The book Synopsis architecturae civilis eclecticae from Johann Jacob Schübler is filled with tables that he created himself and various sections and floorplans, which he discusses in the course of the book. The very long title of the book, which I decided to shorten here, reveals a lot about the content of Schübler’s book. Consequently, I searched for key words which would help me find a book with a similar topic.
The first term “Ancient Geometry Elementary” wasn’t successful. Alice couldn’t find any results. I was confused until I found out that the I had to change the topic of the conversation. I tried again with architectura and architecture. Interestingly, the two terms produced somewhat different results. The book suggestions where the same but listed in a different order. Unfortunately, Alice delivered zero results when I added the term “Civil-Bau Guild”. When I clicked on the explore button instead of the find button, I could add several words from the books title and got different book suggestions.
As a result of adding: “governing maxims, civil-bau, Ancient Geometry Elementary” the finale outcome was a book called Paragons and Paragone from Audolf Preimesberger. My google research showed that the book explored the rivalry between the artists of the Renaissance & Baroque eras. Sounds super interesting but unfortunately it has nothing to do with Schübler’s work Synopsis architecturae civilis eclecticae. Even when I switched the term governing mix, which had covered the political aspect of the book, with five major orders a lot of suggested books revolved around baroque paintings or artists and not about architecture.
Nevertheless, the best result was the work of Hanno-Walter Kruft, a German art historian. In 1994 he wrote a book dealing with architecture, A History of Architectural Theory. Including Western architectural theory from Vitruvius to the present. For this work he researched, organized, and analyzed the significant statements put forth by architectural theorists over the last two thousand years.
Both Hanno-Walter Kruft and Johan Jacob Schübler addressed their book to architects, students, teachers, historians, and theorists. Their texts are rich in content and easy to read. Therefore, A History of Architecture Theory is a very good match for Synopsis architecturae civilis eclecticae