A Biographical Dictionary of English Architecture, 1540-1640
Mark Girouard
Yale, £40, 372 pages
Mark Girouard, born a Catholic in 1937, is the unchallenged doyen of English architectural historians, particularly after the recent lamented death of John Harris. His major works include The Victorian Country House (1971), Life in the English Country House (1978) and Robert Smythson and the Elizabethan Country House (1983).
He has taken his time in producing this work. In 1956 John Harvey, author of English Medieval Architects: A Biographical Dictionary down to 1550 (1954) wrote to him suggesting he write a biographical dictionary of architects to fill in the gap between his own work and that of Howard Colvin (A Biographical Dictionary of British Architects, 1660-1840, also 1954). He eventually signed a contract with the excellent Yale University Press in 2012. He has carefully used “Architecture” rather than “Architects” in his title.
