19th C. César-Denis Daly, French Bookplates

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Three framed plates from Daly’s history of architectural ornamentation in France from the 16th through the 18th centuries, depicting both … Read more Three framed plates from Daly’s history of architectural ornamentation in France from the 16th through the 18th centuries, depicting both interior and exterior details

César Denis Daly (17 July 1811, Verdun[1] – 11 January 1894, Wissous)[2] was a French architect, publisher, and writer. He was one of the most important figures in the architectural press in nineteenth-century France, whose role as owner and editor of the famed periodical the Revue générale de l'architecture et des travaux publics shaped several generations of architects in France and beyond.

Daly, a leading architects and architectural critics of his day, was the founder of the Revue Generale d’Architecture, France’s first illustrated architectural journal and one of the foremost architectural journals on both sides of the Atlantic during the 19th century. His history of ornamental details, first published in 1869-70, is a monumental visual documentation of French architectural sculpture from the 16th, 17th and 18th centuries, stemming from his restoration of the cathedral of Alby at Tarn. Daly also spent three years in the Americas, and in 1856 was the first to note several important pre-Columbian ruins, perhaps fostering his professional interest in city planning. “Daly’s theorization of those elements that determined the underlying infrastructure of cities and their centres, modern as well as ancient, was modelled upon Second-Empire Paris. Such a theory, which synthesized many early nineteenth century speculations on the modern city, was intended to serve as a rational foundation for urban reforms in the French capital… Daly was important, therefore, not only as an architectural critic but also as a significant thinker with respect to a theoretical understanding of city formation… His ideas, moreover, mark an important step in the eventual emergence of modern urban planning” (Nicholas Papayanis). Double-page engravings and chromolithographic plates bear double numbers. See Sturgis I, 733-744. See less