Marco Folin and Monica Preti's Da Gerusalemme a Pechino da Roma a Vienna: Sul “Saggio di architettura storica” di J. B. Fischer von Erlach is a book about a book: the Entwurff einer historischen Architectur. Precursor of the global turn in architectural history, the Entwurff was unprecedented when it was first published in 1721 by Johann Bernhard Fischer von Erlach (1656–1723), architect of the imperial Habsburg court. It was designed as an oblong folio, divided into five books. The first illustrates “Ancient Jewish, Egyptian, Syrian, Persian and Grecian” structures; the second, ancient Roman buildings; the third, edifices “of the Arabians and Turks” as well as modern architecture “of the Persians, Siamese, Chinese, and Japonese”; the fourth, buildings designed by Fischer himself; and the fifth, ancient and modern urns and vases. Accompanied by a preface and short explanatory texts by numismatist Carl Gustav Heraeus (ca. 1671–1725), Fischer's “visually compelling images...
University of California Press