Based on the title of the book (“Elementos de toda la architectura civil : con las mas singulares observaciones de los modernos
impressos en latin”) as well as titles of some selected chapters, I chose the following words for the exploration on the search engine Alice:
Words selected from the title:
– civil architecture
– elements of architecture
– elements of civil architecture
Words selected form the first part of the book:
– principles of architecture
– theory of architecture
– building standards
– axioms of architecture
– architectonic proportion
From the second part:
– parts of a building
– position of the architect
From the third part:
– architectonic ornaments
– the five orders
From the fourth part:
– construction rules
– disposition of the building
I played around with the settings on Alice. The settings I used when I came upon the findings that connected to my book were the following:
– Topic of conversation: architecture
– Alices Brain: xenotheka library
– Search –> find
By looking up the keywords “the five orders” I came across the book “Elements of Architecture” by Rem Koolhaas which was published in 2014. Interestingly this book was written more than 250 Years after “Elementos de toda la architectura civil” was published, yet there are several connections that can be found regarding the topics that the books cover. Xenotheka helped me to find out that Koolhaas book covers topics like “floor, ceiling, roof, facade” and so on and therefore covers very similar topics like the book by Benavente (see topic “parts of a building”). The structure of the two books is also similar. Although in Koolhaas book the table of contents is only on the cover of the book and not listed in one of the first pages, there are subtopics to each big topic. Also the book shows many pictures and illustrations of observations from architectural projects. Furthermore I assume that this book has the same claim to educate and transport knowledge in a clear and structured way and is intended for architects or interested people to help them understand the main elements of architecture.
The second book which I found by using the keywords “principles of architecture” and which is connected to “Elementos de toda la architectura civil” is “Modern Architectural Theory” by Harry Mallgrave (published in the year 2005 in the UK).
The subtitle of the book “A Historical Survey, 1673 –1968 “ gives us a main idea of what the book is about. Also with the help of Xenotheca I was able to easily understand the intention of the author, namely to cover the history of architectural theory from 1673 –1968. So, interestingly, it covers topics that Benavente covered as well but from a very different point of view, namely from the retrospective. Another interesting part is that in this book the role of the architect itself is being reflected as well. Interestingly the keyword “modern” pops up in both titles of the book but because they were written in different places and times it is very improbable that the authors mean the same things when they make use of this term. Again, the similarity is that this book also intents to make an overview of Architectural principles, theories and building practices to help its readers better understand.
On my research on similar or comparable books, I just came across your posts on „Elementos de toda la architectura civil“. I was surprised to find numerous similarities when comparing it to my book „Studio d’architettura civile“ by Ferdinando Ruggieri.
First of all, the historical and geographical context is rather similar. Both books were written in the mediterranean area during the 18th century. The last volume by Ruggieri was actually published just 8 years before the treatise, that you looked into. Also the topic of „civil architecture“ is the same, as we can tell from the titles.
I was happy to see, that we also discovered the same book by Rem Koolhaas (“Elements of Architecture”) in our further research. I would totally agree with your description of Koolhaas’ book as a contemporary, but very comparable publication.
When looking at your book on e-rara, I was rather surprised to find your book made up mostly of text. It was interesting to see a totally different approach, where your book uses precise descriptions with additional drawings, whereas my book focuses mainly on precise drawings and only uses text for certain specifications.
In my Xenotheka search I found a connection to a new book called “Elements of Architecture”, which is also part of the title of your book “Elementos de toda la architectura civil”. Also, your title says “modernos”, another connection to the title of my book “Architecture moderne”.
Our books could be a match because the titles you listed in this article are also partially represented in my book. The themes “building standards”, “parts of a building” and “construction rules” are also part of Charles-Antoine Jombert’s architecture moderne.
Another connection I found is that we apparently found the same book “Modern Architecural Theory” by Harry Mallgrave when doing our searches on xenotheka.
It would be interesting to compare our books to see what they have in common!