First, I started to swim read my book “Del palazzo de’ Cesari. Opera postuma” by Francesco Bianchini once again with the help of archive.org. I was looking for clues to feed Alice with certain key words, names
etc. to relate my book to others. Since I already knew that the book was about temples and palaces of empoerors and nobles, I was looking for specific names of noble families, etc., in particular.
I translated headings, captions and sentences that stood out from the normal text into English with the help of Deepl, or Latin with the help of google, in order to find those keywords.
On page 17 I found the translation into English: ” …the Prince of the Serene House of Farnese…”.
So I entered the following parameters in Alice:
Explore: Farnese
Topic: architecture
Xenotheka library
I bumped through the quote:”….emulated the Renaissance Palazzo Farnese.” to the book: “Modern Architectural Theory – A Historical Survey, 1673-1968” by Harry Francis Malgrave (Cambridge University Press).
The Book is a comprehensive architectural survey, that covers 300 years of history. Harry Mallgrave examines architectural discourse within its social and political context. He explores the philosophical and conceptual evolution of its ideas.
He writes on topics such as Claude Perrault and the Louvre, The rediscovery of Greek, Neoclassicism and Character, The Palladian Movement, The British Art and Craft Movement, and so much more.
In a passage, Mallgrave mentions that the intraspacial relationships off rooms at Villa Farnese influenced other architects.
The books are in a way fairly similar, both books cover architectural history – they address already built architecture.
I also like to imagine that my friend’s book, written in 1722, influences a publication by a Cambridge collaborator hundreds of years later.
I continued swimming through my book on archive.org in order to find more hints about mentioning of buildings and I found on page 23: “of the entire ground plan of the palace built by Augustus and enlarged by Tiberius and Succeffon.” (Translated from the Italian. So it could have been the vaulted Augustus Palace in Rome, the ruins of which still stand in Rome.
So I continued to be interested in palazzos in Rome and that’s how I got the information I was feeding Alice:
Explore: Palazzo Rome
Type: draw
Xenotheka library
I came across the quote:
“Overbeck remained in Rome, however, and worked with Cornelius on a series of frescos commissioned for the Palazzo Zuccari.”
The book “Art in Theory 1648-1815 – An Anthology Of Changing Ideas” by Charles Harrison, Paul Wood and Jason Geiger.
The book discusses painters like Peter Paul Rubens and their influence on the time. I find it very fascinating that through Alice a bridge between a book of architecture and a book about artist can connect with each other.
A connection is possible because in Novemvber 1814 there is a commission to decorate a room in the Palazzo Zuccari in Rome.
In conclusion, I think that Alice is a good tool for research projects, especially if you work hybrid with several platforms, such as archive.org or Deepl (in my case to translate from Italian into German) and use the full bandwidth of the internet.
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