Friends with an old Book
Task 2
Title: Universae Architecturae Civilis Elementa
Author: Christian Rieger
Publication Date: 1756
The book Universae Architecturea Civilis Elementa, published in 1756is in Latin. The title describes the contents of the book, thus writes about civil architecture. It most likely served the students of the Theresian Knight’s Academy in Vienna for educational purpose.
There is a list of contents, which structures the book into 4 sections. From what I can decipher from Latin, it starts with the basics of Architecture and treats different aspects, like architecture and ornaments in the later parts.
The book is richly illustrated. It has many copper engravings which show various floor plans and elevations, architectural accessories, schematic representations, and perspective calculations. They are all collected in the back of the book.
The book is average size. Looking at it, I thought it must be very heavy, when in fact it was rather light. The drawings and some tables in the back are on unfolding pages, which allows them to be very detailed and in full scale.
The Author of the book is Christian Rieger. He was a Jesuit from Vienna. His book was dedicated to the noble students of the Theresianum of Vienna. He later became a Professor for Mathematics.