British Architectural Theory, 1540-1750

Although it is often assumed that British writing on architectural theory really started in the eighteenth century, there is in fact a large corpus of writing on architecture pre-dating the introduction of Palladianism by Lord Burlington. Some of it, such as the English editions of Serlio and Palladio, belongs to the Vitruvian tradition. But many texts elude easy classification, such as the prolonged discussions on church architecture, which are both in form and content very different...
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Although it is often assumed that British writing on architectural theory really started in the eighteenth century, there is in fact a large corpus of writing on architecture pre-dating the introduction of Palladianism by Lord Burlington. Some of it, such as the English editions of Serlio and Palladio, belongs to the Vitruvian tradition. But many texts elude easy classification, such as the prolonged discussions on church architecture, which are both in form and content very different from the way that theme was handled in Italian Renaissance treatises.British Architectural Theory shows the originality, richness and independence of architectural thought in early modern England. This first collection of writing on architecture from 1540 to 1750 includes many excerpts never published before. The authors, who include well-known writers such as Inigo Jones, Roger Pratt, John Evelyn, or Sir John Vanbrugh, but also some writers who are not usually associated with architectural theory, such as John Donne or Walter Montague, discuss the nature of architecture, the practicalities of building, the sense of the past, religious architecture, and classicism. All the excerpts are introduced and annotated to facilitate use both by architectural historians and by undergraduate readers.