Tag Archives: special collections

special collections

L’Art Architectural en France: Francois I to Louis XIV

Rouyer, Eugène. L’Art Architectural en France depuis François Ier jusqu’à Louis XVI : Motifs de Décoration Intérieure et Extérieure Dessinés d’après des Modèles Exécutés et Inédits des Principales Époques de la Renaissance.

Collection: Cret

In the opening lines of the two-volume, French language text, L’Art Architectural en France depuis François Ier jusqu’à Louis XVI, architect Eugène Rouyer and conservationist Alfred Darcel call attention to the lack of critical literature concerning French Renaissance architecture. In 1863, at the time of original publication, these Louvre scholars noted a high degree of sycophantism in contemporary writing on the period, the work of men seduced by beauty–“Mais arrivée à la Renaissance, à une époque où les documents abondent, il semble que, séduite par la grâce toute nouvelle des monuments qu’elle rencontre, elle ait abdiqué toute idée critique.” In response, Rouyer and Darcel produced a series of truly elegant building analyses unencumbered by obsequious prose and illustrated with exquisite engravings noting building details on both a large and small scale. The Cret volumes are organized building analyses first, followed by a table of contents that triangulates the location of engravings with that of its associated text. Together, these tomes represent an integral reference for the Renaissance scholar.

Library of Congress call numbers: NA 1044 R7 1863 V. 1 Copy 2, NA 1044 R7 1863 V. 2

special collections

Monuments Historique de France

Roussel, Joules. Monuments Historiques de France. Ensembles d’Architectura, Détails Décoratifs, Documents, d’après les Archives du Ministère de l’Instruction Publique et des Beaux-arts. 3 Vols. Paris: A. Guérinet, [n.d.].

Assembled by the French Ministère de l’Instruction Publique et des Beaux-Arts, Monuments Historiques de France is a three volume series containing over 200 19th- and 20th-century photographs that document French monumental architecture from the Roman Empire to the 18th century. A range of building types are represented including public works, cathedrals, palaces and other domestic architecture. These volumes are organized chronologically and provide high-quality photographs capturing exterior, interior, and detailed views of some of France’s most renowned architectural spaces. A product of the neoimperialist era, a small section of photographs also documents Algerian architecture, though these plates are strangle absent from the volumes available in the Architecture & Planning Library special collection.

Library of Congress call numbers: NA 1041 R63 V. 1, V.2, V3

special collections

Small French Buildings

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Coffin, Jr., Lewis A., Henry M. Polhemus and Addison F. Worthington. Small French Buildings: The Architecture of Town and Country, Comprising Cottages, Farmhouses, Minor Chateaux or Manors with their Farm Groups, Small Town Dwellings, and a Few Churches. New York: C. Scribner, 1921.

Small French Buildings is an English-language celebration of the French vernacular in Normandy, Brittany, the Cote d’Or and Dordogne. The book divides its collection of 183 plates into four sections by building type: Cottages, Churches and Chapels, Town Houses, and small Châteaux, Manors and other farm buildings. While it is unclear why certain buildings are highlighted in this volume, the images included provide access (though somewhat distilled) to the architecture of the everyday–where people lived, worked, played and dreamed. Published in 1921, this idealized vernacular, however uncluttered by its society, is a unique document in an era when art and architectural historians were generally concerned with the canon.

Library of Congress call number: NA 1041 C6

special collections

Manuel d’Archéologie Française depuis les Temps Mérovingiens jusqu’à la Renaissance: Costume

Enlart, Camille. Manuel d’Archéologie Française depuis les Temps Mérovingiens jusqu’à la Renaissance: Costume. V. 3. Paris: Picard, 1916.

Collection: Cret

In his final installment of Manuel d’Archéologie Française, Camille Enlart relies heavily upon visual sources including paintings, drawings, sculptures and artifacts to produce a chronological analysis of medieval dress and style. In the introduction, Enlart establishes himself within the contemporary academic milieu, citing contributors to the study of French dress while distinguishing himself as a more deliberate scholar. He expands the traditional chronological framework and fastidiously collects and cites sources, exemplifying the turn-of-the-century trend toward positivism. He also constructs a detailed index that not only links significant terms to relevant discussion within the book, but also assists the reader in organizing these terms, understanding their meaning, and situating them in their historical context. For Enlart, the scientific method affords a greater opportunity to effectively discern and communicate new meaning from familiar material.

Library of Congress call number: NA 1043 E6 1919

special collections

Manuel d’Archéologie Française depuis les Temps Mérovingiens jusqu’à la Renaissance: Architecture Civile et Militaire

Enlart, Camille. Manuel d’Archéologie Française depuis les Temps Mérovingiens jusqu’à la Renaissance: Architecture Civile et Militaire. V. 2. Paris: Picard, 1904.

Collection: Cret

The second volume of Manuel d’Archéologie Française analyzes civil and military architecture as well as private residences, monasteries and gardens utilizing similarly scientific methods to further Enlart’s chauvinistic thesis. Again, Enlart relies heavily on visual references, incorporating a number of drawings, plans, and photographs that illustrate the hybridization and evolution of style. This text is also accompanied by an extensive index and a reference section entitled Répertoire Archéologique that provides a comprehensive listing of  archaeological and historical sites discussed in the book.

Library of Congress call number: NA 1043 E6 1919

special collections

Manuel d’Archeologie Francaise: Architecture Religieuse

Enlart, Camille.  Architecture Religieuse. Vol. 1, bks. 1 and 2, Manuel d’Archéologie Française depuis les Temps Mérovingiens jusqu’à la Renaissance. Paris: Picard, 1919-1920.

Collection: Cret

Turn-of-the-century gothic art historian Camille Enlart examined French architecture and fashion in his three volume work Manuel d’Archéologie Francaise. Published in two books, the first volume looks specifically at French religious architecture and continues Enlart’s career assertion that the cultural vacuum created by the decline of the Roman empire facilitated the insertion of French forms and themes into Mediterranean art and architecture. Enlart produces a formal survey analyzing various architectural elements, building plans, and construction practices to discern a more precise relationship between forms emerging from classical modes and those of Gallic (and likely Celtic) provenance. The resulting positivist history suggests that the Carolingian epoch represents a decided shift in the dominant aesthetic vocabulary in this part of Europe.

Each book in Enlart’s Manuel d’Archéologie Française includes a number of sketches, plans, and photographs of various architectural elements, construction practices, buildings, sculptures, and costumes. Comparative series play a significant role in each work providing information about the variety and evolution certain architectural objects.

For this volume, Enlart produced an extensive bibliography including works in English, French, Italian, and German divided into five categories: works that deal generally with the chronology and geography of French architecture; works that deal with the origins and duration of early Christian and Romanesque architecture; works that deal with French monuments from the 11th to the 16th century; works that deal with French influence in other countries for the same period; and works concerned with religious architecture. There is no index.

Library of Congress call number: NA 1043 E6 1919

special collections

The Architecture of Provence and the Riviera

MacGibbon, David. The Architecture of Provence and the Riviera. Edinburgh: D. Douglas, 1888.

Scottish Victorian architect David MacGibbon moved to the French Riviera in 1874 after a tragic accident left his daughter Rachel permanently disabled. In this restorative climate, MacGibbon discovered the rich architectural heritage of Provence and its environs, documenting these spaces in a number of sketches that would later form the core of The Architecture of Provence and the Riviera. Published 14 years after this initial excursion, The Architecture of Provence and the Riveria examines ancient and medieval architecture in southern France, an heretofore underrepresented region in the annals of cultural history. Here, MacGibbon chronicles the early history of the region and explores its late-antique and medieval social and political infrastructure before focusing the remainder of his work on its art and architecture. In these sections, MacGibbon combines chronological, stylistic and geographic categories to organize his work, including a number of explanatory sketches to better demonstrate the spaces and works of art about which he has concerned himself.

Library of Congress call number: NA 1049 P8 M3

special collections

Rudiment D’Archeologie: Architectures Civile et Militaire

Caumont, Arcisse de. Abécédaire; or, Rudiment d’Archéologie: Architectures Civile et Militaire. 2nd ed. Paris: Derache, 1858

As a follow-up to his discussion of medieval religious architecture, Caumont examines civic and military architecture in Rudiment d’Archéologie: Architectures Civile et Militaire. Caumont encountered considerable difficulty when producing this study as much of this type of medieval architecture had been dismantled or destroyed. Nevertheless, the Société francaise d’archéologie determined that his completed work produced an effective system for classifying medieval war and civil architecture.

Caumont organizes this work by theme unlike his work on religious architecture. Devoting the first part of the book to civil architecture, he examines monasteries, churches, and other town buildings, specifically documenting sundry architectural elements employing often rudimentary renderings to better articulate form and function. The second part of the book explores military implements including castles. Here, Caumont dissects castle construction and design, exploring the various construction techniques and architectural elements that made these spaces effective military outposts.

Library of Congress call number: NA 1041 C376

special collections

Rudiment D’Archeologie: Architecture Religieuse

Caumont, Arcisse de. Abécédaire; ou Rudiment d’Archéologie: Architecture Religieuse. 5th ed. Paris: Derache, 1886

In this French-language text, Arcisse de Caumont imagines medieval architecture as an aberrant rupture in the history of architecture in France. Situated outside the dominate classicist paradigm which flanks the period, Caumont perceives Middle Age architectural objects as degenerate. He classifies buildings according to two major eras which he terms ère romane and ère ogivale, further subdividing these categories into three epochs that express the initial moments of each in pejorative terms (terming one primordiale and, the other, primitive). This language denotes a specific attitude about the medieval period that might be reflected in contemporary literature.

As a reference work, Rudiment d’Archéologie provides access to a number of woodcuts that document buildings and architectural elements in varying states of decay. The images proliferated in this text demonstrate the specific iconographic concerns of medieval religious architecture and suggest a relationship with their architectural milieu.

The notion of aberrance is perhaps the most interesting historiographical element in this otherwise linear narrative documenting the iconographic in medieval architecture.That this degeneracy is so duly noted and then supplemented with visual expressions of space in ruin creates a curious dialectic.

Collection: Cret
Library of Congress call number: NA 1041 C376 1886

library, special collections

L’Architecture Francaise de Jean Mariette

Mauban, André. L’Architecture Francaise de Jean Mariette. Paris: Van Oest, 1945.

In L’Architecture Francaise de Jean Mariette, André Mauban indexes the collected works of engraver and book collector Jean Mariette whose own publishing efforts included the completion and dissemination of at least five volumes concerning French Architecture. L’Architecture Francaise de Jean Mariette is divided into to two sections, the first indexes each work represented in Mariette’s five volumes and the second assembles notes, references, and plates that demonstrate Mariette’s work and explore his significance and influence. Throughout this French-language tome, Mauban is considerate of the reader, providing explicit instructions for using and understanding the book.

Library of Congress call number: NA 1041 M3 M3