Handbook of Architectural Styles, A

Originally published in 1912, the present volume is an English translation of a handbook of architectural styles, well known and appreciated in Germany. Its claims rest partly on the comprehensive range which the author has taken, and the large amount of information which he has been able to condense into small compass; but chiefly in the fact that a familiar subject is here looked at from what, at least to the English readers, may now be called an almost new point of view. The view is essentially that of an academic and classical professor, and one brought up not only in familiarity with the best examples of ancient art, but with the habit of mind which occurs to classic and especially to Greek originals, both as a standard of taste and as models for the architectural treatment of modern works. The range of the book is extensive, and its numerous illustrations, which include many of great beauty, are from well-known examples. It is sufficiently minute and exact to be valuable as a handbook to the professional student; but it is at the same time so free from burdensome technicalities that it will probably interest many cultivated non-professional readers to whom architecture is a subject with which they would gladly gain a certain amount of familiarity.