Architectural theory from the Renaissance to the present: 89 essays on 117 treatises

Taschen, 2003 4to (25.5 cm), 844, [4] pp. Laminated flexible boards with flaps (binding slightly rubbed at extremities and scuffed, mounted bookplate, collector's blind stamp on the title). With a preface by Bernd Evers and an introduction by Christof Thoenes. "The discussion of architectural theory has its roots in Vitrivius' De architectura libri decem (Ten Books on Architecture). As the oldest treatise on architecture to survive in its entirety from pre-Christian times. Vitruvius' work is not simply a unique source of information about the architecture of antiquity and its principles, but has become the foundation for all writings on architectural theory since the Renaissance. The present volume discusses, in 89 concise essays, the most important treatises on architecture from the Renaissance to today. The authors explore the origins of each treatise and examine the motives that have prompted architects over the past 500 years to set down their ideas on paper. Grouped by nation and epoch, the writings of Leon Battista Alberti, Andrea Palladio, Marc-Antoine Laugier, Eugene Viollet-le-Duc, John Shute, Johann Bernhard Fischer von Erlach, Karl Friedrich Schinkel, Le Corbusier, Frank Lloyd Wright, Aldo Rossi and Rem Koolhaas are just some of those discussed in the following pages, their theories lent visual expression by a wealth of illustrations." (from the blurb)