«Lucidum prospectivae Speculum”, the title of the book, means “A bright mirror of the Perspective”.
There is no list of contents, but the texts are structured after the figures in the illustration. They are also respectively captioned with “Erklärung” (Explanation) or “Beschreibung” (Description) of that figure. Therefore, I assume the text is only there to support the illustrations. The book also consists mainly of illustrations. Out of about 200 pages, only 35 pages are printed with text.
The illustrations are precise plan drawings of objects, columns, facades, altars, ceilings, capitals, and even whole buildings. They all are drawn from different perspectives and are much detailed. In some drawings even people have been drawn into it, which makes the drawings more realistic. The book is large so that the drawings can be well seen.
The author, Paul Heineken, born in 1674, was a German painter, draughtsman, and architect. He learned how to draw from his father, who was the city master-builder of Riga. Paul Heineken published the book “Lucidum prospectivae Speculum” in 1727 and it was and is still to this day recognized as one of the best books written about perspective in the eighteenth century.
This book is all about perspective. We can recognize that not only in the title but also in the labeling of the text and most importantly in the illustrations. I assume that Paul Heineken wrote this book so that architects and painters can better understand and apply the benefits of perspective. There were probably not many helpful books on that subject, and people did not have as much knowledge about it as we have today. I can imagine that Heineken’s book could also have been used as a textbook for studying perspective.
In this argumentation was mentioned that the book “Lucidum prospectivae Speculum” is quite similar to our book nr. 71 which is called “Synopsis Architecturae Civilis Elececticae”. The autor of this post states that his or her book contains a lot of elaborate illustrations of buildings. As I took a closer look at the pictures form the Greetings_67 post my assumption was confirmed. The engravings look very similar to the ones from “Synopsis Architecturae Civilis Elececticae”. Both authors were real artists and had a good eye for perspective representations. A second parallel is that both authors are German. Paul Heineken was only 15 years older than Johann Jacob Schübel.
Connections_71
21-931-258
Hello there! While searching for a book from the approximately same epoch I found yours. Your book «Lucidum prospectivae Speculum” or in English “A bright mirror of the Perspective” from Paul Heineken is from the year 1727 and mine “Kurzgefasste Einleitung zur Perspectiv” from Johann Christoph Bischoff is from 1744. After looking at the greeting post, I found out, that the cover and style from the books are quite similar but yours is a bit in a better condition. Like in my book are there some detail drawings in your book. Interesting is, that these drawings have also very precise shadows.
Connections_82
21-939-764
Hey there! When I was looking for books from authors from the eighteen century, I found your book “Lucidum prospectivae Speculum”. But then I recognized that the even bigger common ground with my book “Ruins of the palace of the Emperor Diocletian at Spalatro in Dalmatia” from Argument_96 is that the biggest part of the book are detailed drawings from columns, facades etc.. So, in our books are more drawings than text, which can help a lot to understand the context and the details the elements are in. I think the difference in the drawings in our books is that in the book “Lucidum prospectivae Speculum” are more views with people in it and the buildings from outside. And in the book “Ruins of the palace of the Emperor Diocletian at Spalatro in Dalmatia” there are also a lot of floorplans.
Connection_69
21-919-121