Almost three centuries ago, in 1721, the Austrian architect Fischer von Erlach published A Plan of Civil and Historical Architecture. This book, a supposed comparative analysis of the world’s architecture, contains a number of plates depicting a group of monuments such as the Giza Pyramids, and the buildings of still remote cultures like Chinese pavilions and landscapes alongside projects and buildings by Fischer von Erlach himself. On each plate, below the image, a bilingual caption shortly exposes von Erlach’s personal views on the represented buildings and projects.
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