Paolo Marton

I wanted to find out more about the work of the architect who inspired those who designed and built much of Georgian and Regency Bath. This book seemed the perfect opportunity. There's much that is good about it: great photography, willingness to give over an entire double page spread to one picture when appropriate, nice maps showing the locations of all the buildings, large format, but...you knew there was going to be a but, right?

But the book is let down heavily by the text. There's an architectural glossary but it is cursory and needs to be much more comprehensive. Some of the definitions differ from others I've come across. The author clearly isn't a native English speaker and the proof-reading cannot have been done by one either: a few sentences are entirely unintelligible and typos are sprinkled through-out. I never worked out what the author meant by "plastic" - none of the ordinary definitions seem to fit. The style is weirdly elliptical. Whilst interesting, it's not pleasant reading. Finally, at the end, there's a five page essay on "Palladio's Legacy," except only the final three sentences were actually on topic, which is a real shame as it's an interesting topic and most of the essay was just recapitulation of previous material.

Despite these flaws, it served my purpose, giving me very clear ideas on what techniques and motifs of Bath architecture are taken from Palladio. I could have acheived the goal just by looking at the pictures, though.… (mehr)