His Invention So Fertile : A Life of Christopher Wren

In His Invention So Fertile , Adrian Tinniswood offers the first biography of Christopher Wren in a generation. It is a book that reveals the full depth of Wren's multifaceted genius, not only as one of the greatest architects who ever lived—the designer of St. Paul's Cathedral—but as an influential seventeenth-century scientist. Tinniswood writes with insight and flair as he follows Wren from Wadham College, Oxford, through the turmoil of the English Civil War, to his role in helping to found the Royal Society—the intellectual and scientific heart of seventeenth-century England. The reader discovers that the great architect was initially an astronomer who was also deeply interested in medicine, physics, and mathematics. Family connections pulled him into architecture, with a commission to restore the chapel at Pembroke College, Cambridge. Tinniswood deftly follows Wren's rise as architect, capturing the atmosphere of Restoration London, as old Royalists scrambled for sinecures from Charles II and Wren learned the art of political infighting at court, finally becoming Surveyor of the Royal Works-the King's engineer. Most important, the author recounts the intriguing story of the building of St. Paul's. The Great Fire of 1666—vividly recreated in Tinniswood's narrative—left London a smoldering husk. Wren played a central role in reshaping the city, culminating with St. Paul's, his masterpiece—though he had to steer between King and cathedral authorities to get his radical, domed design built. As the Enlightenment dawned in England, Wren's magnificent dome rose above London, soon to become an icon of London and world architecture. One of the most influential architects in history, Christopher Wren comes vividly to life in this fittingly grand biography. "Christopher Wren (1632-1723) was the greatest architect Britain has ever known. But he was more than that. A founder of the Royal Society, he mapped the moon and the stars, investigated the problem of longitude and the rings of Saturn, and carried out groundbreaking experiments into the circulation of blood. His observations on comets, meteorology and muscular action made vital contributions to the developing ideas of Newton, Halley and Boyle.". "His Invention So Fertile presents a complete picture of this towering genius: the Surveyor-General of the King's Works, running the nation's biggest architectural office and wrestling with corruption and interference; the pioneering anatomist; the mathematician, devising new navigational instruments and lecturing on planetary motion.". "It also shows us the man behind the legend. Wren was married and widowed twice, he fathered a mentally handicapped child, quarrelled with his colleagues and fell foul of his employers. He scrambled over building sites and went to the theatre and drank in coffee-houses. The book explores what it was like to be at Oxford during the Commonwealth, as a generation struggled to make sense of a society in chaos; it recreates the tensions which tore apart the court of James II; it brings to life the petty jealousies that formed an integral part of both the building world and the scientific milieu of the Royal Society."--BOOK JACKET. Contents 10 List of Illustrations 11 Foreword 14 Introduction 18 1 The Beauty of Holiness 20 2 I Will Perform as Much as I Am Able 31 3 The Theory and Practice of Physick 51 4 The Natural Simplicity of the Contrivance 69 5 The Key That Opens Treasures 87 6 An Ingenious Gentleman 111 7 The Most Esteem’d Fabricks of Paris 131 8 A Well–Projected Design 155 9 Something of a Better Mould 179 10 The Honour of the Nation 199 11 Our Reformed Religion 218 12 The Most Essential Part of Architecture 244 13 The Trade I Was Once Well Acquainted With 266 14 Free Conversation 291 15 Virtues and Accomplishments 321 16 The Poor Old Man 347 17 My Great Work 365 18 An Ornament to the Age 384 Notes 400 Bibliography 440 Index 450 A 450 B 451 C 453 D 456 E 456 F 458 G 458 H 459 I 462 J 462 K 463 L 463 M 465 N 466 O 467 P 467 Q 469 R 469 S 470 T 473 U 474 V 474 W 474 Y 480 Christopher Wren once told his friend, the antiquary and folklorist John Aubrey, that he was born in his father's parsonage house at East Knoyle in Wiltshire on Thursday 20 October 1631.