Generally I used the Xenotheka library as Alice’s brain. As topic of the conversation I used the word “column” because that is the point it is all about in my book, V columnae from Hans Blum.
First of all I used the word “illustration” because in the book V columnae there is a lot of use of pictures. Even though the book is very dated, there are many beautiful pictures in it. One understands among other things by the illustration with Hans Blum many things. Unfortunately, I did not find many similar books. However, I found a relatively modern book, which in a small section talks about the columns from ancient times. In this book, however, there is a lot of writing and little use of pictures. It is largely about ancient and modern construction skills of stone, of which the columns are only a small part. For these reasons, this book did not satisfy me.
In the next step, I tried several terms. These include “structure”, “column order”, “construction” or even “doric”. In the process, one book, or rather one author, clearly came up again and again. This is Gottfried Semper with the book “Style”. Gottfried Semper was an architect and art theorist. He writes about historical, technical arts. It is with a lot of text and with few pictures, but the columns are there in the book. Semper doesn’t necessarily talk about construction, but looks strongly at aesthetic and cultural reasons for columns, which complements Hans Blum’s book. For this reason, I chose *Style” by Gottfried Semper.
Among these previously mentioned terms, I found another interesting book. It is “The Pantheon* by Tod Marder and Mark Jones. The book does not refer directly to the columns, but of course the columns play an important role in the Pantheon. By explaining the construction of the columns by Hans Blum, I find “The Pantheon” a very good addition. Because you see the columns now in a known building and it gets also explained.