Xenotheka_66
For me to be able to start working on this task I had to refresh my memories of what my book was about and what focal points it mentions. From memory alone I could only tell that its main subject were the grand stairs leading to the Chateau de Versailles. After refreshing my memory, I could start with getting comfortable using Ask Alice and the finding my way around the digital library Xenotheka.
I started by searching the topic stair and Versailles. This resulted in a broad spectrum of other topics. After going through a few of the books I decided to try a few other topics. But to be honest I had no idea what to search, since my book is basically only about stairs. I went back to the main topic being stairs and search words such as “Versailles” and “Ambassador”. After a while I found the book “Elements of Architecture” by the author Rem Koolhaas. The book contains way more pages than my book but does contain a chapter about 150 pages long full of drawings and theories about the evolvement of stairs and staircases throughout the years, how they were and are constructed, as well as what their purpose is. Other than chapters about stairs, one can find other chapters containing knowledge about different elements of buildings, such as windows, doors and much more. Some containing more than 100 pages.
The second book I chose is much more like my main book Grand escalier du chateau de Versailles”. The book is called “Recueil des figures, groups, thermes, fontaines, vases, statutes, et autres ornemens de Versailles“ by Thomasin. The first thing I noticed was, that this book was also dedicated to Louis le Grand. Like “Grand escalier du chateau de Versailles“, this book has plenty detailed drawings of the Chateau de Versailles, with its only difference being that some objects like fountains are portrayed.
While in Thomasins book pictures were shown as photography, “Grand escalier du chateau de Versailles” was only hand drawings, which makes me appreciate it more. In the end both books achieve to show similar things, and both reach their goal.