Full title: Renaissance- en barokarchitectuur in België: Vitruvius’ erfenis en de ontwikkeling van de bouwkunst in de Zuidelijke Nederlanden van renaissance tot barok = Renaissance and Baroque architecture in Belgium: Vitruvius’ legacy and the development of architecture in the Southern Netherlands from the Renaissance to the Baroque period.

Second paragraph of third chapter, with the quote that it introduces and footnote:

We weten ondertussen dat zijn eerste uitgave van de Generale reglen viel in 1539, onmiddellijk na de terugkeer van Lombard. We zien bovendien dat de tweede uitgave van het beroemde vierde boek van Serlio pas valt in 1549, tien jaar later. Deze tien jaar omspannen dus de hele periode waarin allicht ook Bruegel nog volgens Van Mander op doortocht kan geweest zijn bij Cocke. Bruegel werd immers kort daarna, in 1551, vrijmeester. De omschrijving waarin Carel van Mander de architecturale verdiensten van Pieter Cocke vertolkt, moet ons overigens wel wat tot nadenken stemmen. Bekijken we daarom eerst even de originele passage van Van Mander op folio 218:	We now know that his first edition of the Generale reglen was published in 1539, immediately after Lombard’s return. We also see that the second edition of Serlio’s famous fourth book was not published until 1549, ten years later. These ten years therefore span the entire period during which Bruegel may also have been passing through Cocke’s workshop, according to Van Mander. After all, Bruegel became a master craftsman shortly afterwards, in 1551. Carel van Mander’s description of Pieter Cocke’s architectural merits gives us pause for thought. Let us first take a look at the original passage by Van Mander on folio 218:
‘In desen tijdt / te weten / in’t Jaer 1549. maeckte hy de Boeken van de Metselrije / Geometrije / en Perspective. En gelijck hy wel begaeft en geleert was / d’ Italiaensche Spraeck ervaren wesende / heeft de Boecke van Sebastiaen Serlij, in onse spraeck vertaelt en alsoo door zijnen ernstigen arbeydt in onse Nederlanden het licht gebracht / en op den rechten wech geholpen de verdwaelde Const van Metselrije: soo datmen de dingen / die van Pollio Vitruvio doncker beschreven zijn / lichtlijck verstaen can / oft Vitruvium nouw meer behoeft te lesen / so veel de ordenen belangt. Dus is door Pieter Koeck de rechte wijse van bouwen opghecomen / en de moderne afgegaen / dan t’is moeylijck datter weder een nieuw vuyl moderne op zijn Hoogh-duytsch in gebruyck is ghecomen / die wy qualijck los sullen worden: doch in Italien nemmeer anghenomen sal wesen. ⁴⁴	(in archaic Dutch) In this time, namely in the year 1549, he wrote the Books of Masonry, Geometry, and Perspective. And as he was well-endowed and learned, being experienced in the Italian language, he translated the books of Sebastiaen Serlij into our language and thus, through his diligent work, brought the light to our Netherlands and helped the lost art of masonry back onto the right path, so that the things described obscurely by Pollio Vitruvio can be easily understood, or Vitruvius no longer needs to be read, as far as the orders are concerned. Thus, Pieter Koeck has brought forth the correct way of building, and the modern way has been abandoned, so that it is difficult for a new, foul modern High-German way to come into use, which we will hardly be able to get rid of, but which will never again be accepted in Italy. ⁴⁴
⁴⁴ lets verderop staat dan nog: ‘want zijn Weduwe Maeyken Verhulst gaf zijn nagelaten Metselrije. Boeken uyt in ‘t Jaer 1553. – VAN MANDER 1603, fol. 218.	⁴⁴ Further on it says: ‘for his widow Maeyken Verhulst published his bequeathed masonry books in the year 1553. – VAN MANDER 1603, fol. 218.

I got this ages ago, in the hope that it would shed a bit more light for me on the artistic context of the work of Jan Christiaan Hansche, the Baroque stucco artist who I am obsessed with. I did not really get what I wanted; the second last chapter has nine lovely full-colour photographs of his ceilings, but amazingly doesn’t actually mention him by name in the main text – the chapter is mainly about the Banqueting House in Greenwich, which last time I checked isn’t even in Belgium. (The captions to the photographs do credit Hansche.)

Architectural history isn’t really my bag, and although Dutch is probably the second language that I feel most comfortable reading, that’s not saying much, so I must admit I did not read it forensically. I got enough of it to learn that the individual travels to Italy of particular artists, especially (of course) Bruegel and Rubens, had a big impact on their work, and also that the publication of architectural textbooks, by or adapted from Vitruvius, in the bookish society of early modern Belgium, allowed the new/old architectural ideas to proliferate.

But none of that really matters, because the glory of the book is the hundreds of photographs of buildings and art, which surely must be a pretty comprehensive gazetteer of the surviving architecture of the period in Belgium. If we had that sort of coffee-table, this is the sort of book I’d be putting on it. I got it for only €30, and the going rate for slightly more loved copies is €20 – really good value for what you get. So I didn’t really find what I wanted, but I am happy with what I got.

You can get it from various second-hand vendors (it was published by Lannoo in 1999, so it’s out of print). The ISBN is 9789020937053.

This was the non-fiction book that had lingered longest unread on my shelves. Next on that pile is Liberation: The Unoffical and Unauthorised Guide to Blake’s 7, by Alan Stevens and Fiona Moore.