An Essay on Architecture

by Marc-Antoine Laugier, Wolfgang Herrmann (Introduction), Anni Herrmann (Translator)

This translation uses the text of the original 1753 edition. It also includes additions made by Laugier for the edition of 1755 as well as the Avertissement for that edition, which contains Laugier's rebuttal to his critics. An introduction by Wolfgang Herrmann gives details of Laugier's life and the context in which this book was written. The Essai is important as a key document in 18th century art theory. It is invaluable for a thorough understanding of the Neoclassical aesthetic and its development from the rationalism of the Enlightenment.

Genres: Architecture

Paperback

First published January 1, 1977

About the author

French cleric, architectural theorist and historian of the neoclassical period. A Jesuit until 1755, and a Benedictine abbot afterwards.

Reviews

[Penandinkpot Uzma]

Architectural reading. Very good if you have an interest in architectural form and a key figure, Laugier, in western history and his essays on architecture.

[Ջոն (John Goolvart)]

A fine building is not that which has an arbitrary beauty, but that which relatively to circumstances has all the beauty which is proper, and nothing beyond. (pag. 194)

The beauty of the buildings I am speaking of depends chiefly on three things. The exactness of the proportions, the elegancy of the forms, and the choice and disposition of the ornaments. (pag. 119)