Sir John Soane: The Royal Academy Lectures contains the full text of Soane's lectures, edited by David Watkin from the manuscripts at the Sir John Soane's Museum in London. It is a revised and abridged edition of his award-winning book Sir John Soane: Enlightenment Thought and the Royal Academy Lectures. In his introduction to this volume, Watkin explains the significance of Soane's approach to architectural history and theory, as expressed in the lectures delivered from 1810-1820 as Professor of Architecture at the Royal Academy. Providing a key that enables the modern observer to understand the work of an architect who is widely regarded as the most inventive of his day, the lectures enable us to enter in Soane's private dialogue with an astonishing array of philosophers, architectural theorists, art historians, archaeologists, and anthropologists. They are accompanied by a selection of the beautiful watercolors that Soane prepared as illustrations.
