.C.).

7. New Testament.

from The Revelation of Jesus Christ to Saint John (c.95 A.D.).

8. Abbot Suger.

from The Book of Suger, Abbot of Saint-Denis (c.1144).

9. William Durandus.

from Rationale divinorum officiorum (1286).

B. Renaissance and Baroque Ideals.

Introduction.

10. Antonio di Tuccio Manetti.

from The Life of Brunelleschi (1480s).

11. Leon Battista Alberti.

from De re aedificatoria, Prologue and Book I (1443–1452).

12. Leon Battista Alberti.

from De re aedificatoria, Book 6.

13. Leon Battista Alberti.

from De re aedificatoria, Book 9.

14. Il Filarete.

from Book I of untitled treatise on architecture (1461–3).

15. Il Filarete.

from Book VIII of untitled treatise on architecture.

16. Sebastiano Serlio.

from Book 3, De antiquita (1540).

17. Giacomo Barozzi da Vignola.

from Preface to Regola delli cinque ordini d’architettura (1562).

18. Palladio.

from I quattro libri dell’architettura (1570).

19. Juan Bautista Villalpando.

from In: Ezekielem Explanationes (1604).

20. Georgio Vasari.

from Preface to Le vite de piu eccellenti architetti, pittori, et scultori italiani (1550, 1568).

21. Georgio Vasari.

from “Life of Michelangelo” in Le vite de piu eccellenti architetti, pittori, et scultori italiani (1550, 1568).

22. Peter Paul Rubens.

from Preface to Palazzi di Genova (1622).

Part II: Classicism in France and Britain.

A. French Classicism: Ancients and Moderns.

Introduction.

23. René Descartes.

from Regulae ad Directionen Ingenii (1628).

24. Roland Fréart de Chambray.

from Preface to Parallele de l’architecture antique et de la moderne (1650).

25. Paul Fréart de Chantelou.

from Diary of the Cavaliere Bernini’s Visit to France (1665).

26. François Blondel.

from “Discours pronounce par Mr Blondel a l’ouverture de l’Academie d’Architecture” (1671).

27. François Blondel,.

from Cours d’architecture (1675).

28. René Ouvrard.

from Architecture harmonique (1677).

29. Claude Perrault.

annotations to French translation of Les dix livres d’architecture de Vitruve (1673).

30. François Blondel.

from Cours d'architecture, Vol. II (1683).

31. Claude Perrault.

from Les dix livres d’architecture de Vitruve, second edition (1684).

32. Claude Perrault.

from Ordonnance des cinq espèces de colonnes selon la méthode des Anciens (1683).

33. Jean-François Félibien.

from Preface to Recueil historique de la vie et des ouvrages des plus célebres architectes (1687).

34. Charles Perrault.

from Preface to Parallèle des anciens et des modernes en ce qui regarde les arts et les sciences (1688).

35. Charles Perrault (1688–97).

from “Dessin d’un portail pour l’Église de Sainte-Geneviève à Paris” (1697).

36. Michel de Frémin.

from Mémoires critiques d'architecture (1702).

37. Jean-Louis de Cordemoy.

from Nouveau traité de toute l'architecture (1706, 1714).

B. British Classicism and Palladianism.

Introduction.

38. Henry Wotton.

from The Elements of Architecture (1624).

39. Christopher Wren.

from Tract I on architecture (mid-1670s).

40. Christopher Wren.

from Tracts II and IV on architecture (mid-1670s).

41. Anthony Ashley Cooper, Third Earl of Shaftesbury.

from Characteristics of Men, Manners, Opinions, Times (1711).

42. Anthony Ashley Cooper, Third Earl of Shaftesbury.

from "A Letter Concerning Design" (1712).

43. Colin Campbell.

Introduction to Vitruvius Britannicus, Vol. I (1715).

44. Nicholas Du Bois.

Translator’s Preface to The Architecture of A. Palladio (1715).

45. William Kent.

“Advertisement”to The Designs of Inigo Jones (1727).

46. James Gibbs,.

Introduction to A Book of Architecture (1728).

47. Robert Morris.

from An Essay in Defence of Ancient Architecture (1728).

48. Alexander Pope.

from Of False Taste (1731).

49. Isaac Ware.

“Advertisement” to Andrea Palladio: The Four Books of Architecture (1737).

50. Robert Morris.

from “An Essay upon Harmony” (1739).

Part III: Neoclassicism and the Enlightenment.

A. Early Neoclassicism.

Introduction.

51. Johann Bernhard Fischer von Erlach.

from Preface to Entwurf einer historischen Architektur (1721).

52. Voltaire.

from Lettres philosophiques sur les anglais (1733).

53. Jacques-Gabriel Soufflot.

from "Mémoire sur les proportions de l’architecture” (1739).

54. Jacques-Gabriel Soufflot.

from “Mémoire sur l’architecture gothique” (1741).

55. Carlo Lodoli.

from Notes for a projected treatise on architecture (c.1740s).

56. Baron de Montesquieu.

from Preface to L'Esprit des Lois (1748).

57. Jean-Jacques Rousseau.

from Discours sur les sciences et les arts (1750).

58. Jean Le Rond D'Alembert.

from “Discours préliminaire des editeurs” (1751).

59. Jacques-François Blondel.

from “Architecture” in Diderot’s Encyclopédie (1751).

60. Charles-Étienne Briseau.

from Preface to Traité du beau essentiel dans les arts (1752).

61. Marc-Antoine Laugier.

from Essai sur l’architecture (1753).

62. Marc-Antoine Laugier.

from Essai sur l’architecture (1753).

63. Isaac Ware.

from A Complete Body of Architecture, Chapter II (1756).

64. Isaac Ware.

from A Complete Body of Architecture, Chapter IX (1756).

65. William Chambers.

from A Treatise on Civil Architecture (1759).

66. William Chambers.

from A Treatise on the Decorative Part of Civil Architecture (1791).

B. Greece and the Classical Ideal.

Introduction.

67. James Stuart and Nicholas Revett.

From "Proposals for publishing an accurate description of the Antiquities of Athens” (1748).

68. Robert Wood and James Dawkins.

from The Ruins of Palmyra (1753).

69. Johann Joachim Winckelmann.

from Gedanken über die Nachahmung der griechischen Werke in der Mahlerey und Bildhauer-Kunst (1755).

70. Allan Ramsay.

from “A Dialogue on Taste” in The Investigator (1755).

71. Julien-David Leroy.

from Les Ruines des plus beaux monuments de la Grece (1758).

72. Julien-David Leroy.

from Les Ruines des plus beaux monuments de la Grece (1758).

73. James Stuart and Nicholas Revett.

from the Preface to The Antiquities of Athens (1762).

74. Johann Joachim Winckelmann.

from Geschichte der Kunst des Alterthums (1764).

75. Johann Joachim Winckelmann.

from Geschichte der Kunst des Alterthums (1764).

76. Johann Joachim Winckelmann.

from Geschichte der Kunst des Alterthums (1764).

77. Giovanni Battista Piranesi.

from Osservazioni sopra la letter de Monsieur Mariette (1765).

78. Giovanni Battista Piranesi.

from Parere su l’architettura (1765).

79. Giovanni Battista Piranesi.

from “An Apologetical Essay in Defence of the Egyptian and Tuscan Architecture” (1769).

C. Character and Expression.

Introduction.

80. Germain Boffrand.

from Livre d'architecture (1745).

81. Étienne Bonnot de Condillac.

from Essai sur l’origine des connaissances humaines (1746).

82. Julien-David Leroy.

from Histoire de la disposition et des formes differentes que les chréstiens ont données à leur temples (1764).

83. Jacques-François Blondel.

from Cours d’architecture (1771).

84. Nicolas Le Camus de Mézières.

from Le génie de l’architecture (1780).

85. Nicolas Le Camus de Mézières.

from Le génie de l’architecture (1780).

86. Jean-Louis Viel de Saint-Maux.

from Lettres sur l’architecture des anciens et celles des modernes (1787).

87. A. C. Quatremère de Quincy.

from Encyclopédie méthodique (1788).

88. Étienne-Louis Boullée.

from Architecture, essai sur l’art (c.1794).

89. Étienne-Louis Boullée.

from Architecture, Essai sur l’art (c.1794).

90. Claude Nicolas Ledoux.

from L'architecture considérée sous le rapport de l'art, des moeurs et de la législation (1804).

91. John Soane.

from Royal Academy Lectures on Architecture (V and XI; 1812–15.

Part IV: Theories of the Picturesque and Sublime.

A. Sources of the Picturesque.

Introduction.

92. John Locke.

from An Essay Concerning Human Understanding (1690).

93. William Temple.

from "Upon the Gardens of Epicurus; or, of Gardening in the Year 1685" (1692).

94. John Vanbrugh.

Letter to the Duchess of Marlborough (1709).

95. Anthony Ashley Cooper, Third Earl of Shaftesbury.

from “The Moralists” (1709).

96. Joseph Addison.

from The Spectator (1712).

97. Robert Castell.

from The Villas of the Ancients Illustrated (1728).

98. Batty Langley.

from New Principles of Gardening (1728).

99. Robert Morris.

from Lectures on Architecture (1734–1736).

100. William Chambers.

from Designs of Chinese Buildings (1757).

Recommended Readings.

B. Toward a Relativist Aesthetics.

Introduction.

101. John Locke.

from An Essay Concerning Human Understanding, fourth edition (1700).

102. Joseph Addison.

from the Spectator (1712).

103. Jean Baptiste du Bos.

from Critical Reflections on Poetry, Painting, and Music (1719).

104. Francis Hutcheson.

from An Inquiry into the Original of our Ideas of Beauty and Virtue (1725).

105. George Berkeley.

from the “Third Dialogue” of Alciphron (1732).

106. David Hume.

from A Treatise of Human Nature (1739–40).

107. Allan Ramsey.

from “A Dialogue on Taste” in The Investigator (1755).

108. Alexander Gerard.

from An Essay on Taste (1756).

109. David Hume.

from "Of the Standard of Taste" (1757).

110. Edmund Burke.

from A Philosophical Enquiry into the Origin of our Ideas of the Sublime and Beautiful (1757).

111. Edmund Burke.

from A Philosophical Inquiry into the Origin of our Ideas of the Sublime and Beautiful (1757).

112. Lord Kames.

from Elements of Criticism (1762).

113. Robert and James Adam.

from Preface to The Works in Architecture of Robert and James Adam (1773–78).

C. Consolidation of Picturesque Theory.

Introduction.

114. Thomas Whately.

from Observations on Modern Gardening (1770).

115. Horace Walpole.

from “The History of the Modern Taste in Gardening” (1771).

116. William Chambers.

from A Dissertation on Oriental Gardening (1772).

117. William Gilpin.

from Observations on the River Wye (1782).

118. Joshua Reynolds.

from Discourses on Architecture (1786).

119. John Soane.

from Plans, Elevations, and Sections of Buildings (1788).

120. Uvedale Price.

from Essays on the Picturesque (1794).

121. Richard Payne Knight.

from “Postscript” to The Landscape, second edition (1795).

122. Humphry Repton.

from Sketches and Hints on Landscape Gardening (1795).

123. Uvedale Price.

from "An Essay on Architecture and Buildings as connected with Scenery" (1798).

124. Richard Payne Knight.

from An Analytical Inquiry into the Principles of Taste (1805).

125. John Soane.

from Royal Academy Lectures on Architecture, V, VIII, and XI (1812–15).

Part V: The Rise of Historicism in the Nineteenth Century.

A. Challenges to Classicism in France, 1802–34.

Introduction.

126. Jean-Nicolas-Louis Durand.

from Précis de leçons d’architecture données à l’École Royale Polytechnique (1802).

127. A. C. Quatremère de Quincy.

from De l’architecture égyptienne (1803).

128. Christian Ludwig Stieglitz.

from Archaologie der Baukunst der Griechen und Römer (1801).

129. A. C. Quatremère de Quincy.

from Le Jupiter olympien (1814).

130. Charles Robert Cockerell.

from “On the Aegina Marbles” (1819).

131. William Kinnard.

Annotations to Stuart and Revett’s The Antiquities of Athens, second edition (1825).

132. Otto Magnus von Stackelberg.

from Der Apollotempel zu Bassae in Arcadien (1826).

133. Jacques Ignace Hittorff.

from "De l'architecture polychrôme chez les Grecs" (1830).

134. Gottfried Semper.

from Vorläufige Bemerkungen über bemalte Architectur und Plastik bei den Alten (1834).

135. Léon Vaudoyer.

Excerpts from three letters of 1829, 1830, and 1831.

136. Émile Barrault.

from Aux Artistes (1830).

137. Victor Hugo.

from Nôtre-Dame de Paris (1832).

138. Gottfried Semper.

from Vorläufige Bemerkungen über bemalte Architectur und Plastik bei den Alten (1834).

139. Léonce Reynaud.

from “Architecture” in Encyclopédie nouvelle (1834).

B. The Gothic Revival in Britain, Germany, and France.

Introduction.

140. Horace Walpole.

from Letter to H. Zouch (1759).

141. Horace Walpole.

from A Description of the Villa of Horace Walpole at Strawberry Hill (1774).

142. Johann Wolfgang Goethe.

from "Von deutscher Baukunst" (1772).

143. François René Chateaubriand.

from Le génie du christianisme (1802).

144. Friedrich von Schlegel.

from Briefen auf einer Reise durch die Niederlande, Rheingegenden, die Schweiz und einen Teil von Frankreich (1806).

145. Joseph Görres.

from "Der Dom in Köln" (1814).

146. Georg Moller.

from Denkmähler der detuschen Baukunst (1815–1821).

147. Thomas Rickman.

from An Attempt to Discriminate the Styles of English Architecture (1817).

148. William Whewell.

from Architectural Notes on German Churches (1830).

149. Robert Willis.

from Remarks on the Architecture of the Middle Ages (1835).

150. Augustus Welby Pugin.

from Contrasts (1836).

151. Augustus Welby Pugin.

from The True Principles of Pointed or Christian Architecture (1842).

152. John Mason Neale and Benjamin Webb.

from The Ecclesiologist (1841).

153. Victor Hugo.

from Nôtre-Dame de Paris (1832).

154. Léonce Reynaud.

from “Architecture,” Encyclopédie nouvelle (1834).

155. Eugène-Emmanuel Viollet-le-Duc.

from “De la construction des édifices religieux en France” (1844).

C. The German Style Debate.

Introduction.

156. Immanuel Kant.

from Kritik der Urtheilskraft (1790).

157. August Schlegel.

from Vorlesungen über schöne Litteratur und Kunst (1801–02).

158. Friedrich Gilly.

from “Einige Gedanken über die Notwendigkeit, die verschiedenen Theile der Baukunst . . . zu vereinen" (1799).

159. Karl Friedrich Schinkel.

Literary fragments (c. 1805).

160. Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel.

from The Philosophy of Fine Art (1820s).

161. Friedrich von Gärtner.

from Letter to Johann Martin von Wagner (1828).

162. Heinrich Hübsch.

from Im welchem Style sollen wir bauen? (1828).

163. Rudolf Wiegmann.

from "Bemerkungen über die Schrift: Im welchem Style sollen wir bauen?" (1829).

164. Karl Friedrich Schinkel.

from Notes for a textbook on architecture (c.1830).

165. Karl Friedrich Schinkel.

from Notes for a textbook on architecture (c.1835).

166. Rudolf Wiegmann.

from "Gedanken über Entwickelung eines zeitgemässen nazionalen Baustyls” (1841).

167. Johann Heinrich Wolff.

from "Einige Worte über die von Herrn Professor Stier bei der Architektenversammlung zu Bamberg zur Sprache gebrachten . . . architektonischen Fragen" (1845).

168. Eduard Metzger.

from “Beitrag zur Zeitfrage: In welchem Stil man bauen soll!” (1845).

169. Carl Bötticher.

from "Das Prinzip der hellenischen und germanischen Bauweise" (1846).

D. The Rise of American Theory.

Introduction.

170. Thomas Jefferson.

Letters (1787, 1791, 1805, 1812).

171. Benjamin Latrobe.

Letter to Thomas Jefferson (1807).

172. George Tucker.

from "On Architecture" (1814).

173. William Strickland.

from introductory lecture on architecture (1824).

174. Thomas U. Walter.

from "Of Modern Architecture" (1841).

175. Arthur Delavan Gilman.

from "Architecture in the United States" (1843).

176. Thomas Alexander Tefft.

from "The Cultivation of True Taste" (1851).

177. Ralph Waldo Emerson.

from "Self-Reliance" (1841).

178. Ralph Waldo Emerson.

from "Thoughts on Art" (1841).

179. Horatio Greenough.

from Letter to Washington Allston (1831).

180. Horatio Greenough.

from "American Architecture (1843).

181. Horatio Greenough.

from "Structure and Organization" (1852).

182. Henry David Thoreau.

from his journal (January 11, 1852).

183. Andrew Jackson Downing.

from A Treatise on the Theory and Practice of Landscape Gardening.

184. Andrew Jackson Downing.

from Cottage Residences (1842).

185. Andrew Jackson Downing.

from Hints to Persons about Building in the Country (1847).

186. Andrew Jackson Downing.

from The Architecture of Country Houses (1850).

187. Calvert Vaux.

from Villas and Cottages (1857).

188. James Jackson Jarves.

from The Art-Idea (1864).

Part VI: Historicism in the Industrial Age.

A. The Battle of the Styles in Britain.

Introduction.

189. Thomas Hope.

from Observations on the Plans and Elevations Designed by James Wyatt (1804).

190. Thomas Hope.

from An Historical Essay on Architecture (1835).

191. Thomas Leverton Donaldson.

from "Preliminary Discourse before the University College of London" (1842).

192. John Ruskin.

from The Seven Lamps of Architecture (1849).

193. James Fergusson, Augustus Welby Pugin, Edward Lacy Garbett, Robert Kerr.

from The Builder (1850).

194. Edward Lacy Garbett.

from Rudimentary Treatise on the Principles of Design in Architecture (1850).

195. John Ruskin.

from “The Nature of Gothic” (1851–3).

196. Matthew Digby Wyatt.

from The Industrial Arts of the Nineteenth Century (1851).

197. Richard Redgrave.

from “Supplementary Report on Design” (1852).

198. Owen Jones.

from The Grammar of Ornament (1856).

199. John Ruskin.

from “The Deteriorative Power of Conventional Art over Nations” (1859).

200. Robert Kerr.

“The Battle of the Styles,” from The Builder (1860).

201. James Fergusson.

from History of the Modern Styles of Architecture (1862).

202. William Morris.

Prospectus for Morris, Marshall, Faulkner and Company (1861).

B. Rationalism, Eclecticism, and Realism in France.

203. Albert Lenoir and Léon Vaudoyer.

from “Études d’architecture en France”(1844).

204. Eugène-Emmanuel Viollet-le-Duc.

from “De la construction des édifices religieux en France” (1845).

205. César Daly.

from "De la liberté dans l’art” (1847).

206. Léonce Reynaud.

from Traité d'architecture (1850).

207. Eugène-Emmanuel Viollet-le-Duc.

from “Architecture,” in Dictionnaire raisonné (1854).

208. Gustave Courbet.

from “Statement on Realism” (1855).

209. Charles Baudelaire.

from “The Painter of Modern Life” (1859).

210. Eugène-Emmanuel Viollet-le-Duc.

from Entretiens sur l’architecture, Lecture VI (1859).

211. César Daly.

from Revue générale, Vol. 21 (1863).

212. César Daly.

from Revue générale, Vol. 23 (1866).

213. Bourgeois de Lagny.

from “Salon de 1866”.

214. Eugène-Emmanuel Viollet-le-Duc.

from “Style” in Dictionnaire raisonné (1866).

215. Eugène-Emmanuel Viollet-le-Duc.

from Entretiens sur l’architecture, Lecture XII (1866).

216. Émile Zola.

from Le ventre de Paris (1872).

C. Tectonics and Style in Germany.

217. Karl von Schnaase.

from Niederländische Briefe (1834).

218. Karl Bötticher.

from Die Tektonik der Hellenen (1843).

219. Eduard van der Nüll.

from “Andeutungen über die kunstgemässe Beziehung des Ornamentes zur rohen Form” (1845).

220. Heinrich Leibnitz.

from Die struktive Element in der Architektur (1849).

221. Gottfried Semper.

from Die Vier Elemente der Baukunst (1851).

222. Gottfried Semper.

from Wissenschaft, Industrie und Kunst (1852).

223. Jacob Burckhardt.

from Die Kultur der Renaissance in Italien (1860).

224. Jacob Burckhardt.

from Die Geschichte der Renaissance in Italien (1867).

225. Gottfried Semper.

from Der Stil in den technischen und tektonischen Künsten (1860).

226. Gottfried Semper.

from Der Stil in den technischen und tektonischen Künsten (1860).

227. Rudolf Hermann Lotze.

from Geschichte der Aesthetik in Deutschland (1868).

228. Gottfried Semper.

from Über Baustyle (1869).

229. Richard Lucae.

from “Über die Bedeutung und Macht des Raumes in der Baukunst” (1869).

Index