Roman Builders: A Study in Architectural Process

New
Paperback
2003
$34.07

How were the architectural ideas behind great Roman building projects carried out in practice? Roman Builders is the first, general interest book to address this question. Using the Baths of Caracalla, the Pantheon, the Coliseum, and the great temples at Baalbek as physical documents for their own building histories, this book traces the thought processes and logistical considerations - the risks, reversals, compromises, and refinements - that led to ultimate success. Each major phase of the building process is considered: design, groundwork, support structures, complex armatures, such as the superstructures of amphitheaters, vaults, and decorations. New hypotheses are advanced on the raising of monolithic columns, the construction sequence of the Coliseum, and the vaulting of the Pantheon. The illustrations include archival and original photographs, as well as numerous explanatory drawings.

Synopsis

How were the architectural ideas behind great Roman building projects carried out in practice? Roman Builders is the first, general interest book to address this question. Using the Baths of Caracalla, the Pantheon, the Coliseum, and the great temples at Baalbek as physical documents for their own building histories, this book traces the thought processes and logistical considerations - the risks, reversals, compromises, and refinements - that led to ultimate success. Each major phase of the building process is considered: design, groundwork, support structures, complex armatures, such as the superstructures of amphitheaters, vaults, and decorations. New hypotheses are advanced on the raising of monolithic columns, the construction sequence of the Coliseum, and the vaulting of the Pantheon. The illustrations include archival and original photographs, as well as numerous explanatory drawings.

$34.07

Quantity

10 in stock

More Information

Format: Paperback
Pages: 320
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Published: 09 Jan 2003
ISBN 10: 0521005833
ISBN 13: 9780521005838
Book Overview: How architectural ideas behind great Roman building projects were carried out in practice.

Media Reviews

'The illustrations are extremely useful. Taylor has borrowed well from other sources, and his photographs are clear and well reproduced. His own line drawings are excellent.' SPAB News
...an original and involving book, well written and readable despite the technical nature of the subject, and will be of interest to anyone--scholar, teacher, student, architect, engineer, layperson, tourist--with an interest in Roman architecture and construction. The Classical Outlook
Profusely illustrated with both photographs and diagrams, many executed by the author, this is an important study of architectural process and should enhance any architectural collection as well as any general academic collection in architecture, history or the humanities. E-STREAMS
This handsome book provides a fresh new look at the material culture of Roman building. Essential. Choice
We come away...with a much clearer understanding of Roman technology in action, what it could and could not do, and of the astonishing effort involved in such contructions. Read Taylor, and you will know full well why there was not a Pantheon in every town. Classical World, George W. Houston, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

Author Bio

Rabun Taylor is Assistant Professor of Classics at the University of Texas at Austin. He received his Ph.D. in Classical Studies from the University of Minnesota and taught at Harvard University prior to his current appointment. His publications include Public Needs and Private Pleasures: Water Distribution, the Tiber River, and the Urban Development of Ancient Rome (Rome 2000) and Roman Builders: A Study in Architectural Process (Cambridge and New York 2003). His most recent book, The Moral Mirror of Roman Art, was published by Cambridge University Press in 2008.