Sir Christopher Wren: His Family and His Times

Sir Christopher Wren: His Family and His Times - With Original Letters and a Discourse on Architecture Hitherto Unpublished. 1585-1723.

The materials necessary for writing a life of Sir Christopher Wren are so difficult of access as possibly to explain the unsatisfactory character of such biographies as do exist. Mr. James Elmes, who venerated Wrens genius, published in 1823, a Life which contained a careful if a dry account of Wrens architectural works and of some of his scientific discoveries. He also published a smaller work, Sir C. Wren and his Times, intended perhaps to give a flavour of personal interest to the other volume. Neither book succeeds in doing this, and both have suffered from the circumstance that Mr. Elmes failing eyesight did not permit him to correct the proofs of either work, and accordingly many serious errors as to names and dates stand unaltered in them. There is a sketch of Wren in the British Family Library, one published by the Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge, and one in the Biographica Britannica, but in them all it is with some of the works of the great architect that we become acquainted, not with himself. The chief authority to which any biographer of Wren must perforce turn is, the Parentalia, or Memoirs of the Family of the Wrens: viz., of Matthew, Bishop of Ely; Christopher, Dean of Windsor and Registrar of the Garter; but chiefly of Sir Christopher Wren. This work, a folio, with portraits[1] of the three whose lives it records, was published in London in 1750, dedicated to Mr. Speaker Onslow. It was chiefly written by Christopher, the eldest surviving son of Sir Christopher Wren, finished and finally published by Stephen Wren, M.D., the second and favourite, son of the Mr. C. Wren above mentioned, with care of Joseph Ames, a fellow of the Society of Antiquaries. Several copies were presented to the University of Oxford. The Parentalia, of which but a small edition was published, is now scarce and little known. It is put together, not quite at hap-hazard, but with no real method or order: digression ensues upon digression until all clue to the original date or subject is lost. Nor is the very imperfect index of names of any real assistance in the labyrinth thus created. Yet, with all its faults, the book is of great interest, and bears amidst all errors and omissions an unmistakably genuine stamp. ......Buy Now (To Read More)

Product details

Ebook Number: 42007
Author: Phillimore, Lucy
Release Date: Feb 4, 2013
Format: eBook
Language: English