BOOKS ON ARCHITECTURE

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Transcribed version of the text

French

     Whereas in the 1648 Compendium Böckler tended to encompass all the activities of an architect, on the model of Vitruvius’s treatise, the Architectura civilis of 1663, while placed under the ægis of Vitruvius and Archimedes, deals only with the five orders, described in the foreword with several references to Serlio, Scamozzi and even Philibert De l’Orme. But despite this culture clearly expressed in the text, the copperplates which are the most interesting part of this book are inspired only by Hans Blum’s two treatises (Quinque columnarum exacta descriptio atque delineatio, 1550; Ein kunstrych Buch von allerley Antiquiteten, 1560) which had been gathered together and published in Zurich in 1596 (V Columnae: Das ist Beschreibung unnd Gebrauch der V. Säulen) then republished many times by the Bodmer family during the 17^th century, in particular in 1660 and 1662, shortly before the Architectura civilis nova was published. Here Böckler vouches for the consistent success of Blum’s plates, due to their pedagogical effectiveness. Moreover the treatise was republished in 1680 by Balthasar Christoph Wust, then, by the same printer, in 1684 entitled Neues und zuvor nie also eingerichtetes vollkommenes Seulen-Buch.

Yves Pauwels (Centre d’études supérieures de la Renaissance, Tours) – 2014

Critical bibliography

W. Bürger, “Georg Andreas Böckler – Architekt, Ingenieur und hochfürstlicher Baumeister”, Ansbach, gestern und heute, 13/14, 1978, pp. 314-321, 328-333.

C. Graf von Klinckowstroem, “Böckler, Georg Andreas”, Neue Deutsche Biographie, 2, Berlin, Duncker & Humblot, 1955.

B. Vollmar, Die deutsche Palladio-Ausgabe des Georg Andreas Böckler, Nürnberg 1698. Ein Beitrag zur Architekturtheorie des 17. Jahrhunderts, Ansbach, Historischer Verein für Mittelfranken, 1983.