On Saturday 20 September 2025, we welcomed over 400 people to the RCP at Regent’s Park as part of the London Open House Festival. Visitors enjoyed the chance to explore our Grade-I listed building from top to bottom, as well as hearing from expert guides and viewing original architectural plans of the building.
As part of the day’s offerings, and to accompany the new exhibition ‘A body of knowledge’, we fetched out five masterpieces of 16th century architectural writing, all taken from the library of Henry Pierrepont. Though Pierrepont was trained as a lawyer, and practised medicine as a hobby, his library contained texts on a wide variety of subjects, including a great number of mathematical works extending beyond pure mathematics into applied fields such as mechanics, music, astronomy and architecture.
De architectura libri X [Ten books about architecture], Marcus Vitruvius Pollio, published Strasbourg, 1550
Vitruvius was a Roman military engineer. He wrote De architectura between 31 and 27 BCE, while he was working for the Roman Emperor Augustus. De architectura is the only surviving treatise on the subject from the classical world. Vitruvius based it on earlier Greek writings on architecture, but called his work ‘the first comprehensive study of the subject’. It includes material not only on building construction, but also the related fields of mechanical engineering, materials, military engineering and urban planning.
Vitruvius created a theory of architectural perfection based on quantitative terms, and derived finite rules for planning from them. These became very influential in Renaissance architecture. Leonardo da Vinci’s famous drawing of the ‘Vitruvian Man’ was based on Vitruvius’ theories of perfection in proportion.
The first printed edition of De architectura began publication in Rome in 1486. The first editions with illustrations appeared in 1511 and 1521. The edition here dates from 1550. It was printed in Strasbourg by Georg Messerschmidt, with woodcut illustrations and scholarly notes by the French architect Guillaume Philander.
L’Architettura [Architecture], Pietro Cataneo, published Venice, 1567
Pietro Cataneo was an Italian architect and mathematician. His I quattro primi libri di architettura (The first four books of architecture) was first published in 1554. The four books covered four broad themes: the design of fortified cities, materials, ecclesiastical architecture and domestic architecture.
This new edition from 1567 had four new books added: on the ornamentation of buildings, on the uses of water, on the use of geometry in architecture and on the principles of perspective. All the sections are illustrated with woodcuts.
De architectura libri quinque: quibus cuncta fere architectonica facultatis mysteria docte, perspicue, uberrimeq, explicantur [Five books on architecture: in which almost all the mysteries of the faculty of architecture are explained learnedly, clearly and in detail], Sebastiano Serlio, published Venice, 1569
Sebastiano Serlio was an Italian Mannerist architect and author. He was part of the Italian team involved in building the Palace of Fontainbleau near Paris for the French King François I.
Topics covered in the book include geometry, perspective, Roman antiquity and church design. Serlio established the five classical ‘orders’ of architecture: Tuscan, Doric, Ionic, Corinthian and Composite, which you can see illustrated on page 230 of this edition.
Des plus excellents bastiments de France: auquel sont designez les plans de quinze bastiments, & de leur contenu: ensemble les eleuations & singularitez d'un chascun [The most excellent buildings in France: including the plans of fifteen buildings and their contents, together with the elevations and distinctive features of each], Jacques Androuet de Cerceau, published Paris, 1576 and 1579 (two volumes)
The author of this book, Jacques Androuet de Cerceau, is credited with bringing Italian Renaissance architectural ideas to France. He was appointed architect to the French King Henri II, but was known best for his illustrations of buildings and decorative designs.
This is his best-known work, filled with double-page engraved illustrations of notable buildings in plan, elevation and birds-eye views, issued in two volumes.
During De Cerceau’s lifetime, this book and his other works were used as templates by designers and craftspeople working in the Northern Mannerist style. His designs became popular in the France in the 1880s as a source for Henri II-style furniture and furnishing designs.
Nouveaux pourtraitz et figures de termes pour user en l'architecture: composez & enrichiz de diuersite d'animaulx, representez au vray, selon l'antipathie & contrariete naturelle de chacun d'iceleux [New illustrations of architectural terms, enriched with diverse animals depicted each with their natural cause of annoyance], Joseph Boillot, published Langres, 1592
Joseph Boillot was an artist, architect and military engineer, and the officer in charge of gunpowder and saltpetre in his home town of Langres, in northeastern France.
This copiously illustrated book shows figures of animals used as supports for buildings. Boillot placed animals – both real and mythological – in the place usually occupied by human figures as atlases or caryatids. He stated that this was because the figures carrying the heavy burdens of buildings were effectively enslaved, and that human figures ought to be free.
Boillot constructed a hierarchy of animals, with the sturdiest (such as the elephant) used to support the lowest floors and the daintier creatures used higher up, finishing near the end of the book with an extravagantly spiny (and impractical) porcupine.
The animals are depicted with the ‘natural annoyances’ that attack them in the wild or as the result of human action:
These are just five out of the three dozen architectural books from the Marquis of Dorchester’s library, and those works of architecture are a small minority of his total collection. There is richness across the RCP Heritage Library, and it’s always a pleasure to share it with visitors and researchers.
Katie Birkwood, rare books and special collections librarian.
The exhibition A Body of Knowledge is open from 10th September 2025 until 23rd July 2026.
The Heritage Library is open to research from anyone with an interest. Please contact us to make an appointment if you would like to see rare books from the collection.
