I started out by picking the Xenotheka library as Alice’s brain. As the topic of conversation, I chose architecture and typed civil architecture into the search bar. I tried both Explore and Find, but I found the Explore button more versatile and more useful in the context of this exercise. I unfortunately was not quite satisfied with the results. I left architecture as the topic of conversation but this time I went back to my book. I flipped through some pages to freshen up my mind about the core of the book. Then I typed next to civil architecture theory, rules and guidelines into the search bar. I typed these specific key words because architettura civile by Guarino Guarini talks about civil architecture in a theoretical way. Guarini writes about the principles and rules in an analytical way. This time the results from Alice were more to my liking.
I found the book called A History of Architectural History by Hanno-Walter Kruft. Kruft writes about the history of architecture. He, similarly to Guarini, analyzes buildings and previous works of architects and people who studied architecture. The book covers the history from Vitruvius to contemporary architecture. I find it interesting that the two books hold several similarities even though they were published almost 300 years apart.
The second book I found is titled Renaissance and Baroque Architecture Volume I by Alina Payne. I figured the book covers architecture from around the same time when Guarino lived and wrote architettura civile. This book covers, as the title indicates, renaissance and baroque architecture. It must be quite interesting to compare the two books more thoroughly because one was written in the 17th century and the second book in the 21st century. The book by Payne analyses the cultural and social context in addition to the analysis of the architecture itself. As far as I know Guarini did not cover these topics in his book.