Before this assignment, I was never aware of how many different books there are on architecture and how many different topics are covered in them. My book is only one of many that deals with carpentry. I was not very familiar with woodwork even before I started studying, so it was exciting for me to learn about it. In the beginning it was hard for me to get along with the book, because you can’t find much about it online, it is so old. Also, it is written in French and there are no translated editions, which makes it even more difficult. There is only one real source that writes about the book. This source is also very old and also in French. Nevertheless I learned a few things. Namely that there are many different tools for carpentry and many different wooden constructions. Thanks to the pictures I understood a bit more despite the language barrier. Especially the last part of the book about the order of columns was very interesting, because the drawings were extremely large, beautiful and detailed. At the beginning of the task the study had just begun and I didn’t know that much about architectural history and construction. In any case, the book became more and more understandable the further the first year progressed.
In my opinion, some tasks made more sense than others. Task 3 Lineage and Task 2 Contact were in my opinion the least enriching. It was helpful to have the book in your hands, but since it was scanned and available online in its original version, physical contact was the only thing that was added to the personal contact. The illustrations and texts were also available online through the scanned version. Since it was also very difficult for me to read, I could only look at the book while filming the 20-minute video and not completely immerse myself in it. I tried to understand single passages, but mostly I could only understand single words.
The last task was in my opinion the most exciting. It was very interesting to learn about other books and to exchange experiences. In our group, the books have similarities but are very different in some ways.
So, in the end the relationship with my book was not really intimate. The language barrier as well as the age of the book made it difficult for me to understand. At the beginning one was very overwhelmed with the task of analyzing and getting to know such an old and important book. At that time we also had little or no knowledge of architecture. In general, I understood what the book was about, but it was not possible for me to really understand the content completely. Nevertheless, I learned something on this assignment, because I think it was more important to learn how to research such works and to use all online resources. It was a good exercise to learn how to filter out only the important information.