WOTTON, Henry.

Rare first edition of the first work on architectural theory to be published in English, written by the retired ambassador to Venice Henry Wotton in the hope of being awarded the provostship of Eton College. Wotton knew that the appointment would be decided by George Villiers, Duke of Buckingham, patron of architecture and the arts, and wrote his pamphlet to improve his chances of selection over several rivals including Francis Bacon, presenting special copies to the King, the Prince of Wales and other notable figures. The scheme worked and he was selected and, despite the haste in which it was produced, the work displays great learning and connoisseurship. Wotton “was the foremost exponent of Renaissance architectural theory in England and the expositor…of the unpublished ideas of Inigo Jones”. Harris. “On the first page of the preface, Wotton styles himself as “but a gatherer and disposer of other mens stuffe.” In doing his gathering, he relied primarily on the work of Roman architect Vitruvius, but also draws from notable renaissance figures like Alberti and Palladio. Wotton ultimately lays out four principles of architecture, adapted from Vitruvius. First is Harmony, or the proper proportions in the size of rooms. Next is Convivence, or the agreement between the parts of the design and the whole. Third is Décor, or the suitability of the habitation to its inhabitant. And finally, Distribution, or the “usefull casting of all roomes for office, entertainment, or pleasure”.Ryan Martins. Wotton, Wren, and The Elements of Architecture

‘Wotton briefly, and critically, reviews the texts of the Vitruvian theoretical tradition to date. He concludes that none of his predecessors have adequately articulated the precepts of ancient architecture . . . He proposes his Elements of Architecture as a remedy for this lamentable state of affairs’. Susan Stewart, ‘Architecture Reviewing Theory: Sir Henry Wotton’s Dialectical Articulation of the Vitruvian Tradition’

“While Wotton’s treatise is perhaps not a general theory of architecture in its entirety, the author does propose an orderly, systematic, and comprehensive consideration of architecture and its precepts, and he considers the fundamental means and ends of building. Although Wotton’s more restricted topic is the house, he does not mention the ‘country house’ as such. He speaks instead abstractly of the Fabrique (Italian: Fabbrica), or building, and not of homes or houses that are lived in, although this idea lies behind many of his observations. Only at the beginning of Part II does the concept of the deep identification of habitation and inhabitant come to the fore as Wotton writes of: “Every man’s proper mansion house and home, being the theatre of his hospitality, the seat of self-fruition, the most comfortable part of his own life, the noblest of his son’s inheritance, a kind of private princedom; nay, to the possessor’s thereof, an epitomie of the whole world (…).” Davis, ‘The Elements of Architecture with an anthology of critical commentary’.

An important and rare work.