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Title:
Paper Palaces

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$80.00
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Summary:
This book explores how architectural treatises by such authors as Alberti, Di Giorgio, Colonna, Serlio, Palladio, and others have affected the development of the art of building. The contributors, Joseph Rykwert, Alberto Perez-Gomez, Nigel Llewellyn, Indra Kagis McEwen, Ingrid and James McQuillan among others offer new insights into the ideas of the treatises and discuss their significance in Renaissance Italy, as well as their long-lasting influence throughout Europe.

Title:
St. Paul's Cathedral : London 1675-1710, Sir Christopher Wren

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$39.99
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Summary:
Architecture in Detail series.

Title:
Christopher Wren: in search of eastern antiquity

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$79.95
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Summary:
In this revelatory study of one of the great architects in British history, Vaughan Hart considers Christopher Wren’s (1632–1723) interest in Eastern antiquity and Ottoman architecture, an interest that would animate much of his theory and practice. As the early modern understanding of antiquity broadened to include new discoveries at Palmyra and Persepolis, Wren disputed common assumptions about the European origins of Classical and Gothic architecture, tracing these building traditions not to the Greeks or Germans but to the stonemasons of the biblical East. In a deft analysis, Hart contextualizes Wren’s use of classical elements—columns, domes, and cross plans—within his enthusiasm for the East and the broader Anglican interest in the Eastern church. A careful study of diary records reappraises Wren’s working relationship with Robert Hooke (1635–1703), who shared in many of Wren’s theoretical commitments. The result is a new, deepened understanding of Wren’s work.

Title:
Inigo Jones: the architect of kings

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Summary:
Inigo Jones (1573-1652) is widely acknowledged to have been England's most important architect. As court designer to the Stuart kings James I and Charles I, he is credited with introducing the classical language of architecture to the country. He famously traveled to Italy and studied firsthand the buildings of the Italian masters, particularly admiring those by Andrea Palladio. Much less well known is the profound influence of native British arts and crafts on Jones's architecture. Likewise, his hostility to the more opulent forms of Italian architecture he saw on his travels has largely gone unnoted. This book examines both of these overlooked issues. Vaughan Hart identifies well-established links between the classical column and the crown prior to Jones, in early Stuart masques, processions, heraldry, paintings, and poems. He goes on to discuss Jones's preference for a "masculine and unaffected" architecture, demonstrating that this plain style was consistent with the Puritan artistic sensitivities of Stuart England. For the first time, the work of Inigo Jones is understood in its national religious and political context.

Title:
Palladio's Rome

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$64.95
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Summary:
Andrea Palladio (1508-1580), one of the most famous architects of all time, published two enormously popular guides to the churches and antiquities of Rome in 1554. Striving to be both scholarly and popular, Palladio invited his Renaissance readers to discover the charm of Rome's ancient and medieval wonders, and to follow pilgrimage routes leading from one church to the next. He also described ancient Roman rituals of birth, marriage, and death. Here translated into English and joined in a single volume for the first time, Palladio's guidebooks allow modern visitors to enjoy Rome exactly as their predecessors did 450 years ago. Like the originals, this new edition is pocket sized and therefore easily read on site. Enhanced with illustrations and commentary, the book also includes the first full English translation of Raphael's famous letter to Pope Leo X on the monuments of ancient Rome. For architectural historians, tourists, and armchair travellers, this book offers insights into the antiquarian and ecclesiastical preoccupations of one of the greatest of the Renaissance architectural masters.

Title:
Sir John Vanbrugh : storyteller in stone

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$65.00
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Summary:
Sir John Vanbrugh (1664-1726) was by turns businessman, soldier, playwright, herald and architect of some of the most important country houses of his era. In this book architectural historian Vaughan Hart draws on these diverse interests to examine afresh Vanbrugh's surviving, destroyed and unrealised buildings as well as the designs he executed in collaboration with Nicholas Hawksmoor. It was the fate of Vanbrugh's buildings to be at first maligned and then misunderstood. Hart outlines the contemporary political and social events which influenced the architect and shows how his strikingly original houses, such as those as Seaton Delaval and Grimsthorpe, can be interpreted through reference to classical mythology, renaissance fortifications and medieval houses. Vaughan Hart is Professor of Architecture in the Department of Architecture and Civil Engineering at the University of Bath.

Title:
Nicholas Hawksmoor : rebuilding ancient wonders

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$96.00
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Summary:
The diverse works of architect Nicholas Hawksmoor (1661–1736) range from small architectural details to ambitious urban plans, from new parish churches to work on the monument of his age, St. Paul’s Cathedral. As a young man Hawksmoor assisted Christopher Wren and John Vanbrugh, emerging from these apprenticeships to design some of the most vigorous and dramatic buildings in England. In this book, architectural historian Vaughan Hart presents a fresh view of Hawksmoor’s built and planned work. In addition, Hart offers the first coherent explanation of Hawksmoor’s theory of architecture. The book explains why Hawksmoor’s buildings look the way they do, what contemporary events influenced his work, and how such ancient buildings as Solomon’s temple and Mausolus’s tomb inspired him. Underscoring the unique qualities of the architect’s accomplishments and aspirations, Hart establishes with new clarity Hawksmoor’s vital role in the development of English architecture.

Title:
Nicholas Hawksmoor: Rebuilding ancient wonders

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$36.75
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Summary:
The diverse works of architect Nicholas Hawksmoor (?1661–1736) ranged from small architectural details to ambitious urban plans, from new parish churches to work on the monument of his age, St. Paul’s Cathedral. As a young man Hawksmoor assisted Christopher Wren and John Vanbrugh, emerging from these formidable apprenticeships to design some of the most vigorous and dramatic buildings in England. In this engaging book, architectural historian Vaughan Hart presents a fresh view of Hawksmoor’s built and planned work. In addition, Hart offers the first coherent explanation of Hawksmoor’s theory of architecture. The book explains why Hawksmoor’s buildings look the way they do, what contemporary events influenced his work, and how such ancient buildings as Solomon’s temple and Mausolus’s tomb inspired him. Underscoring the unique qualities of the architect’s accomplishments and aspirations, Hart establishes with new clarity Hawksmoor’s vital role in the development of English architecture.