Classical Architecture. (Classical Vade Mecum).

By James Stevens Curl. London: Batsford. 2001. [pounds sterling]17.99

With Howard Colvin, Professor Curl is the great lexicographer of architecture, his Oxford Dictionary of Architecture (1999) being, in my view, incomparably the best now available. Classical Architecture is the clearest and most accessible account of the history and use of the language which has produced most of the great masterpieces of Western architecture. It seems to me astonishing that the practice, as opposed to the history, of the Classical language of architecture is currently taught in no school of architecture in this country. By contrast, Curl recalls that, through the training he was fortunate enough to receive in the 1950s, he 'discovered a rich alphabet to start with, then a vocabulary, and then a whole language capable of infinitely adaptable use'.

Classical Architecture will enable students to recover that lost knowledge and scholars to increase their own, for it contains both recondite as well as practical information: for example, the section on 'Ears' begins 'trusses or consoles on the flanks of architraves under the cornice, also called elbows, ancones, or prothyrides'. The book is divided into three sections, the first consisting of three chapters, 'What is Classical Architecture?', 'The Orders of Architecture and their Application', and 'The Graeco-Roman Roots of Classical Architecture'; the second section also contains three chapters which contain examples from the Renaissance Period, from Baroque, Rococo, and Palladianism, and finally from Neo-classicism and After. An Epilogue is followed by the final section in the form of a valuable glossary and bibliography. Modestly priced, yet lavishly and beautifully illustrated with useful drawings, diagrams, and photographs, Classical Architecture should be in every architect's library.