Ancient Town-Planning

Francis John HaverfieldProject Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

3.4

Word count: 207K words
Chapters: 21

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.Ancient Town-Planning by F. HaverfieldAuthor: Haverfield, F. (Francis), 1860-1919,Language: English, Class: NA: Fine Arts: Architecture, Release Date: Nov 28, 2004

Editor's review

This book is Francis Haverfield's classic short study of ancient town-planning, a public-domain work at the intersection of architecture and classical studies. Its strength lies in its concise discussion of the planning awareness evident in ancient Greek and Roman cities—street layout, public space, defence, and functional zoning—linking archaeological remains to urban form. It serves well as an introductory reference for the history of Western town-planning. The author's prose is scholarly but brief; his aim is not to catalogue every city but to propose discussable planning ideas and cases. Readers should consult maps, site plans, and classical history alongside it to turn the text into spatial understanding. For today's reader it is less a comprehensive history than a key to the study of ancient cities: suitable for classroom supplementation, topical reading, and the desk of anyone interested in architectural history.

Who it's for

A good fit for

Undergraduates and graduate students in architecture, town-planning, and classical studies
History readers interested in ancient Greek and Roman urban form and planning ideas
Teachers and enthusiasts seeking an introductory reference on Western town-planning history
Serious non-fiction readers who enjoy reading with maps and site plans at hand

Not a good fit for

Practitioners expecting abundant modern cases or a hands-on guide to contemporary planning
General tourists hoping for light, travelogue-style city introductions
Beginners without basic classical history who are unwilling to look up place names

Reading tips

Read the table of contents first to grasp the city types and planning elements discussed, then read by topic.
Keep ancient city plans or maps at hand and ground the text in spatial relationships.
Read alongside a short history of ancient Greece and Rome to fill in place names, periods, and political context.
After finishing, summarise the author's core planning ideas and cases on a single page for review.

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.

FAQ

Does this book require a background in architecture?

No professional architectural training is needed, though basic familiarity with cities and buildings helps. The author discusses planning ideas and urban form; reading with plans and classical history is sufficient, and the terminology is not highly technical.

Which ancient cities does it cover?

The book focuses on cities of the ancient Mediterranean world as discussed by the author, chiefly Greek and Roman cases; specific cities and examples should be checked against the table of contents and text. It is not an encyclopaedic survey of ancient cities worldwide.

Is it suitable as a textbook for town-planning history?

It works well as an introductory reference or classroom supplement, being brief and focused; but it is not a comprehensive modern textbook, and teachers should supplement it with maps, new archaeological material, and current research bibliographies.

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About the author

Francis John Haverfield Author · British · 1860–1919

Francis John Haverfield (1860–1919) was a British ancient historian and archaeologist who served as Camden Professor of Ancient History at Oxford from 1907. He pioneered the systematic, scientific study of Roman Britain and is regarded as the founder of Romano-British archaeology. His representative works include The Romanization of Roman Britain, which examines the impact of Roman rule on society and urban life in Britain; Ancient Town-Planning, a broad survey of the principles and practice of town layout in antiquity; and Roman Britain in 1914, which records the archaeological discoveries of that year. Haverfield's writing is distinguished by solid scholarship and clear organization, and he stressed the mutual corroboration of literary sources and archaeological evidence, an approach that long influenced later research on Roman Britain. Public information on the details of his life is limited, so this profile rests mainly on his scholarly standing and his works.