JF Ptak Science Books Quick Post
[Both of the following engravings are available for purchase via our blog store]
Over the years I've seen many architectural prints, and I've come to determine that I most enjoy the comparative views. It is uncommon to see a single-sheet engraving dedicated to different forms of columns, as we see here in plate 93 (page 307) of volume one of A.C. Daviler's Cours d'Architecture qui comprend les Ordres de Vignole...published in Paris in 1710. Daviler (1653-1701),was an architect and a student of Jean-François Blondel (1683-1756) who worked very extensively on the architectural theory of Giacomo Barozzi or Jacopo Barozzi da Vignola (1507-1573). Here he identifies and classifies 20 different types of columns, just to make sure that everyone was on the same page.
Actually, the very first engraving in the work is dedicated to a definition of terms, establishing the basis for the forms that would be discussed over the following thousand pages. It is an excellent way to start a book, making sure that everyone has a common identification for what standard words would mean. It is a standard and veery good idea but not often illustrated.
And the detail:
Leave it to the French to get that intellectual framework just right.
Posted by: Joy Holland | 24 July 2013 at 08:53 PM
Yes indeedy. I've seen this here and there--defining terms and establishing what one means when using the term "x-something"--but i'm not pulling up any examples in my brain...I mean of course in works on architecture and art and such, not in the sciences. It would take another 130/140 years or so to add what we take as a "given" element--using comparative sizes to render a building in their true relation to another building in side-by-side illustrated discussion. Putting everything into a common scale. That part is odd.
Posted by: John F. Ptak | 24 July 2013 at 10:17 PM