1. Aberdeen, George Hamilton Gordon, 4th earl of.
AN / INQUIRY / INTO THE / PRINCIPLES OF BEAUTY / IN /
GRECIAN ARCHITECTURE; / WITH / AN HISTORICAL VIEW
/ OF / THE RISE AND PROGRESS OF THE ART IN / GREECE.
/ BY GEORGE, EARL OF ABERDEEN, K. T. &c. / LONDON: /
JOHN MURRAY, ALBEMARLE-STREET. / 1822.
8vo. Title page (1 leaf); note (1 leaf); text ([1]-217).
The fourth earl of Aberdeen (1784-1860) was a diplomat, the foreign
secretary under the duke of Wellington, and the holder of various other
governmental offices. A trip to Greece in 1803 made him an ardent philhellenist,
and he became a founder of the Athenian Society.
His Inquiry into the Principles of Beauty in Grecian Architecture
was first published as an introduction to William Wilkins's translation
of The Civil Architecture of Vitruvius (London, 1812) and was called
there "An Introduction Containing an Historical View of the Rise and
Progress of Architecture amongst the Greeks." It was printed separately
in London in 1822 and again in 1860 as No. 130 of Weale's series of Rudimentary
Works for the Use of Beginners.
The book is not quite as rudimentary as the title of Weale's series
might suggest. Aberdeen examines Homer and other literary sources for
architectural information and describes surviving monuments, proportions,
and the origin of the arch. He sets out to analyze sublimity as
follows:
Indeed, as I think in all cases of the moral sublime, it may be justly stated
that whatever tends to create ideas of superior energy and force, producing
thereby an elevation and expansion of mind, is its real and efficient cause; I
am persuaded, also, that in visible objects, all such qualities as are capable of
exciting similar sensations must be considered as the only true source of
sublimity. Of these qualities in monuments of architecture, magnitude is the
principal, and perhaps single one, which is indispensable: but its effect may
be much increased by the height of the building, and by the solidity of the
materials which compose its mass. Height, it may be said, is only extension
in a particular direction; but it produces increased sublimity in architecture,
because it most forcibly suggests ideas of great effort, and of great power, as
well as of difficulty overcome. The solidity of the materials also, confirms and
strengthens the first impressions of admiration suggested by magnitude and
height; and, in addition to the sense of original difficulty overcome, gives an
appearance of eternal stability to the building. [Pp. 5-7]
Although he notes that Edmund Burke (1729-97) in The Philosophical
Inquiry into the Origin of Our Ideas on the Sublime and the
Beautiful observes "that uniformity and succession of parts, as the great
causes of the artificial infinite, tend mainly in architecture to produce
sublimity" (p. 9), he is, in actuality, anti-Burke, anti-flowing line, a
proponent of angularity, and a supporter of neoclassicism.
His note on the value of the Greek remains is illuminating both for
its description of the state of archaeology then and for its condemnation
of the copyist:
The precious remains of Grecian art were long neglected, and the most beautiful
were, in truth, nearly inaccessible to the Christian world. . . . Henceforth,
therefore, these exquisite remains should form the chief study of the
architect who aspires to permanent reputation; other modes are transitory and
uncertain, but the essential qualities of Grecian excellence, as they are founded
on reason, and are consistent with fitness and propriety, will ever continue to
deserve his first care. These models should be imitated, however,-not with
the timid and servile hand of a copyist; but their beauties should be transferred
to our soil, preserving, at the same time, a due regard to the changes of customs
and manners, to the difference of our climate, and to the condition of
modern society. [Pp. 215-16]
Jefferson ordered the book for the University in the section on "Architecture"
of the want list and a copy had been received by 1828. This
copy subsequently disappeared, but another has recently been acquired,
the gift of the Thomas Jefferson Memorial Foundation.
U. Va.
*NA270.A2.1822
