In this Book

  • Proportional Systems in the History of Architecture: A Critical Consideration
  • Book
  • Edited by Matthew A. Cohen and Maarten Delbeke
  • 2018
  • Published by: Leiden University Press
summary
Prior to the advent of modern structural engineering, architects and builders used proportional systems to imbue their works with a general condition of order that was integral to notions of beauty and structural stability. These mostly invisible intellectual frameworks ranged from simple grids and symbolic numbers, to sly manipulations of geometry and numbers that required privileged knowledge and arithmetical calculations to access. Since the origins of architectural history, proportional systems have served as objects of belief and modes of iconographical communication. Whether they are capable of fulfilling more tangible functions remains a matter of debate today, but as the contributors to this volume show, these ancient and diverse belief systems continue to infiltrate architectural thinking in subtle and sometimes surprising ways today.
 

Table of Contents

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  1. Cover
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  1. Title Page, Copyright
  2. pp. i-iv
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  1. Contents
  2. pp. v-viii
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  1. Acknowledgements
  2. pp. 9-10
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  1. Part I Introduction
  1. Two Kinds of Proportion
  2. pp. 13-58
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  1. Part II Thinking and Seeing Proportion
  1. Canons of Proportion and the Laws of Nature
  2. pp. 61-70
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  1. The Composto Ordinato of Michelangelo’s Biblioteca Laurenziana
  2. pp. 71-90
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  1. Subjective Proportions
  2. pp. 91-112
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  1. Were Early Modern Architects Neoplatonists?
  2. pp. 113-128
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  1. Plotting Gothic
  2. pp. 129-146
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  1. To Build Proportions in Time, or Tie Knots in Space?
  2. pp. 147-158
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  1. Part III Designing with Proportions
  1. 1, 2, 3, 6: Early Gothic Architecture and Perfect Numbers
  2. pp. 161-182
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  1. Proportion and Building Material
  2. pp. 183-198
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  1. Approaches to Architectural Proportion and the “Poor old Parthenon”
  2. pp. 199-232
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  1. Scamozzi’s Orders and Proportions
  2. pp. 233-248
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  1. Early Modern Netherlandish Artists on Proportion in Architecture
  2. pp. 249-276
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  1. Proportional Design Systems in 17th-Century Holland
  2. pp. 277-294
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  1. The Matrix Regained
  2. pp. 295-316
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  1. Dynamic Unfolding and the Conventions of Procedure
  2. pp. 317-344
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  1. Part IV New Approaches to Well-Known Sources
  1. Divining Proportions in the Information Age
  2. pp. 347-360
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  1. Decoding the Pantheon Columns
  2. pp. 361-380
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  1. Leonardo da Vinci:
  2. pp. 381-396
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  1. Philibert de L’Orme’s Divine Proportions
  2. pp. 397-414
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  1. An old problem?
  2. pp. 415-434
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  1. Part V Twentieth-Century Perspectives
  1. Le Corbusier’s Modulor and the Debate on Proportion in France
  2. pp. 437-462
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  1. Between Looking and Making
  2. pp. 463-492
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  1. Rudolph Wittkower versus Le Corbusier
  2. pp. 493-510
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  1. Proportional Systems in the History of Architecture
  2. pp. 511-522
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  1. Part VI Conclusion
  1. Ten Principles for the Study of Proportional Systems in the History of Architecture
  2. pp. 525-550
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  1. Index
  2. pp. 551-566
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