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FRIENDS WITH AN OLD BOOK

Argument_68

Posted on 12/17/2021

The book «A Book of Architecture containing Designs of Buildings and Ornaments” from James Gibbs was first published in 1728 and contains like how the title say many pictures of his buildings and ornaments. It should surely serve as reference for upcoming architects, but also for clients, who have a general interest in architecture and in his works. It is dedicated to John Campbell, the Duke of Argyll and Greenwich, an old friend. The book consists pretty much just of illustrations of buildings, that he designed and ornaments. At the beginning of the book you found this dedication to the duke and after that an introduction. In this introduction there is a relative long table of contents (more than 20 pages) where there are paragraphs to each picture which summaries the architectural details and reasonings of the buildings. The illustrations are very detailed and well-drawn. The book is very large and thick. The big size of the book can be explained due to the very detailed illustrations of rather big buildings like churches. James Gibbs’ book is very wide-spread across England and the British colonies like the West Indies and America. The Scottish author James Gibbs (1682 – 1754) is one of Britain’s most influential architects, developing his own architectural style with elements and forms from the Italian Baroque and was heavily influenced by Palladio. Despite his influence through his book, he had little effect on the later direction of British architecture, who went to a Neoclassical direction after his death.

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