Creating place in Early Modern European architecture /

The importance of place—as a unique spatial identity—has been recognized since antiquity. Ancient references to the ‘genius loci', or spirit of place, evoked not only the location of a distinct atmosphere or environment, but also the protection of this location, and implicitly, its making and construction. This volume examines the concept of place as it relates to architectural production and building knowledge in early modern Europe (1400-1800). The places explored in the book's ten essays take various forms, from an individual dwelling to a cohesive urban development to an extensive political territory. Within the scope of each study, the authors draw on primary source documents and original research to demonstrate the distinctive features of a given architectural place, and how these are related to a geographic location, social circumstances, and the contributions of individual practitioners. The essays underscore the distinct techniques, practices and organizational structures by which physical places were made in the early modern period.List of Illustrations Abbreviations Introduction: Embracing Specificity, Embracing Place (Elizabeth Merrill) 1. Architecture on Paper: The Development and Function of Architectural Drawings in the Renaissance (Wolfgang Lefèvre) Part I Marking Place 2. The Santacroce Houses along the Via in Publicolis in Rome: Law, Place and Residential Architecture in the Early Modern Period (Nele De Raedt) 3. Towards a New Architecture of Cosmic Experience (Noam Andrews) 4. Architecture for Music: Sonorous Spaces in Sacred Buildings in Renaissance and Baroque Rome (Federico Bellini) Part II Teaching Place 5. The Spedale di Santa Maria della Scala and the Construction of Siena (Elizabeth Merrill) 6. Places of Knowledge between Ulm and the Netherlands in the Seventeenth Century: The Kunstkammer of Johannes Faulhaber (Paul Brakmann and Sebastian Fitzner) 7. Nicola Zabaglia's Scaffoldings for the Maintenance of Architectural Space in St. Peter's Basilica and throughout Europe in the Seventeenth to Nineteenth Centuries (Stefan M. Holzer and Nicoletta Marconi) Part III Excavating Place 8. Building on 'Hollow Land': Skill and Expertise in Foundation-Laying Practices in the Low Countries in the Fifteenth to the Seventeenth Centuries (Merlijn Hurx) 9. The 'Conquest' and Construction of an Urban Place: The Insula dei Gesuiti in Venice in the Early Modern Period (Ludovica Galeazzo) 10. Exploring the Book of Fortresses (Edward Triplett) Index of Names Index of Subjects and PlacesThe importance of place—as a unique spatial identity—has been recognized since antiquity. Ancient references to the ‘genius loci', or spirit of place, evoked not only the location of a distinct atmosphere or environment, but also the protection of this location, and implicitly, its making and construction. This volume examines the concept of place as it relates to architectural production and building knowledge in early modern Europe (1400-1800). The places explored in the book's ten essays take various forms, from an individual dwelling to a cohesive urban development to an extensive political territory. Within the scope of each study, the authors draw on primary source documents and original research to demonstrate the distinctive features of a given architectural place, and how these are related to a geographic location, social circumstances, and the contributions of individual practitioners. The essays underscore the distinct techniques, practices and organizational structures by which physical places were made in the early modern period.Merrill, Elizabeth