Lectures on Architecture (1929, first edition)

Sir John Soane's lectures from 1809 to 1836, illustrated

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Printing Details

First edition. Hardback, bound in the original red cloth with simple gilt titling to spine, and gilt margin to upper board. 28.5 × 22cm, 200pp + 119 plates. [This is the 14th publication from the Museum].

his was the first comprehensive publication in book form of Sir John Soane's lectures. Soane had been appointed as Professor of Architecture at the Royal Academy of Arts in 1806, and was required to give an annual series of lectures, by 1836 he had expanded this into two courses of six lectures each. They were never published in his lifetime, so Arthur T Bolton, an architect and curator of The Sir John Soane Museum in London transcribed them from Soane's own heavily annotated notes and manuscripts.

The lectures are indexed as such: 1. Introductory (origins of architecture, work of the ancients etc); 2. Orders (Temple of Jerusalem, Doric, Ionic etc); 3. Orders (Tuscan and Composite, Hypethral Temples, Internal orders etc); 4. Application or Orders, Pediments, etc (porticoes, pilasters etc); 5. Dark Ages and Revival; 6. Application of Orders, Pediments etc (arches, bridges etc); 7. Distribution, Construction, Decoration; 8. Internal Arrangement, Rooms, Staircases etc; 9. Principles; 10. Gardens and City Plans; 11. Decoration and Composition; 12. Construction. The lectures are followed by 119 plates in black and white.

Condition

This copy is in very good condition for age. There is some light age-toning to the pages, and a little mustiness but otherwise a solid copy and in strong readable condition.