Books about principles of architecture, architectural styles, and the architecture of certain remarkable buildings.
☛We have a separate page of House Plans and Domestic Architecture.
☛Vitruvius’ Architecture was an indispensable handbook in the 1500s, not only for architects, but for any gentleman who pretended to taste. Thus there are many fine illustrated editions from that time.
M. Vitruvii Pollionis De Architectura Libri Decem ad Caesarem Augustum; omnibus omnium editionibus longe emendatiores, collatis veteribus exemplis. Lugduni, 1552. With many illustrations.
M. Vitruvii Pollionis De Architectura Libri Decem, cum commentariis Danielis Barbari, Electi Patriarchae Aquileiensis. Multis aedificiorum, horologium, et machinarum descriptionibus, & figuris, una cum indicibus copiosis, auctis & illustratis. venetiis, 1567. Beautifully printed in italic type, with splendid engravings.
M. Vitruvii Pollionis De Architectura Libri Decem, ad Caes. Augustum… (Missing title page in scan, but the date “1586” is scrawled on a blank page, which seems about right from the style of printing.)
The Architecture of Marcus Vitruvius Pollio, in ten books. Translated from the Latin by Joseph Gwilt. 1826.
The Ten Books on Architecture, translated by Morris Hicky Morgan, Ph.D., Ll.D. With illustrations and original designs prepared under the direction of Herbert Langford Warren, A.M. 1914.
(Another copy.)
I quattro libri dell’architettura di Andrea Palladio. Ne’ quali, dopo vn breue trattato de’ cinque ordini, & di quelli auertimenti, che sono piu necessarij nel fabricare; si tratta delle case priuate, delle vie, dei ponti, delle piazze, dei xisti, et de’ tempij. In Venetia, Appresso Bartolomeo Carampello. 1581.
Trattato dell’arte della pittura, scoltura, et architettura, di Gio. Paulo Lomazzo Milanese Pittore. In Milano, Per Paulo Gottardo Pontio, 1584.
Regola delle cinque ordini d’architettura di M. Iacomo Barozzio da Vignola. In Venetia: Appresso Girolamo Porro 1596.
A Tracte Containing the Artes of curious Paintinge Carvinge & Building. Written first in Italian by Jo: Paul Lomatius painter of Milan, and Englished by R. H. [Richard Haydocke] student in Physik. [No printer or date, but the dedication is dated 1598.] —It seems to have been printed at Oxford, and it is a beautiful book.
Another copy.
Architectura von Außtheilung, Symmetria und Proportion der fünff Seulen. Und aller darauß volgender Kunſt Arbeit von Fenſtern, Caminen, Thürgerichten, Portalen, Bronnen vnd Epitaphien, uſw. Dürch Wendel Dietterlin. Nürnberg: Balthaſar Caÿmor, 1598.
Cours d’architecture enseigné dans l’Academie Royale d’Architecture. [In five parts, all bound in one volume.] Paris: Lambert Roulland, 1675.
Architectura civilis, oder, Beſchreibung und Vorreißung vieler vornehmer Dachwerck, als hoher Helmen, Creutzdächer, Wiederkehrungen, welſcher Hauben, auch Kelter, Fallbrücken : item allerley Preſsen, Schnecken oder Windelſtiegen und andern dergleichen mechaniſchen Fabrichen : alles mit höchsten Fleiß zusammen getragen, und der lieben Jugend, sonderlich aber allen Kunſtliebhabern der Architectur zu Nutz und Dienſt an Tag gegeben Nürnberg, In Verlzung Paul Fürſtens seel, 1675… —Many engravings showing how to build a house, bridge, etc.
A Treatise of the Five Orders of Columns in Architecture, viz. Toscan, Doric, Ionic, Corinthian and composite. Written in French by Claude Perrault. Made English by John James of Greenwich. London: Benj. Motte, 1708. —The very fine engraved illustrations and ornaments are by John Sturt.
Another copy.
A Book of Architecture, containing designs of buildings and ornaments. By James Gibbs. London, 1728.
Rudiments of Architecture, practical and theoretical. With plates. By Joseph Gwilt. London: Priestley and Weale, 1826. —Mr. Gwilt was a very busy man: this book was published in the same year as his translation of Vitruvius (above).
The Gothic Quest. By Ralph Adams Cram. New York: The Baker and Taylor Company, 1907. —Cram is a poet in stone who chronicles the adventures of himself as a knight of the Grail seeking the unattainable.
Encyclopedia of Architecture. A dictionary of the science and practice of architecture, building, carpentry, etc., from the earliest ages to the present time, forming a comprehensive work of reference for the use of architects, builders, carpenters, masons, engineers, students, professional men, and amateurs. By Peter Nicholson, architect and builder. Edited by Edward Lomax and Thomas Gunyon, architects and civil engineers. Illustrated with two hundred and thirty engravings on steel, mostly from working drawings in detail. New York: J. S. Ogilvie, [1852].
Vol. I. A–H.
Vol. II. I–Z.
A Dictionary of Architecture and Building, biographical, historical, and descriptive. By Russell Sturgis, A.M., Ph.D., and many architects, painters, engineers, and other expert writers, American and foreign. New York: The Macmillan Company, 1905.
Vol. I. A–E.
Vol. II. F–N.
Vol. III. O–Z.
A collection of ornament books: Nouveau livre d’ornemens d’orfevrerie / fait par Ducerceau – [Flower ornaments] / fait par Du Cerceau – [The seasons by Ducerceau] – Frises propres pour les orfévres, sculpteurs, marqueteurs &c. : nouvellement inuentées, et grauées / par A. Ducerceau – [Foliage designs by A. Loire] – Nouveaux desseins d’ornemens de paneaux, lambris, carosse &c. / inuentez et grauez par A. Loire – Frises et ornemans de paneaux : nouuellement inuentez et grauez / par A. Loire – Cheminées et lambris a la mode : executez dans les nouueaux batimens de Paris / fait par P. le Pautre – Nouvelles cheminées à paneaux de glace executées dans quelques hôtels de Paris : avec les profils en grand des membres d’architectur – Portes à placard et Lambris dessinez par le Sr. Mansard et nouvellement executez dans quelques maisons roiales &c. / gravé par Le Pautre – Portes cochere de menuiserie : nouvellement gravée sur des desseins de Mr. Francard. —Some of these would make good typographic ornaments as well.
Nouvelles Cheminées, Gravé sur des desseins de Mr. Francard, Architecte du Roy. paris: Langlois, [1680]. —A little booklet of really splendid chimneys.
Historic Ornament. Treatise on decorative art and architectural ornament. Treats of prehistoric art; ancient art and architecture; Eastern, early Christian, Byzantine, Saracenic, Romanesque, Gothic, and Renaissance architecture and ornament. By Jmes Ward. With four hundred and thirty-six illustrations. London: Chapman and Hall, 1909.
The Villas of the Ancients Illustrated. By Robert Castell. London: Printed for the Author, 1728.
Another copy.
Receuille des plus belles Veües des Maisons Royales de France, designé et gravé par [Gabriel] Perelle. Paris: de Poilly, [1680].
Lambeth Palace Illustrated in a Series of Views, representing its most interesting antiquities in buildings, portraits, stained glass, &c. London: F. Herbert and R. W. Brayley, 1806. —The title above is the one on the engraved title page; the printed title page gives us the title A Concise Account, Historical and Descriptive, of Lambeth Palace.
A Descriptive and Historical Account of Various Palaces and Public Buildings, (English and foreign:) with biographical notices of their founders, and other eminent persons. By James Norris Brewer. With various additions and emendations, but B. R. Gill, Esq. London: William Gilling, 1821.
Winkles’s Architectural and Picturesque Illustrations of the Cathedral Churches of England and Wales; the drawings made from sketches taken expressly for this work, by Robert Garland, architect. With an historical and descriptive account. London: Effingham Wilson and Charles Tilt, 1836.
Dictionnaire Raisonné de l’archictecture française du XIe au XVIe siècle, par E. Viollet-le-Duc.
Tome 1.
Another copy.
Another copy.Tome 4.
Another copy.
Another copy.Table analytique et synthétique du Dictionnaire raisonné de l’architecture française du XIe au XVIe siècle par Viollet-Le-Duc. Avec table alphabétique des noms de lieux par départements, pour la France et par contrées, pour l’étranger. Paris: F. de Nobele (no date).