3 Review(s)

The Oxford bookseller and publisher John Henry Parker (1806-84), a supporter of the Tractarian movement and a friend of Cardinal Newman, was also a historian of architecture, and first published this glossary in 1836. Reissued here is the enlarged third edition of 1840. The work is ordered alphabetically, and illustrated with 700 woodcuts by various artists. As stated in the first edition's preface, the book 'lays no claim to originality, its sole object being utility'. By 1837, 'the rapid sale of the first edition of this work clearly shews that something of the kind was required'. The third edition was followed in 1841 by a companion volume: the two books offered a useful guide for those travellers and others who were taking a keen interest in the built environment. The companion volume contains further line drawings and plates, an index to the plates in both volumes, and a chronology of the architectural developments and individual buildings being discussed.