Open Access
Subscription Access
Open Access
Subscription Access
Imaginary Cities of the 16th and 17th Century: An Exploration on the Utopian Cities of Albrecht Durer, Johann Valentin Andreae, and Tommaso Campanella
Subscribe/Renew Journal
In 1527, Albrecht Durer published "Etliche Unterricht, zur Befestigung der Stadte, Schlosser und Flecken." In this book he outlines a plan for a fortified city in detail. His plan was functional, economical, pragmatic, and socially responsible, with the central square being reserved for a palace. Each building is shown, the market, the town hall, the blacksmith's workshop, and even the taverns, all carefully aligned with the rectilinear geometry of the plan, but everything is subordinate to the central citadel - the palace of the king. Likewise, Johann Valentin Andreae's "Christianopolis" (1619) and Tommaso Campanella's "Civitas Solis" (City of the Sun) placed the authority of the church in the centre with spectacular temples. In these three utopian cities, the authority of the king or the church is clearly delineated by the architecture and the building's dominant central position within the city. These cities were heavily fortified and the cities were isolated from the 'outside world'. This paper examines the architecture of Durer's fortified city, Christianopolis, and City of the Sun. After examining the plan and architecture of the three cities, this paper will consider whether the utopian ideals are reflected in the architecture.
Keywords
Utopian Architecture, Utopia Literature, Albrecht Durer, Johann Valentin Andreae, Tommaso Campanella.
Subscription
Login to verify subscription
User
Font Size
Information
- Alberti, Leone Battista. On the Art of Building in Ten Books Translated by Joseph Rykwert, Neil Leach and Robert Tavernor. Cambridge, Massachusetts, London, England: MIT Press, 1988.
- Andreae, Johann Valentin. "Christianopolis." In Christianopolis, edited by Edward H Thompson, 133-280. Dordrecht: Kluwer Academic Publishers, 1999.
- Andreae, Johann Valentin. Joannis Valentin Andreae, Collectaneorum Mathematicorum Decades Xi. Centum & Decem Tabulis Aeneis Exhibitae Tubingae: Alexandri Cellii, 1614.
- Anonymous. The Pearl. Translated by Edward Vasta. Notre Dame: University of Notre Dame Press, 1961.
- Bleiler, Everett F. "Johann Valentin Andreae, Fantasist and Utopist." Science Fiction Studies 35, no. 1 (2008): 1-30.
- Bonansea, Bernardino M. Tommaso Campanella: Renaissance Pioneer of Modern Thought Washington: The Catholic University of America, 1969.
- Campanella, Tommaso. "Campanella's City of the Sun." In Ideal Commonwealths, edited by Henry Morley, 141-79. Washington: Kennikat Press, 1968.
- Dickson, Donald R. "Johann Valentin Andreae's Utopian Brotherhood." Renaissance Quarterly 49, no. 4 (1996): 760-802.
- Dixon, Donald R. The Tessera of Antilia: Utopian Brotherhood and Secret Societies in the Early Seventeenth Century. Leiden, Boston and Koln: Brill, 1998.
- Durer, Albrecht. De Symmetria Partium in Rectis Formis Humanorum Corporum. Nuremberg1532.
- Durer, Albrecht. Etliche Unterricht, Zur Befestigung Der Staedte, Schloesser Und Flecken. Nuremberg, 1527.
- Durer, Albrecht. "Underweysung Der Messung." Translated by Walter L. Strauss. edited by David Price: Octavo, 2003.
- Filarete. Filarete's Treatise on Architecture. New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 1965.
- Friedman, John Block. "The Architects Compass in Creation Miniatures of the Late Middle Ages." Traditional dwellings and settlements review 30 (1974).
- Hull, E. The Poem-Book of the Gael. London,1913.
- Hutchison, Jane Campbell. "Albrecht Durer: A Biography." Princeton University Press.
- Lewis, Michael J. "Utopia and the Well-Ordered Fortress: J. M. Von Schwalbach's Town Plans of 1635." Architectural History 37 (1994): 24-36.
- Martini, Franceso di Giorgio Trattato Di Capitalize, Ingegneria E Arte Militare. MilanoTrattato di capitalize, Ingegneria e Arte Militare1841.
- Montgomery, John Warwick Cross and Crucible: Johann Valentin Andreae (1586-1654) Phoenix of the Theologians. The Hague: Martinus Ninoff, 1973.
- Morrison, Tessa. "Imperial Roman Elements in the Architecture of the City in Saltair Na Rann." Celts in Legends and Reality: Papers from the Sixth Australian Conference of Celtic Studies (2010).
- Morrison, Tessa. " 'Seeing' the Apocalyptic City in the Fourteenth Century." In End of Days: Essays on the Apocalypse from Antiquity to Modernity. Jefferson: McFarland & Company, Inc, 2009.
- Mumford, Lewis. The Story of Utopia. New York: The Viking Press, 1962.
- Plato. Plato's Republic. Translated by G.M.A. Grube. Indianapolis:: Hackett Publishing Company, 1974.
- Plato. Timaeus and Critias. Translated by Desmond Lee. Hammondsworth: Penguin Books, 1981.
- Roberts, Marie. Gothic Immortals: The Fiction of the Brotherhood of the Rosie Cross. London and New York: Routledge, 1999.
- Thausing, Moriz, and Fred A Eaton. Albert Dürer: His Life and Work Part Two, London. 1882.
- Thompson, Edward H. "Introduction." In Christianopolis, edited by Edward H Thompson. 1-132. Dordrecht: Kluwer Academic Publishers, 1999.
Abstract Views: 245
PDF Views: 0