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The making of Vitruvius Britannkus’

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 April 2016

Extract

Colen Campbell’s Vitruvius Britannkus is remembered today as the manifesto of English Palladianism. It was published at the outset of Campbell’s own career as an architect, and although he had almost certainly begun work already on his important house at Wanstead, it was probably the publication of his book in 1715 which established his reputation in London and led in 1716–17 to his replacement of Gibbs as the architect in charge of the rebuilding of Lord Burlington’s house in Piccadilly. Despite this auspicious start, however, the role of Campbell both as a publisher and as an architect in the beginnings of the Palladian revival was soon obscured and then forgotten. The dilettante public which by its subscriptions made such a lavish publication possible generally treated it merely as a series of ‘views of seats’ in the traditional manner and failed to notice Campbell’s other aims.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © Society of Architectural Historians of Great Britain 1977 

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References

Notes

1 Vitruvius Britannicus (hereafter abbreviated to V.B.), iii (1725), pp.78Google Scholar; Survey of London, xxxii (1963), pp.490506.Google Scholar

2 Gwynn, J., London and Westminster Improved (1766), pp. 4247Google Scholar; Riou, S., The Grecian Orders of Architecture (1768), p. 54.Google Scholar

3 Walpole, H., Anecdotes of Painting, iv (1780), p.47.Google Scholar

4 Woolfe, J. & Gandon, J., Vitruvius Britannicus, iv & v (1767,1771).Google Scholar

5 Sir W. Dugdale, Antiquities of Warwickshire (1656); J. Wright, History and Antiquities of the County of Rutland (1684); R. Plot, Natural History of Stafford shire (1686), for difficulties in the choice of houses to engrave see especially p. 359; Sir H. Chauncy, Historical Antiquities of Hertfordshire (1700); Sir R. Atkyns, Ancient and Present State of Gloucestershire (1712).

6 T. Connor, ‘John Slezer’s Theatrum Scotiae and Vitruvius Britannicus’’, Bulletin of the Scottish Georgian Society (forthcoming).

7 Honour, H., ‘Leonard Knyff’, Burlington Magazine, xcvi (1954), p. 337.Google Scholar

8 Quoted by Whinney, M. & Millar, O., English Art 1625–1714 (1957), p. 270, referring to Knyff’s prints of Badminton.Google Scholar

9 Calendar of State Papers. Domestic 1698, p. 343.

10 Whistler, L., The Imagination of Sir John Vanbrugh and his Fellow Artists (1953), P.6.Google Scholar

11 Historical Manuscripts Commission, Portland, v, p. 332Google Scholar; Wittkower, R., ’J. Leoni’s Edition of Palladio’, Arte Veneta (1954), p. 312.Google Scholar

12 R. North, ‘Of Building’, BL, Add. MS 32505, f.7; see also Colvin, H. M., ‘Roger North and Sir Christopher Wren’, Architectural Review, cx (1951), pp. 257260.Google Scholar

13 J. James to the Duke of Buckingham, 20 October 1711. Bodleian Library, MS Rawl. B. 376, f. 8, quoted by Colvin, H. M., Biographical Dictionary of English Architects (1954), p. 315.Google Scholar

14 Ashley Cooper, A., 3rd Earl of Shaftesbury, ‘Letter Concerning Design’, Characteristicks of Men, Morals & c (1715), iii, pp. 401402.Google Scholar

15 Griblin’s charges are given in Wren Society, xiv, p. xi; for payments to Hulsberg see Chatsworth MSS, Graham & Collier’s Joint Account, 27 October 1722. Further evidence of engraver’s costs is in Willis, & Clark, , Architectural History of Cambridge University (1886), iii, p. 54Google Scholar, n.4. Vertue was paid £88 6s for five plates of Biblioteca Radcliffiana in 1737 (Gillam, , Building Accounts of the Radcliffe Camera (1958), p. 180).Google Scholar

16 Copper prices: Wren Society, xiv, p.xi. For paper see Carter, H., History of the Oxford University Press, i (1975), p. 213Google Scholar; the cost of paper used in V.B. is mentioned in an advertisement in the Post Boy, 17 May 1715.

17 Wren Society, xiv, loc. cit.; Willis & Clark, op. cit.

18 See appendix.

19 Cawdor Castle MSS, Cawdor Castle, Nairn, Highland: A. Campbell to Sir Hugh Campbell, 26 October 1709.

20 The preliminary advertisement in the Monthly Catalogue, July 1714, mentions A. Bell and J. Nicholson; the notice of publication lists all names as on the title-page.

21 These catalogues are all in the John Johnson Collection in the Bodleian Library.

22 For examples of Smith’s advertisements see The Supplement, 18 January 1709/10; Evening Post, 13 September 1709.

23 This was announced in some later issues of Britannia Illustrata; the only print I have found bearing Smith’s name as engraver is a prospect of Ludlow in the British Library, Department of Printed Books, 191.g.13.

24 Westminster Record Office: Rate Books, Overseers of the Poor, St Clement Danes parish, 1712–16.

25 See Smith’s advertisement in V.B., i, 1717 (1722 issue), p. 10.

26 Plant, M., English Book Trade, 3rd edn (1974), p. 252.Google Scholar

27 The original selling price of V.B. given in the first advertisements was 3 guineas royal paper, 4 guineas imperial paper (see note 20).

28 An advertisement in the St James Post, 28 January 1717, implies that more copies were printed than were subscribed for by saying that those who wished to buy the book after the list had closed would have to pay £1 extra for their copies.

29 For help in clarifying the bibliography of V.B. I am greatly indebted to Miss D. Chaffer.

30 ’Notebooks of George Vertue’, iii, Walpole Society, xxii (1934), p. 133. £400 of Gibbs’s total came from the sale of the plates (’Woodrow’s Analecta IV, Maitland Club (1843), p. 107).

31 Fréart, R., Sieur de Chambray, Parallele de l’Architecture Antique et de la Moderne (Paris 1650), ch. 36.Google Scholar

32 C. Perrault, Ordonnance des Cinq Especes de Colonnes (1683), esp. ch.7.

33 C. A. Daviler, Cours d’Architecture (1694), preface, p.[x]. On the proposed translation see R. Wittkower, E. Harris & T. Connor, Bibliography of English Architectural Books to 1780 (forthcoming).

34 V.B., i (1715), introduction p.[ii].

35 Colvin, H. M., ‘A Scottish Origin for English Palladianism’, Architectural History, xvii (1976), pp. 1011.Google Scholar

36 V.B.,i(1715),p.6.

37 Croft-Murray, E., Decorative Painting in England, i (1962), pp.7275Google Scholar, indicates the extent to which Halifax tried to help Thornhill and his interest in promoting British artists.

38 The first volume of Leoni’s Palladia was published in September 1715 (Post Boy, 12 September 1715).

39 Compare Palladio’s description of the Villa Emo (Quattro Libri dell’ Architettura, ii (1570), p. 55) or of the Villa Rotonda(ibid, p. 18), with Campbell’s much briefer comments on Stainborough (V.B., i (1715), p.6) or on Stourhead (ibid., iii (1725), pp. 8-9).

40 V.B.,i,(1715),p.4.

41 V.B.,ii(1717),pp.1-2.

43 Stanhope design is V.B., ii (1717), pi. 86. See the analysis of the original by Wittkower, R. in The Architectural Principles of the Age of Humanism (1967 edn), pp. 8486.Google Scholar

43 See note 20.

44 Vol. I contains 72 single and 14 double plates, including the title and dedication; Vol.11, 57 single and 17 double or multiple plates. The following 18 designs may more or less certainly be said to have been prepared after July 1714: Vol.11, pls2-io. Whitehall; 27 Vitruvian Church; 52-55 New Design for a Person of Quality in Somerset (Eastbury); 61-67 Wilton; 87 Hotham House, Beverley; 88 Design for John Hedworth, Chester-le-Street; 94 Newbold Hall.

45 A very rough breakdown of the probable provenance of the drawings for the 68 executed buildings may be proposed as follows:

Attributed to Inigo Jones14
Derived from other engravings12
Supplied by or at the wish of the patron12*
Supplied by other architects30

*This includes Estcot, Maiden Bradley, Ric. Rooth’s house, Newbold Hall, and High Meadow, for the provenance of which there is little or no evidence. There are also four plates of gardens of which the house is not separately illustrated - of these, three perhaps came from their designers (Narford -Fountaine; Caversham - Acres; Claremont - Vanbrugh). In the case of Boughton it is perhaps more likely that this incomplete design was supplied by the Duke of Montagu, even if it did represent an intermediate stage in Bridgeman’s alterations. The drawings for Chatsworth appear to be a composite set, perhaps supplied by Jackson, Talman and Thornhill as well as Campbell himself.

46 See the engraving of Holzendorf’s drawing, later published by Badeslade & Rocque, V.B., iv (1739), pl.*55-*56; Strafford’s Yorkshire rival, Thomas Watson Wentworth, had seven of his properties engraved.

47 For Lord Coningsby’s interest see A Country House Portrayed (1973), Sabin Galleries. The Grosvenors had Eaton illustrated in Britannia Illustrata and, copiously, in V.B., iv (1739), besides having a large set of estate maps prepared by Badeslade.

48 West Riding Record Office, Sheepscar, Leeds: Newby Hall (Vyner) MSS 2866/1, 13577, 13584. See L. Boynton, ‘Newby Park, The First Palladian Villa in England’ in Colvin, & Harris, (ed.), The Country Seat (1970), pp. 97105.Google Scholar

49 Evidence for the original design of the capitals at Amesbury and Gunnersbury is contained in ‘Lord and Lady Burlington’s Book of Drawings’, and John Webb’s ’Book of Capitals’ at Chatsworth. That, in the case of Amesbury at least, the capitals were erected as designed, is confirmed by Edwards, J., Amesbury Gleanings(1876), p. 20.Google Scholar

50 H. M. Colvin, ‘Peter Mills and Cobham Hall’ in Colvin, & Harris, (ed.), The Country Seat (1970), pp. 4247.Google Scholar

51 ‘The Book of the Thanes of Cawdor’ Spalding Club (1859), p.397; Cawdor MSS, R. Campbell to Sir H. Campbell, 1703

52 BL, Add. MSS 47026, Percival to Lord Paget, 12 February 1710. Compare Gibbs’s dealings with Percival as a possible patron in Historical Manuscripts Commission, Egmont, ii, pp. 324-325.

53 Zorzi, G., Le Opere Pubbliche e i Palazzi Privati di Andrea Palladio (Venice 1965). PP- 263266.Google Scholar

54 V.B., i (1715), p.4 & PIS28-29. See especially Thornhill’s idea of an English academy, presented to Lord Halifax; Notebooks of George Vertue’, iii, Walpole society xxii (1934), p.74Google Scholar

55 Bramham, V.B., ii (1717), pl.81-82; Longleat, ibid., pl.68-69; Stoke Edith, V.B., i (1715), pl.45-46; Shobdon, V.B., ii (1717), pi.59-60. All these were probably prepared in 1714.

56 For Campbell’s letter to George I see Colvin, H. M., ‘A Scottish Origin for English Palladianism’, Architectural History, xvii (1975), p. 13.Google Scholar

57 For notice of a letter written on behalf of Galilei to Stanhope and now at Chevening, I am indebted to Mr H. M. Colvin.

58 Worcestershire Record Office, 705: 366, account book of Caspar Fredrick Henning, contains the King’s payments for some dedications. See pp.31 & 250.

59 Campbell’s work for the circle of George, Prince of Wales, will be the subject of a second article for this journal.

60 R. Adam, Ruins of the Palace of the Emperor Diocletian at Spalatro (1764), dedication to George III, p.[iii].