Robert and James Adam, Architects of the Age of Enlightenment

225 Pages·2011·2.75 MB·English

by  Ariyuki Kondo

ROBERT AND JAMES ADAM, ARCHITECTS OF
THE AGE OF ENLIGHTENMENT
The Enlightenment World:
Political and Intellectual History of the Long
Eighteenth Century
Series Editor: Michael T. Davis
Series Co-Editors: David Armitage
Jack Fruchtman, Jr
Iain McCalman
Jon Mee
Paul Pickering
Advisory Editor: Hideo Tanaka
Titles in this Series
1 Harlequin Empire: Race, Ethnicity and the Drama of the Popular
Enlightenment
David Worrall
2 Th e Cosmopolitan Ideal in the Age of Revolution and Reaction, 1776–1832
Michael Scrivener
3 Writing the Empire: Robert Southey and Romantic Colonialism
Carol Bolton
4 Adam Ferguson: History, Progress and Human Nature
Eugene Heath and Vincenzo Merolle (eds)
5 Charlotte Smith in British Romanticism
Jacqueline Labbe (ed.)
6 Th e Scottish People and the French Revolution
Bob Harris
7 Th e English Deists: Studies in Early Enlightenment
Wayne Hudson
8 Adam Ferguson: Philosophy, Politics and Society
Eugene Heath and Vincenzo Merolle (eds)
9 Rhyming Reason: Th e Poetry of Romantic-Era Psychologists
Michelle Faubert
10 Liberating Medicine, 1720–1835
Tristanne Connolly and Steve Clark (eds)
11 John Th elwall: Radical Romantic and Acquitted Felon
Steve Poole (ed.)
12 Th e Evolution of Sympathy in the Long Eighteenth Century
Jonathan Lamb
13 Enlightenment and Modernity: Th e English Deists and Reform
Wayne Hudson
14 William Wickham, Master Spy: Th e Secret War against the French Revolution
Michael Durey
15 Th e Edinburgh Review in the Literary Culture of Romantic Britain:
Mammoth and Megalonyx
William Christie
16 Montesquieu and England: Enlightened Exchanges, 1689–1755
Ursula Haskins Gonthier
17 Th e Sublime Invention: Ballooning in Europe, 1783–1820
Michael R. Lynn
18 Th e Language of Whiggism: Liberty and Patriotism, 1802–1830
Kathryn Chittick
19 Romantic Localities: Europe Writes Place
Christoph Bode and Jacqueline Labbe (eds)
20 William Godwin and the Th eatre
David O’Shaughnessy
21 Th e Spirit of the Union: Popular Politics in Scotland
Gordon Pentland
22 Ebenezer Hazard, Jeremy Belknap and the American Revolution
Russell M. Lawson
Forthcoming Titles
Sociability and Cosmospolitanism: Social Bonds on the Fringes of the
Enlightenment
Scott Breuninger and David Burrow (eds)
Dialogue, Didacticism and the Genres of Dispute: Literary Dialogues in the
Age of Revolution
Adrian J. Wallbank
British Visions of America, 1775–1820: Republican Realities
Emma Vincent Macleod
www.pickeringchatto.com/enlightenmentworld

ROBERT AND JAMES ADAM, ARCHITECTS OF
THE AGE OF ENLIGHTENMENT
by
Ariyuki Kondo
london
PICKERING & CHATTO
2012
Published by Pickering & Chatto (Publishers) Limited
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All rights reserved.
No part of this publication may be reproduced,
stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means,
electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise
without prior permission of the publisher.
© Pickering & Chatto (Publishers) Ltd 2012
© Ariyuki Kondo 2012
british library cataloguing in publication data
Kondo, Ariyuki.
Robert and James Adam, architects of the Age of Enlightenment. – (Th e
Enlightenment world)
1. Adam, Robert, 1728–1792. 2. Adam, James, d. 1794. 3. Architecture, Modern
– 18th century. 4. Architecture – Great Britain – History – 18th century. 5.
Architecture and philosophy – Great Britain – History – 18th century. 6.
Enlightenment – Great Britain. 7. Architects – Scotland – Biography. 8.
Edinburgh (Scotland) – Intellectual life – 18th century.
I. Title II. Series
720.9’22-dc22
ISBN-13: 9781848931794
e: 9781848931800
∞

Th is publication is printed on acid-free paper that conforms to the American
National Standard for the Permanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials.
Typeset by Pickering & Chatto (Publishers) Limited
Printed and bound in the United Kingdom by the MPG Books Group
CONTENTS
Acknowledgements ix
List of Figures xi
Prefatory Note 1
Introduction 5
1 Men of Learning 15
2 Novelty and Variety: An Enlightenment Vision 39
3 ‘Movement’: Th e Picturesque in Architecture 85
4 Civic Improvement: Edinburgh in the Enlightenment 129
Closing Remarks 157
Notes 163
Works Cited 189
Index 201

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
As this work on Robert and James Adam is based on my postgraduate study at
Edinburgh, I must convey the full extent of my indebtedness to my supervisors
at the University of Edinburgh, amongst whom only a few can be acknowledged
here. It is my great pleasure to express my sincere appreciation to Mr John Lowrey
for encouraging me to undertake the study of Robert and James Adam and for his
continuous, earnest supervision throughout my study at Edinburgh. Special appre-
ciation is also due to Professor Iain Boyd Whyte for his comments, without which
the polishing of the text of my doctoral dissertation would have been impossible.
To these names I must gratefully add those of my friends and colleagues both
inside and outside those universities where I have worked in the past ten years, in
particular Mr Roberto Rabbini for helping me in proofreading the manuscript,
and Professor Kenneth O. Anderson from whom I have received most generous
support in the course of the fi nal editorial work.
Sir Robert Clerk of Penicuik has kindly permitted me to cite from the Adam-
related letters that form part of his family collect. As for the illustrations, I owe
a debt to Sir Robert Clerk of Penicuik, Bt; Sir John Soane’s Museum; the Royal
Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Scotland; the National
Library of Scotland; the National Portrait Gallery; the Laing Art Gallery in New-
castle upon Tyne; and the university libraries of both Cambridge and Edinburgh
for giving me permission to access and reproduce pieces from their collections.
Th at the editors of the Enlightenment World series of Pickering & Chatto and
its publishing director Mark Pollard should have agreed to publish this work leaves
me profoundly grateful. To my copy editor, Stephina Clarke, I extend my thanks for
her profi cient piloting of the work throughout the various editorial stages. I also wish
to thank Professor Hidetada Mukai and Mr Takahiko Kaneko for steering me to
Pickering & Chatto. Without their impartial introductions to a publishing circle far
from where I am based, this work would never have been published.
Lastly, and most importantly, I wish to express my sincere gratitude to my parents
and sister. I would not have accomplished this task without their continuous prayers
and encouragement. Ms Yih-Shin Lee, whom I met at the University of Edinburgh,
and to whom, along with my parents and sister, the original doctoral dissertation was
dedicated, is now my wife. Without her ardent encouragement and attentive sup-
port, I would have given up the attempt to bring out this book long ago.
Ariyuki Kondo
Tokyo, June 2011
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