The title of François Blondel’s book is « Nouvelle manière de fortifier les places ». In the second task I discussed that the book contains concepts about the fortification of architectural spaces. So, my initial instinct was to use the word “fortification” in Ask Alice. As I expected, many books with similar titles and contents popped up but one of them caught my attention right away.
It was the 10 books of architecture by Leon Batista Alberti. The similarities are obvious as it discusses architectural spaces as well. However, from how much I understood from « Nouvelle manière de fortifier les places », I think that François Blondel described his concepts more abstract, whereas Alberti used concrete arguments and examples. The time and geographical location in which the books were written seemed interesting to me as well, as Blondel’s book was written in 1688 – more than 200 years later than Alberti’s 10 books of architecture (1452). Furthermore, Alberti wrote his books in Italy and as I already mentioned in the second task, François Blondel addressed his book directly to the French king. Probably that’s the reason why Alberti’s 10 books of architecture are more detailed and objected.
For my second book I tried to dig a bit deeper into the matter. So, I based my search on my conclusions from the second task, rather than just a word from the title. I decided to look for other architectural books in relation to Louis XIV to whom François Blondel addressed his book.
I found “Vasari on Technique” by Giorgio Vasari. It’s a book which discusses design, architecture, sculpture and painting – a similar subject as « Nouvelle manière de fortifier les places ». My results in Ask Alice also showed that it contains parts about Louis XIV which seemed quite surprising and funny to me as Louis XIV was born after Giorgio Vasari had already died.