Abstract:
Sir Henry Wotton's The Elements of Architecture (1624) is unique among the
theoretical texts of the Vitruvian tradition in structuring its argument
around a distinction between the architect and the critic, or 'censurer', of
architecture. The centrality of this distinction to Wotton's text has
remained largely unobserved by his commentators. This paper articulates
Wotton's strategy in the light of both its Platonic-Aristotelian sources, and
his own (somewhat troubled) political identity. In doing so it highlights a
play within Wotton's text between praxis and techne; between
understanding, order and judgment.
The relationship between architect and critic that informs The Elements is
drawn from Plato's Politicus, a text in which both architects and statesmen
are drawn into play within a discourse primarily concerned with the
cultivation of judgment. Equally, Wotton's conception echoes Aristotle's
articulation of the virtue of 'phronesis' into political and legislative wisdom
respectively. In recognising the role of these central understandings of
Platonic-Aristotelian political philosophy within Wotton's writing on
architecture, this paper sheds new light on his often-underrated text.
