Notes to Style

This edition presents preliminary readings, notes, and illustrations, for the readers of the existing editions of Gottfried Semper’s Der Stil (1860-63, 1878-89; 1860-63 reprints of 1977, 2008) and Style (2004).


It includes

- translations of relevant passages from Karl Otfried Müller, Handbuch der Archäologie der Kunst (Handbook of the archaeology of art) and Karl Bötticher’s “Entwickelung der Formen der hellenischen Tektonik”, article published in 1840 as an advance for Die Tektonik der Hellenen (The tectonics of the Hellenes, 1844);

- Semper’s inaugural lecture in Zurich, from 1856, translated here as “On formal laws in adornment, and its meaning as artistic symbol”,

 - hundreds of notes for Semper’s Der Stil/Style, including explanations of terms and references, and fragments of texts by other authors Semper refers to,

 - 1700 illustrations for Semper’s, Müller’s and Bötticher’s texts.


The preliminary readings (Müller, Bötticher, Semper) form a self-contained package, with translation, translator’s notes and illustrations, which allows the reader to understand the framework within which Semper is presenting his text, and sometimes reacting to. The notes and illustrations for Der Stil itself are meant to be used as a reading companion, and for that purpose are referenced to the corresponding page and paragraph in each of the previous English- and German-language editions.


Accessing this complementary material as one reads Semper’s text completely changes the experience of reading Der Stil and restores to its message the richness and clarity it had for Semper and his students.