Volumes of words: the architecture of the page
- 16 January 2019
- London EMAP Publishing Limited 2019
Sixteenth-century Italian architect Sebastiano Serlio’s Extraordinary Book of Doors, part of a multi-volume treatise, displays on each recto page a drawing of a doorway, porch or entrance facade. Published in the early years of the printing revolution, these drawings of architectural entrances often appear a little wonky or unaligned, the first trials of their mechanical reproductions in sync with the formative attempts of architects to codify the fundamentals of built forms in print. Correspondingly, the page would become an architectural, or archi-text-ural, site. With each turn of the large-format page over the Book of Doors’ long spine, the reader meets another printed gateway. In the space between the columnar porches, their mind settles on the textured blank of the paper. Serlio’s Book of Doors presents a way in – what if every book contains such portals?