Joseph Connors
Borromini and the Roman Oratory: Style and Society.
The Architectural History Foundation, New York/The MIT Press, 1980. Series, 3. 0262030713 xiv/375 pages.
Volume, measuring approximately 7.25" x 10.5", is bound in light brown cloth, with stamped gilt lettering to spine. Last name of previous owner is written on title page. Book is otherwise in fine condition. Dust jacket, with price of $45 on front flap, displays light shelfwear. Jacket is preserved in mylar cover.
"Some consider Francesco Borromini (1599-1667) "the greatest genius of Baroque architecture." Only fifty years ago, after centuries of abuse or neglect, a German scholar, Eberhard Hempel, again gave serious consideration to his architecture. Now, Borromini is seen as a great innovator, a source of inspiration like Brunelleschi, Bramante, and Michelangelo.
The Roman Oratory discussed here was a group of men organized by the Counter-Reformation saint, Filippo Neri, and dedicated to prayer and music; they sponsored a new musical genre, the Oratorio. This book focuses on their commission to design a fully equipped residence, an act of patronage that launched Borromini's career. This is the first serious study of a major Roman religious residence in the seventeenth century, including the financing of its building and operation.
Furthermore, this book explores a new urbanism, public spaces shaped by architecture in relation to its vital environment. Above all, it portrays architectural  genius coming to grips with powerful institutional values, fusing strict control and soaring imagination into a masterwork of perennial importance.
"Borromini and the Roman Oratory" includes a Catalogue of Drawings and more than 260 illustrations -- plans, sketches, and related material -- many published here for the first time. Professor Connors establishes a new chronology of the work and revises attributions of design authorship in his decisive study of triumphant Baroque civilization."