This book documents the Roman monuments of Baalbek in present-day Lebanon. It was a result of Robert Wood and James Dawkins' 1750-53 trip to Asia Minor. Wood was a member of the Society of the Dilettanti These volumes exhibited mark the beginning of…
In 1742 James Stuart went to London where he met Nicholas Revett. With support from English travellers and residents in Rome, they raised funds and issued proposals for a ‘new and accurate description of the Antiquities &c. in the Province of…
In his seven-volume Tutte l'opere d'architettura that first appeared in 1584, Serlio aimed to provide a practical manual of architecture while avoiding explicit theory. As such the work became one of the most influential of all publications on…
This publication by Amsterdam publisher and engraver Peter Schenk is typical of those that were appearing at the turn of the 18th century. The page shown depicts the ruins of the aqueduct the Aqua Marcia. It conveyed water to both the baths of…
The Greek temples at Paestum in southern Italy were almost unknown until the 1750s. They became better known through publication. This book by Thomas Major was one of the first that enabled architects of Northern and Western Europe to study the three…
This book on the buildings and ruins of Rome by the 17th century artist and engraver, Giovanni Maggi, is typical of the works by which the ruins of antiquity became known outside Italy through that century. The remnant of the Temple of Jupiter Stator…
First published in 1696, this short history by the Anglican churchman and scholar, Basil Kennett, recounts the rise, progress, and decay of Ancient Rome eighty years before Gibbon's Decline and fall …. A popular publication, it was reprinted no…
Following a stay in Rome in 1650, Fréart de Chambray published this anthology of ten ancient and modern writers on the classical orders. He argues that the Greek orders (the Doric, the Ionic, and Corinthian) are perfect models for all architecture…
In 1754 Robert Adam left Scotland for France and Italy on a Grand Tour. In Italy he met the French architect, Charles Louis Clérisseau, and the Italian, Giovanni Battista Piranesi, who would both have a significant influence upon him and his later…