Systematic Dictionary of French Architecture from the 11th to the 16th Century - Volume 7

Eugene-Emmanuel Viollet-le-DucProject Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

Rating 4.4
Word count
1.1M words
Chapters
108

Tags

Foreign Language Books Architecture Historical ReappraisalIllustrated GuideIllustrated StepsAcademic MonographTraditional AestheticsCross-Cultural View

Summary

Project Gutenberg was the first provider of free electronic books, or eBooks. Michael Hart, founder of Project Gutenberg, invented eBooks in 1971 and his memory continues to inspire the creation of eBooks and related technologies today.Dictionnaire raisonné de l'architecture française du XIe au XVIe siècle - Tome 7Author: Viollet-le-Duc, Eugène-Emmanuel, 1814-1879,Language: French, Class: NA: Fine Arts: Architecture, Release Date: Dec 28, 2009

Editor's review

As Volume 7 of the Dictionnaire raisonné de l'architecture française du XIe au XVIe siècle, this book continues Viollet-le-Duc's method of systematically surveying medieval architectural terms and components from the perspective of structural rationalism. The entries in this volume cover a specific alphabetical range, offering illustrated definitions and comparisons of practices such as vaulting, buttressing, and ornamental details; the work serves both as a terminological reference and as a text on architectural theory. Its value lies not in supplying ready-made conclusions about style appreciation, but in demonstrating how to understand the formal causes of Gothic architecture from the logic of forces and construction techniques. The original is in French, written in the argumentative register of nineteenth-century scholarship, with dense terminology; it is suited to consultation on specific topics rather than continuous reading. Readers may use it alongside architectural images and survey drawings, and grasp the author's consistent claim that architecture should be faithful to structure in individual entries. It is instructive for understanding both the terminology system of French medieval architecture and later concepts of heritage restoration.

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Reading tips

  1. Begin with the prefatory note and the arrangement of entries, establish the alphabetical range covered in this volume, and then consult as needed.
  2. Prepare architectural survey drawings or site photographs and compare them entry by entry with the descriptions of components to understand the structural logic.
  3. Cross-refer entries on the same component in different volumes to grasp the overall outline of the author's terminological system.
  4. For unfamiliar terms, first consult other French architectural dictionaries, then return to the original text to avoid misunderstanding.

About the publisher

Project Gutenberg United States · Founded in 1971

Project Gutenberg is a digital publishing project focused on public-domain ebooks. Its publishing direction centers on classic literary works whose copyright has expired, covering genres such as poetry, drama, fiction, and epic. Representative books include Lyrical Ballads by Wordsworth and Coleridge, Proust's Du côté de chez Swann, Shakespeare's Macbeth and The Complete Works of William Shakespeare, Homer's The Iliad, Dante's La Divina Comèdia: Purgatòri, Cervantes's The History of Don Quixote, Volume 2, and Grahame's The Wind in the Willows. Its author resources consist mainly of classic Western writers such as Wordsworth, Proust, Shakespeare, Homer, Dante, Cervantes, Grahame, and Tolstoy. Its publishing feature is the provision of freely accessible ebooks in EPUB and Kindle formats; it is not a traditional publisher, and publicly available information is limited.

Contents

  1. 1
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  3. 3
  4. 4
  5. 5
  6. 6
  7. 7
  8. 8
  9. 9
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  11. 11
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FAQ

Is this book the original French edition, and is it difficult to read? This is the original French e-book, published by Project Gutenberg. The text has dense terminology and an academic, argumentative style, requiring good French reading ability and familiarity with basic architectural history concepts. Beginners should read it with a bilingual dictionary and architectural illustrations; it is not suitable as a first introductory book.
How does Volume 7 relate to the other volumes, and can it be read on its own? The whole work arranges entries alphabetically, with each volume covering a different alphabetical range; the contents are independent yet interrelated. Reading Volume 7 alone allows consultation of the entries it contains, but understanding the full discussion of a given component often requires returning to related entries in other volumes. Consultation as needed is recommended over linear reading.
How is the electronic edition best used, and can it be searched? The electronic text provided by Project Gutenberg is convenient for full-text search and copying excerpts, making it suitable as a terminological reference. Readers are advised to locate entries by keyword in a reader or text editor and to build their own cross-volume index, which is more efficient than paging through.

This site is an index: you start “Search all sources” in your browser, and the entries it lists all point to third-party sites; please judge their availability yourself.

About the author

Eugene-Emmanuel Viollet-le-Duc Author · French · 1814–1879

Viollet-le-Duc, Eugène-Emmanuel (1814–1879), was a French architect and architectural theorist, born in Paris and died in Lausanne, Switzerland. He is known for directing the restoration of medieval buildings such as Notre-Dame de Paris, the walls of Carcassonne, and the Château de Pierrefonds, and was a central figure in the Gothic Revival movement. His representative work, the Dictionnaire raisonné de l'architecture française, systematically examines French architecture from the 11th to the 16th centuries, combining theoretical depth with empirical scholarship, and has had a lasting influence on architectural history and heritage conservation. The library holds 16 of his works, mostly volumes of this dictionary. Public information is limited and details of his life are unclear, but these achievements establish his important place in architectural history.