Based on my book: „Topographia Galliae, oder, Beschreibung und Contrafaitung der vornehmbsten und bekantisten Oerter in dem mächtigen und grossen Königreich Franckreich“ i chose to first seach Alice in the topic of architecture. I looked first for the last name of my author, which then gave me no usable results. I then focused more on the content of my book and searched key words like topographia, map, 1600, France, castle, building, etc. There I stumbled on the first book which I will explain more thoroughly below.
Then I changed my topic of conversation to France and searched for words like architecture, places, landscapes, and 1600.
The first book I found was “Architecture in Britain, 1530-1830” by John Summerson (1953). This book resonated with me, because like my book, it is a sort of summary of different buildings, built around the same book. In comparison to my book, the book is sorted chronologically and not by place or location. Further, the buildings in each time period is then categorized, for example in “royal works” or “Churches and the Universities”. Although both books combine graphic information and text with a location, I found the map at the start of Summersons book especially useful. The book also works with illustrations, but they blend in the text more easily, with sometimes just a small photography in an bottom corner. I think this has to do with the publish date of the book, because even if the topic is still of the same period, modern parts are already integrated in the book. This made me realise that the big drawings in my book were necessary to show a certain level of detail at a time when photography was not yet invented, and a book that is released after the nineteenth century can show the same amount of information and detail in the illustrations with simply a photography. Other than Photography’s, this book also features floor plans and views drawn my hand.
The second book that I chose was “Patrons and Painters, A study in the relations between Italian Art and Society in the age of the Baroque” by Francis Haskell (1928).
This book resonated with me because it discusses the connection beween society and art, similar to my book, because these places and villages and the buildings they contained often go hand in hand with society at the time and is a representation of it.Regarding the illustrations, this book is likelier to contain photographs of paintings and sculptures and not many drawings.