Comment 1 (Post: https://friendswithanoldbook.delbeke.arch.ethz.ch/xenotheka_88-3/):
I have stumbled on your article “Xenotheka_84”, where you explain the similarities between the book “Design of Inigo Jones and others” by Isaac Ware and two other books that you found on Alice platform. The fact that the book “Elements of Architecture” by Rem Koolhaas is very similar to yours, has caught my eyes.
I really like how you defined the book by Koolhaas as a modern version of your 18th century book. As you explain, the two books that you compare have the same goal – to describe the preferences, proportions, and ideals of architectural elements. The same goal follows the last chapter of my book “Theatrum architecturae civilis” by Carlo Dieussart. You also state one very obvious but very important fact and that is that R. Koolhaas analyses and compares architectural elements almost just with the help of photos (if you have not seen the book, the book by Koolhaas has 2500 pages and every page contains one or more than one photo). In contrast to your and my book from 18th century, there are some sketches, but the most important arguments are presented through words. I think that for this topic – analysis of architectural elements, the photos are the appropriate way to present various arguments and facts.
Comment 2 (Post: https://friendswithanoldbook.delbeke.arch.ethz.ch/argument-93-2/):
I have chosen to comment on your post “Argument_93” as our books have very similar titles – “A Treatise on Civil Architecture” by British architect William Chambers and “Theatrum architecturae civilis” by Dutch architect Carlo Dieussart. After all the topics of both mentioned books are very similar.
Both books give the impression that they have been written for architects, but also for other people, who are not professionally active in this sector. Moreover, the content is very similar in both examples. The two authors begin with general topics (what is architecture and in your case the origin of the buildings). Then they discuss the columns and different orders, and the last chapter is dedicated to the specific elements of the buildings. Although the authors have lived 100 hundred years apart, the problems of the architecture have been the same, which is very interesting.