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Leonhard Christoph Sturm (?)
The Academy of Architects,
opened to the delight of travellers,
Hamburg, printed by Benjamin Schillern, bookseller in Thum, 1706
(review by Francesco Mazzaferro)
The book is intended for young people: they are the ones who have the enthusiasm to move, after all. It specifically considers Holland, England, France and Italy, but also Germany. The introduction explains that this is a lexicon, a manual and a guide. The author explains that he wanted to be deliberately concise.
(review by Francesco Mazzaferro)
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| Fig. 1) Leonhard Christoph Sturm, The Academy of Architects |
Leonhard Christoph Sturm was a German mathematician and architect who lived from 1669 to 1719. His name (as we will see) is connected to the publication of the work of his master, Nicolaus Goldmann (1611-1665). Still, Sturm also dedicated himself to write a whole series of minor texts.
It could be also the case of this booklet I bought from the Vienna-based antiquarian Georg Fritsch. According to the use of those times, the title of the work is kilometric [1]. I will mention it from now onwards as “Baumeister Academie”, i.e. the Academy of the Architects.
Three things are worth mentioning already now:
First, it is really a pocket book (with a size of 7.9 cm x 14.2 cm), which continues a fortunate tradition inaugurated in Venice since mid-1600 [2] and immediately spread across the whole of Europe: that of a touristic guide to the perusal of the traveller. In sum, a concise summary of the things to be seen. Here however a second goal (also a clear expression of those times) has to be added: that of travelling around Europe, without being afraid of making a bad impression. In fact, the subtitle reads: "A brief proposal for all those things that a gentleman should definitely know, if he wants to observe the buildings in a useful way and to draw reasonable judgments." We are at the beginning of 1700, and the theme of the Vernunft, the reason, begins to appear on the front pages of the writings. Although the Kantian enlightenment, of which the concept of Vernunft is the key universal instrument, it is still far away, we can already smell the aroma of pre-Enlightenment: these were the years of Leibniz.
Second, it is worth reflecting about the term Academie, the French word used in the title. Also here, obviously, the fashion of that time is reflected: the XVII century has seen the birth of the great Academies (in particular the one in Paris) and the term has gained in broad sense also the meaning of ‘handbook’ or ‘teaching’. Sturm proposes therefore a pocket course of architecture through the review of the main buildings which can be visited in Europe. [3]
Third, in reality the work is anonymous. The introduction ends however with an encouragement from the author to the curious reader to see "my exercises on the architecture of Goldmann.” This refers to the mathematician and architectural theorist Nicolaus Goldmann (1611-1665), whose work was published by Sturm, together with a series of comments. One can say, in some respect, that the custody, study and publication of Goldmann’s manuscripts were the life’s mission of Sturm. It is sufficient to recall that he issued the first edition of the Civil Bau-Kunst by Goldmann (published between 1696 and 1699); drafted 16 comments (or “exercises”) to the work, partially published in a second edition of 1708; printed a comment to Goldmann’s theories in the Prodromus architecturae Goldmanniae (Observations on the architecture by Goldmann) in 1714 and finally edited a third edition in 1715 [3]. This is the only basis to attribute this work to Sturm. In my copy, the name is hand-written with a pencil by the antiquarian, in the inside back cover.
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| Fig. 2) Front-cover of the first edition (1700) |
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| Fig. 3) Front-cover of the second edition (1706) |
The book is intended for young people: they are the ones who have the enthusiasm to move, after all. It specifically considers Holland, England, France and Italy, but also Germany. The introduction explains that this is a lexicon, a manual and a guide. The author explains that he wanted to be deliberately concise.
There are at least two editions of the "Baumeister Academie" in the eighteenth century and no modern version. The first edition is of 1700: it is printed in Hamburg by Benjamin Schillern and can be consulted in the internet in several versions. The second one (which I purchased) is of 1706 and is an amplified version, compared to the previous one. The latter has around 160 pages, while the former 232. In the edition of 1706 two attachments are included, which are absent in the first edition, one on the altars, tombs and chapels, and one on the incisions. Also the repertory of sources consulted jumps from four to twelve pages. The bibliography of 1706 distinguishes sources for physical dimensions (in folio, quarto, octavo, etc.), probably to enable travellers to decide which books to take with them in tour.
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| Fig. 4) Two pages of the bibliography |
It should be mentioned that the work does not cover only architecture. The "Baumeister Academie" is divided into five "Discourses": the first on the principles of the architecture, the second on the elements of the buildings, the third on painters, the fourth on sculptors, and the fifth on buildings in their entirety. There are frequent lists of artists and works, which should not be missed during the trip.
The text is still today - despite the early eighteenth century German - incredibly clear. The goal is pedagogical: the author addresses intentionally people who know nothing of architecture, and it leads them into the topic with great humility. The author is certainly a Protestant, but it seems that this is not a reason justifying radical choices on monuments to be seen or not, or on the assessment on them. In particular there is no religious preference on the location of where to travel or the artists to meet, not I saw any acrimony against the Catholic world.
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| Fig. 5) Leonhard Christoph Sturm |
Schlosser does not dwell long on Sturm’s figure [6]. He speaks on him first, in his Kunstliteratur, together the Viennese Fischer von Erlach [7], but they were in reality quite different personalities. While von Erlach was above all (besides being a leading architect) a designer and illustrator, and left only one (but impressive) publication, Sturm – at the origin a mathematician – composed a very large literature, even if according to Schlosser not always very original. He was director of construction in Northern Germany, but always oriented himself to Italian architecture. However, Schlosser reports him as the "first aesthete of architecture of Protestant churches" (p.659).
The Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie [8] (the German biographical dictionary) explains that Sturm had a mathematics education, and moved first from Wurttemberg to Saxony, where he began more and more to apply to architecture the knowledge of mathematics and geometry he had learned from his father. In him always prevailed a theoretical attitude (it seems to have built very few buildings), characterized by a strong moral and religious ethics. It seems, however, that he had an extraordinary capacity to invite the dislike of his colleagues, and to shove in religious disputes between various factions of local Protestantism. From Saxony he moved first to Brandenburg (Frankfurt an der Oder), then to Mecklenburg (Schwerin), and finally to Hamburg. Wherever he went, he always got into trouble. If he was never able to establish himself as an architect, his work as writer on architecture and art was really remarkable, also covering the practical aspects (benefiting from his own scientific culture). He left us around 40 publications.
Cornelius Gurlitt, the main scholar of Sturm, explains that he absorbed the work of Vitruvius through French and Dutch input, and that it was on this foundation (for example, on the concept of the architectural orders) that he reclaimed a Protestant classical architecture who could at the same time serve the objectives of religion and those of style and prestige. In art he preferred the French classicism of Perrault to the Italian baroque of Bernini and Borromini (which was contrary to his methodical nature); in the name of the same classicism, he categorically condemned the Gothic.
It is important to take note that – whether catholic or protestant - the function of the church must first of all be to allow believers to follow in the best way the preaching of the Pastors (hence the importance of the distribution of space in order to facilitate listening to the sermon, and the need to save space, cutting chapels and any other unnecessary ornaments). Only in this way we can understand how Goldmann first and Sturm later on draw one of the fundamental elements of discussion of their theses directly from the Counterreformation: it is the debate on the form of the Temple of Salomon. All the XVII century is crossed by this theme, which – not by coincidence - is inaugurated at the beginning of the century in Spain, thanks to the Jesuit Juan Bautista Villalpando. In fact Villalpando, basing himself on the description given by the prophet Ezekiel, endeavours to reconstruct the appearance of the Temple of Solomon, or the 'prototype' of the religious temple, and comes to the conclusions that the Corinthian order is the 'Solomonic' order. The ‘religious' reading of the system of the architectural orders is evident: it is not the emanation of Roman paganism, but the product of direct origins from Christianity.
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| Fig. 6) Plants of the Protestant churches of Leonhard Christoph Sturm, from: Cornelius Gurlitt, History of the Baroque and Rococo style 'n Germany, Stuttgart, Ebner & Seubert (P. Neff), 1889 (P. 73) |
Goldmann first and Sturm later on work exactly on the same issues, this time from Protestant positions. Hanno-Walter Kruft writes about the first edition of Goldmann’s Civil Bau-Kunst, published by Sturm: "In the long baroque title is not only announced the discussion of the architectural orders in accordance with the" optimal rules "of Vitruvius, Vignola, Scamozzi, Palladio and Villalpando, but also a ''broad description of Jerusalem". The dedication of Sturm stresses "the constructive rationality" that "cannot but derive its origin from the Temple of Solomon." Vitruvius assumes a subordinate position, "He has derived his building art from the Temple of Solomon, the true original source, adding the streams of the ancient Roman wisdom." Sturm, who had already presented in 1694 a reconstruction of the Temple of Solomon, strengthens the role, also important for Goldmann, of the Solomonic architecture, with a broad analysis of the reconstruction of Villalpando." [10]
No surprise, then, that even in the pocket guide to the European architecture, no condemnation of Catholic temples emerges. The real opposition, at least in this case, is not in religious terms, but rather in terms of design, with a classicist vision of architecture opposed to the baroque degeneration, for example, of Borromini.
[1] The complete title is: Die zum Vergnügen der Reisenden geöffnete Baumeister-Academie, oder
kurtzer Entwurf derjenigen Dinge, die einem galant-homme zu wissen nöhtig sind,
dafern er Gebäude mit Nutzen besehen, und vernünfftig davon urtheilen will -
Alles nach denen besten Reguln, und heut zu Tage üblichen Manieren der
geschicktesten Baumeister/ jedoch in möglichster Kürtze vorgestellet/ und mit
nöhtigen Figuren erläutert. Samt doppeltem Anhang: 1. Von sehenswürdigen
Altären/ Grab-Mahlen/ Capellen/ etc. 2. Was einem galant-homme von
Kupffer-stechen zu verstehen nützlich und nöhtig ist. Hamburg, Bey Benjamin
Schillern, Buchändlern in Thum/ Anno 1706
[2] See in this blog the review of “Angelo Maria Monaco, Giacomo Barri “francese” e il suo Viaggio pittoresco d'Italia. Gli anni a Venezia di un peintre-graveur scrittore d’arte nel Seicento” (Angelo Maria Monaco. The “French” Giacomo Barri and his Pictorial Voyage through Italy. The Venice years of a peintre-graveur writing on art in the XVII Century).
[3] Nikolaus Pevsner, Le Accademie d’arte, Turin, 1982.
[6] Schlosser, Julius von, La letteratura artistica, Florence, La Nuova Italia, 1964
[7] Su Fischer von Erlach si veda in questo blog Francesco Mazzaferro, When Naples meets Stockholm: the Viennese 'Entwurff einer historischen Architectur' by Johan Bernhard Fischer von Erlach.
[10]
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