Architecture as Profession: The Origins of Architectural Practice in the Low Countries in the Fifteenth Century

Fifteenth-century Florence is generally considered the cradle of the modern architect. There, for the first time since Antiquity, the Vitruvian concept which distinguishes between builder and designer was recognised in architectural theory, causing a fundamental rupture in architectural practice. In this well-established narrative Northern Europe only followed a century later when, along with the diffusion of Italian treatises and the introduction of the all'antica style, a new type of architect began to replace traditional gothic masters. However, historiography has largely overlooked the important transformations in building organisation that laid the foundations for our modern architectural production, such as the advent of affluent contractors, public tenders, and specialised architectural designers, all of which happened in fifteenth-century Northern Europe. Drawing on a wealth of new source material from the Low Countries, this book offers a new approach to the transition from the Middle Ages to the Early Modern Period by providing an alternative interpretation to the predominantly Italo-centric perspective of the current literature, and its concomitant focus on style and on Vitruvian theory.

Merlijn Hurx is assistant professor of architectural history at Utrecht University. He is specialised in fifteenth- and sixteenth-century architecture in the Low Countries.