Die “Kunst des Adels” in der Frühen Neuzeit. Claudius Sittig and Christian Wieland, eds. Wolfenbütteler Forschungen 144. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz, 2018. 364 pp. €82.

Abstract

cially strong in Germany; the Italian invasion of column books and other publications; and the rise of interest in defining a German architecture. The catalogue makes up the bulk of the volume, and rightly so. Most of the books presented in it are unfamiliar, and many receive an extended analysis, making the catalogue a bit like a series of focused essays. There are many illustrations throughout, giving the reader a sense of the material characteristics of the books as well. The “German-speaking cultural area” of the title includes the Low Countries. This is necessary, for much of the standard literature in Germany proper was published in Antwerp and Amsterdam. However, this is not a catalogue of Germanic authors or of German-language texts; Vitruvius, Leon Battista Alberti, Sebastiano Serlio, Vignola, and others are present. Alberti was published in the original Latin in Strasbourg in 1541, with a number of variations both particular to it and inherited from the Paris edition from which it was derived. The catalogue gives a picture of architectural publishing in Germanand Dutch-speaking lands. Both the introduction and the catalogue make clear that this was part of a much larger dialogue. It would be useful to know more about the availability in Germany of architecture books published in France or Italy, or of the availability elsewhere of the volumes described here. Did they contribute meaningfully to the discourse farther east in Central Europe, for instance? To what degree did these works define architecture for readers and builders in Germanic Europe, and to what degree were they used together with imported works? Andrea Palladio’s Four Books (1570), not published in Germany until 1698 (and then only in part), is hardly present here, though it was certainly known in the region. While this large volume gives a rich review of the architectural literature published in Germanic Europe before 1648, this is not necessarily the same as the literature that was read in this region. This quibble aside, this volume is a very valuable resource for those interested in architectural history and the humanistic culture of Central Europe.