Table of Contents

List of illustrations; Introduction; Part I. The Intellectual Preparation: 1. Architectural discourse from Wotton to Sandby; 2. Soane's relations with the Royal Academy; 3. First principles and the myth of origin; 4. The architecture of character and sensation; 5. The symbolic language of antiquity; Part II. The Royal Academy Lectures: 6. Analysis of the lectures; 7. Soane and his lecture illustrations; 8. The relation between Soane's ideas and his architecture; Conclusion; Bibliography; Text of lectures I–XII; Appendices; Index.

Promotional Information

A fully documented study of the architect Sir John Soane, with the text of his principal lectures.

Reviews

'These brilliant, passionate, wayward lectures have been republished with an equally brilliant sequence of introductory essays in Sir John Soane, Enlightenment Thought and the Royal Academy Lectures by David Watkin.' The Independent

'David Watkin's intellectual biography is graceful, scholarly and rewarding. His efforts have been matched by Cambridge University Press, who have produced the most lavish book of architectural scholarship in many years.' The Times

'… by far the most significant single contribution to the study of Sir John Soane.' The Observer

'The book certainly fills a huge hole in the Soane literature: it should be perused by all students of the Enlightenment, Neoclassicism, and the architectural concerns of the early decades of the nineteenth century.' Journal of Architectural Conservation

'This mammoth volume projects architectural history onto a new plane … Never before … has [architecture] been so comprehensively analysed as a vehicle for thought.' Country Life

'… a beautifully written book, and so a joy to read … It is a lodestar for any future work on Soane.' Apollo

'David Watkin's intellectual biography is graceful, scholarly and rewarding.' The Times

'… one of the finest works on English Architecture to have appeared in the last decade.' The Sunday Telegraph