The Architectural Drawings of Sir Christopher Wren (2007)

This book describes one of the great sources of British architectural history: the collection of nearly five hundred drawings from the office of Sir Christopher Wren, today housed at All Souls College, Oxford. The collection reveals how Wren went about designing one of the largest buildings in Christendom – St Paul’s Cathedral; how he rebuilt fifty parish churches after the Great Fire of London; and how he furnished England with some of its best-loved public buildings, including Hampton Court Palace, the Royal Naval Hospital at Greenwich, and the Library at Trinity College, Cambridge.

The drawings also shed light on the internal workings of Wren’s office. Geraghty introduces us to Wren’s team of assistants and draughtsmen, including the young Nicholas Hawksmoor, who spent the first twenty years of his career in Wren’s office. This is the first catalogue of the All Souls drawings in sixty years, and the first to reproduce the whole of the collection in colour. It will be an indispensable work of reference for students of British architectural history.

Condition: ex-library copy (with usual wear, stamps, labels and marks) stained to wrapper, cloth boards and edges of text-block.  A good working copy of this scarce title.