Bruce Boucher

An in-depth study that sheds a fascinating new light on Sir John Soane (1753–1837) and his world-renowned collection A Financial Times Best Book of 2024: Art, Design, and Fashion Sir John Soane’s architecture has enjoyed a revival of interest over the last seventy years, yet Soane as a collector—the strategy behind and motivation for Soane’s bequest to the nation—has remained largely unexplored. While Soane referred to the display of objects in his house and museum as “studies for my own mind,” he never explained what he meant by this, and the ambiguity surrounding his motivation remains perennially fascinating. This book illuminates a side of Soane’s personality unfamiliar to most students of his life and work by examining key strands in his collection and what they reveal about Soane and the psychology of collecting. Topics include the display of antiquities; his fascination with ruins, both literal and figurative; his singular response to Gothic architecture; and his investment in modern British painting and sculpture. These aspects are bookended by an introductory biographical chapter that highlights the ways in which his family and career informed his collecting habits as well as an epilogue that analyses the challenges of turning a private house and collection into a public museum.

Grafton’s recently completed Marshall Building for LSE, sits across Lincoln’s Inn Fields from Sir John Soane’s Museum, the home of leading Georgian architect John Soane. This new neighbour was deeply inspired by the architecture of the Museum, in particular Soane’s atmospheric use of light, as well as other historic buildings in the area. The result is an elegant, expressive and democratic new space. Like the Museum, it fosters learning, debate and creativity. This relationship will be celebrated in an exhibition at Sir John Soane’s Museum from October 2022-January 2023. Contributing authors explore the architecture of Grafton’s Marshall Building and the Soane Museum, pairing Soane drawings from the Museum’s collection with Grafton’s own drawings and in-progress photographs of the Marshall Building which are published for the first time. This approach highlights architecture as a craft shared across the centuries. This innovative publication also functions as a sketch-book, with printed sections interleaved with 16 pages of high-quality drawing paper and a pocket at the back for collected materials.

Andrea Palladio (1508-1580) is known as the architect who has guided Western design philosophy for half a millennium, creating forms that have been studied and reproduced from age to age and around the world. For architects and the public alike, his buildings have become enduring testaments to his architectural genius as creator of a timeless classicism. When Abbeville Press first published Andrea Palladio: The Architect in His Time in 1994, it was selected by Choice Magazine as "Outstanding Academic Book 1994", while The World of Interiors called it "undoubtedly one of the most important architectural books to be published for some time". Now Abbeville is pleased to release the revised concise edition of this essential resource. Featuring a newly updated bibliography, this handsome volume spans the entire career of Palladio, illuminating his work in the context of his historical era and his own extraordinary life. It invites us to view Palladio's masterpieces through the lens of Paolo Marton, moving across the thresholds of myriad villas, churches, and public edifices to illustrate the elegant proportions, crisp lines, and integrated geometries that are the hallmarks of Palladio's vision. From the immortal Villa Rotonda to the Venetian churches of the Redentore and San Giorgio Maggiore, from the city halls to the bridges, each masterpiece is described using plans, maps, and contemporary drawings and etchings along with brilliant photography. Combining modern scholarship with intriguing narrative, Palladio will educate and enlighten, helping readers understand the passion, joy, and beauty of one of the world's most fascinating ages of architecture.