A History of Architecture in All Countries, Volumes 1 and 2 — James Fergusson
(Volumes I and II) This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and most other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org . If you are not located in the United States, you will have to check the laws of the country where you are located before using this eBook. Title : A History of Architecture in all Countries, Volumes 1 and 2, 3rd ed. Author : James Fergusson Editor : Richard Phené Spiers Release date : November 1, 2017 [eBook #55870] Most recently updated: October 23, 2024 Language : English Other information and formats : www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/55870 Credits : Produced by Sonya Schermann, Albert László and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images generously made available by The Internet Archive) *** START OF *** Transcriber’s Note The cover image was created by the transcriber and is placed in the public domain. Scale bars marked '1 in.' have been added to illustrations for which a scale is given (e.g. 50 ft. to 1 in.) to indicate the size of the image as printed in the original book. Ditto marks have been replaced by the text they represent. Some corrections have been made to the printed text. These are listed in a second transcriber’s note at the end of the text. ELEVATION OF FAÇADE OF COLOGNE CATHEDRAL. A HISTORY OF ARCHITECTURE IN ALL COUNTRIES, FROM THE EARLIEST TIMES TO THE PRESENT DAY. By JAMES FERGUSSON, D.C.L., F.R.S., M.R.A.S., FELLOW ROYAL INST. BRIT. ARCHITECTS, &c. &c. &c. Section of the Parthenon, showing the Author’s views as to the admission of light. IN FIVE VOLUMES.— Vol. I. THIRD EDITION. Edited by R. PHENÉ SPIERS, F.S.A., FELLOW ROYAL INST. BRITISH ARCHITECTS. LONDON: JOHN MURRAY, ALBEMARLE STREET, 1893. The right of Translation is reserved. FERGUSSON’S ARCHITECTURE. Third Edition, with 330 Illustrations, 2 vols., medium 8vo , 31s. 6d. A HISTORY CF THE MODERN STYLES OF ARCHITECTURE. By the late JAMES FERGUSSON, F.R.S. A New Edition, Revised and Enlarged. With a Special Account of the Architecture of America. By ROBERT KERR, Professor of Architecture at King’s College, London. BY THE SAME. New and Cheaper Edition, with 400 Illustrations, medium 8vo. , 31s. 6d. A HISTORY OF INDIAN AND EASTERN ARCHITECTURE. LONDON: PRINTED BY WILLIAM CLOWES AND SONS, LIMITED, STAMFORD STREET AND CHARING CROSS. (Volumes I and II) EDITOR’S PREFACE TO THE THIRD EDITION. A sketch of the life of the late Mr. James Fergusson, and an article by Prof. Kerr on the peculiar qualifications with which he was endowed for the position he took as an architectural historian, having appeared in the preface of the third edition of the “History of the Modern Styles of Architecture,” published in 1891, it is not necessary to do more than refer to them. A brief summary, however, of the several works he published on the History of the Architectural Styles may possibly be of some interest here as a record. Mr. Fergusson’s first work dealing with the History of the Styles of Architecture was a large octavo volume, published in 1849, under the title of “An Historical Enquiry into the True Principles of Beauty in Art, more especially with reference to Architecture.” About one-third of the volume was devoted to an introduction, to which Mr. Fergusson attached so much importance that, in his preface he stated he considered it to be the text, and the rest of the work (viz., the description of the various styles) merely the illustration of what was there stated. The pith of this introduction was subsequently published in his later works, and a valuable chapter added to it on “Ethnography as Applied to Architecture.” The work contained only the history of the Early Styles from Egyptian to Roman, but it had been the intention of its author to treat of the Christian, Pagan, and Modern Styles of Architecture in subsequent volumes. This intention was never carried out, but the book formed the basis of another work published in 1855, entitled, “The Handbook of Architecture,” which included the history of the Indian, Chinese, Assyrian, Egyptian, Greek, Roman, Sassanian, and Saracenic Styles, in the first volume, and of Christian Art in the second. A second edition, a reprint only of this, appeared in 1859, and shortly afterwards, in 1862, a third volume was published, dealing with the History of the Modern Styles. On the revision and expansion of the work in 1873, this third volume became the fourth as hereinafter explained. In 1865 and 1867 the materials of the “Handbook” were rearranged to form an historical sequence, instead of a topographical one, and a new work was published under the title of the “History of Architecture”; the first part devoted to Ancient Architecture from Egyptian to Roman; the second to Christian; and the third part to Pagan Architecture, including Saracenic, Indian, Chinese, and Mexican. In 1874 a second edition of this work appeared (from which the whole of the Indian and Chinese sections were omitted and published separately in 1876 as a third volume, under the title of “Indian and Eastern Architecture”), and many additions were made to the Assyrian and Byzantine chapters. In the present edition (1893), which constitutes the third edition of the “History of Architecture,” the editor has endeavoured to the best of his ability to follow the course which Mr. Fergusson himself adopted in publishing new editions, viz., to rewrite those portions which subsequent discoveries had proved to be either incorrect or doubtful. For instance, in Egyptian Architecture the accurate measurements of the pyramids made by Mr. Flinders Petrie, and his correction of Lepsius’s theories as regards the Labyrinth, have placed information at the editor’s disposal which was unknown to Mr. Fergusson. Corrections of this kind are inserted in the text. On the other