Related Guides
Renaissance Writings on Architecture
Paper Palaces: the rise of the Renaissance architectural treatise by
A collection of essays examining early editions of Vitruvius' writings and all the major Renaissance architectural treatises by authors such as Alberti, Di Giorgio, Colonna, Serlio, and Palladio. The authors look at the significance of the treatise in the Renaissance, and trace its decline in the late 17th century.
Call Number: Mugar Stacks NA2515 .P36 1998
The Architectural Treatise in the Italian Renaissance by
Vitruvius' Ten Books of Architecture was the fountainhead of architectural theory in the Italian Renaissance. Offering theoretical and practical solutions to a wide variety of architectural issues, this treatise did not, however, address all of the questions that were of concern to early modern architects. This study examines the Italian Renaissance architect's efforts to negotiate between imitation and reinvention of classicism. Through a close reading of Vitruvius and texts written during the period 1400-1600, Alina Payne identifies ornament as the central issue around which much of this debate focused.
Call Number: Mugar Stacks NA2515 .P39 1999
Palladio
The Four Books on Architecture by Call Number: Mugar Stacks NA2515 .P253 1997
Serlio
Sebastiano Serlio on Architecture by
Sebastiano Serlio (1475-1554) was the most important architectural writer and theorist of the sixteenth century; despite this, his writings have been virtually inaccessible until now. This translation of Serlio's five-volume treatise--he died before publishing two further volumes--replaces the only other English version, one that was produced in 1611 from an inaccurate Dutch translation of the Italian original. Vaughan Hart and Peter Hicks, working directly from Serlio's own corrected editions, here provide new access to his highly influential treatise. Serlio introduced northern Europe to the principles of classical design. When Christopher Wren was building St. Paul's Cathedral and when John Wood designed the streets of Bath, for example, both architects had Serlio's books on hand. Serlio begins with the rules of geometry and perspective, and continues with a description of the ornamental splendor of the baths, temples, arches, and palaces of ancient Rome. He includes advice on how to incorporate classical features into interior designs. In an innovative discussion of Tuscan, Doric, Ionic, and Corinthian columns, to which he added Composite, Serlio established a canon of Five Orders that held authority for over a century. He illustrates the use of these orders in twelve temple designs. Serlio's attempt to codify the rules of a design language that utilized tradition while facilitating invention mirrors similar efforts by architects in the twentieth century to establish an architectural order through rules governing proportion and form. Serlio's beautiful woodcut illustrations are reproduced in this edition, which also includes a thorough introduction, commentary, and glossary of terms.
Call Number: Mugar Stacks NA2515 .S513 1996, vol. 1 & vol. 2
Classical Influence
Vitruvius: ten books on architecture by
1st century BC. The only full treatise on architecture and its related arts to survive from classical antiquity, the Architecture libri decem (Ten Books on Architecture) is the single most important work of architectural history in the Western world, having shaped architecture and the image of the architect from the Renaissance to the present. Demonstrating the range of Vitruvius' style, this new edition includes examples from archaeological sites discovered since World War II and not previously published in English language translations. Rowland's new translation and Howe's critical commentary and illustrations provide a new image of Vitruvius, who emerges as an inventive and creative thinker, rather than the normative summarizer, as he was characterized in the Middle Ages and Renaissance.
Call Number: Mugar Stacks NA2515 .V6135 1999
Venice and Vitruvius by
In about 35-25 B.C.E., the Roman architect Vitruvius produced his encyclopedic ten-book summary of the principles of Hellenistic architecture, De architectura (On Architecture). These ideas have stimulated architects ever since. In the mid-16th century, the architect Andrea Palladio (1508-1580) and the humanist Daniele Barbaro (1513-1570) looked to the city of Venice in order to understand and interpret Vitruvius's text - still in need of clarification - which would enable them to solve contemporary architectural problems. They found in the city's medieval and Renaissance streets, palaces, churches, and towers living principles that enabled them to interpret the ancient principles. By 1556, Barbaro had incorporated their observations into his "Commentaries" on Vitruvius, and two distinctly new editions for different audiences followed a decade later. Margaret D'Evelyn has gathered evidence to document how Palladio's understanding of Vitruvius influenced Barbaro. This engrossing volume also charts the invention of the illustrated architectural book and how major architect-authors, such as Leon Battista Alberti and Sebastiano Serlio, contributed to its development - demonstrating how Vitruvius shaped the way the city of Venice was viewed.
Call Number: Mugar Stacks NA1121.V4 D48 2012
Natural History by
Pliny the Elder, tireless researcher and writer, is author of the encyclopedic Natural History, in 37 books, an unrivaled compendium of Roman knowledge. The contents of the books are as follows. Book 1: table of contents of the others and of authorities; 2: mathematical and metrological survey of the universe; 3-6: geography and ethnography of the known world; 7: anthropology and the physiology of man; 8-11: zoology; 12-19: botany, agriculture, and horticulture; 20-27: plant products as used in medicine; 28-32: medical zoology; 33-37: minerals (and medicine), the fine arts, and gemstones. The Loeb Classical Library edition of Natural History is in ten volumes.
Call Number: Mugar Stacks QH41 .F38
Pliny the Elder and the Emergence of Renaissance Architecture by
1st century AD. The Naturalis historia by Pliny the Elder provided Renaissance scholars, artists and architects with details of ancient architectural practice and long-lost architectural wonders - material that was often unavailable elsewhere in classical literature. Pliny's descriptions frequently included the dimensions of these buildings, as well as details of their unusual construction materials and ornament. This book describes, for the first time, how the passages were interpreted from around 1430 to 1580, that is, from Alberti to Palladio. Chapters are arranged chronologically within three interrelated sections - antiquarianism; architectural writings; drawings and built monuments - thereby making it possible for the reader to follow the changing attitudes to Pliny over the period. The resulting study establishes the Naturalis historia as the single most important literary source after Vitruvius's De architectura.
Publication Date: 2016
