Abstract:
Employing a hermeneutic approach to Sir Henry Wotton's seventeenth century
text on architecture, this paper discloses the discourse on judgement that
lies at its heart. Wotton's conception of judgement is Aristotelian, and refers to
Aristotle's Ethics; specifically his discourses on practical reasoning, legislation
and political wisdom. Addressed to the aristocratic amateur architects of
Jacobean England, The Elements of Architecture seeks to provide a 'rule'to
guide the cultivation of good judgment in architecture. Nuances of the
relationship between 'rule' and 'example' in Wotton's conception of judgement
are examined, highlighting a consonance with the play between logos
and ethos that is characteristic of Aristotelian ethics. This play, it is argued, is
crucial to Wotton's conception of both judgement and architectural making.
