Rapport 99-00_final - Canadian Centre for Architecture

Anthony Gerbino
Number, Order, and Measure: Baroque Architects and the Scientific Revolution
I was awarded a four-month CCA fellowship to begin
research for a book, Number, Order, and Measure:
Baroque Architects and the Scientific Revolution. This
project takes a broad, thematic approach, aiming
to be European-wide in scope and considering the
contributions of lesser known figures as well as more
prominent architects such as Christopher Wren. The
project also seeks to link scholarship in architectural
history with an already well-developed body of literature
in the history of science on subjects directly
relevant to this theme. One chapter of the book is
devoted to the invention and use of geometrical
instruments for surveying and drafting. Other chapters
will explore the development of new perspective
and cartographic techniques in architectural design
and drawing, the debates over optical adjustments
and their relationship to sixteenth- and seventeenthcentury
theories of vision, and the emergence of new
engineering sciences.
The research I carried out during my residency
allowed me to begin work on the first chapter and to
flesh out the other three. I now have two manuscript
essays related to this research that I hope to submit
for publication in 2006. One examines the participation
of the Académie royale des sciences in the
design and construction of the gardens of Versailles
while the other explores the work of the Italian
mathematical practitioner and architectural theorist
Ottavio Revesi Bruti.
I also completed revisions to an article titled
“François Blondel and the Résolution des quatre principaux
problèmes d’architecture (1673),” which has
been accepted for publication by the Journal of the
Society of Architectural Historians (to appear in
December 2005).
In addition, my CCA fellowship led to invited
presentations at the Department of the History of Art
at the University of Oxford (19 October 2004) and
at the international conference “Les avatars de la
‘littérature’ technique,” held at the Conservatoire
National des Arts et Métiers in Paris (4 March
2005). I also convened a panel with Mario Carpo
on “Quantification in Early Modern Architectural
Design and Drawing” at the annual meeting of the
SAH in Vancouver (6–10 April 2005). Much of the
organization and planning for this event took place
during my time in Montréal.
I am extremely grateful to the CCA. The Study
Centre fellowship provided me with a sustained period
of time to begin new projects and to complete old
ones. Most importantly, it offered an extraordinary
atmosphere of warm collegiality, intellectual excitement,
and generous material support.
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