The book “Insignium Romae templorum prospectus exteriores interioresque” contains mostly drawings and just few words. Therefor was it quite hard to start searching for keywords. So, I made a short list with words that describe what is shown in the book
List:
-Rossi
-Temple
-Illustration
-Rome
The keyword “Rossi” did not end in useful results. The results in the Xenotheka and Arcitecture brain where more or less all about architecture in modern times. Most likely because the name Rossi is more connected with the 20th century Architect Aldo Rossi than with a 400-Year-old writer. Also, the brain “Alberti and Vitruvius” did not lead to useful results.
Further I choose the word “temple”, because that’s what the book is all about.
There I found a book in the Xenotheka brain with the title: “The Stones of Venice” from John Ruskin. What Ruskin does is basically the same what Rossi did in his book. Ruskin analyses buildings and their purpose. But in contrast to Rossi is Ruskins book text heavy. There are some small illustrations that show details Ruskin found on these Venice buildings. But they do not exist to give you an overview over the building, more to explain the text in a graphic way.
In the same search I found another book that I feel has some similarities to Rossi’s. It’s a book from Rem Koolhaas where he and his team analyze a bunch of things that all in all create a building. For example, facades, escalators and a lot more. The way the book analyzes buildings is out of a modern perspective and uses the modern ways of documentation. Illustrations mostly gave way to photographs. The analyze is less specific about a certain building, but more about general concepts.
Looks like I’m in a good one…
…Again, in the same search I found a book by Jacob Burckhardt with the title “The Architecture of the Italian Renaissance”. He himself describes the book as neither a reading nor a looking book, it’s more a coffee-table-book. So basically, it’s a perfect mix between the first one from Ruskin, that was a “reading-book” and Rossi’s “looking-book”.
It’s sad!
I really feel the workflow and would love to keep Ask Alice. But I’m already way over the text limit. So, an end needs to be found…