Steingruber's Alphabet

Johann David Steingruber's Architectural Alphabet, published in 1773, is a compendium of imaginative building designs that correlate to the letters of the alphabet. Steingruber (1702-87) was the son of a master mason who became a surveyor and later a Principal Architect of the Board of Works under the Margrave Friedrich Carl Alexander. His attempt to reconcile the alphabet with building configurations was not an anomaly; his contemporary Anton Glonner developed a Jesuit college and church plan based on the Order's monogram "IHS" and a French architect named Thomas Gobert (1625-90) wrote a manuscript entitled Traitté d’Architecture dedié à Louix XIV which included building plans that spelled out "LOVIS LE GRAND" ("Louis the Great"). The Italian Antonio Basoli (1774-1848) followed suit with his Alfabeto Pittorico (1839) which was reprinted in 1998 by Ravensburger, with translations of Basoli’s text into German and English, and with additional commentary and notes by Joseph Kiermeier-Debre and Fritz Franz Vogel.

Steingruber's Architectural Alphabet will be on display in the Southeastern Architectural Archive beginning in November, through the courtesy of Rachel Lambert Mellon, the noted landscape/gardening historian and landscape designer whose work on the White House's Rose Garden during the Kennedy Administration and the White House's East Garden/Jacqueline Kennedy Garden under the Johnson Administration brought national attention. Her publication The White House Gardens: A History and Pictorial Record resides in the Library of the New Orleans Town Gardeners, located in the SEAA, and was the gift of New Orleans landscape architect William S. Wiedorn (1896-1988).

The Southeastern Architectural Archive is home to the William S. Wiedorn Collection.


Header Image: Johann David Steingruber (1702-1787) , The "S" Page from his book, titled Architectonisches Alphabet: bestehend aus dreyssig Rissen, wovon jeder Buchstab nach seiner kenntlichen Anlage auf eine ansehnliche und geräumige fürstliche Wohnung, dann auf alle Religionen, Schloss-Capellen und ein Buchstab gänzlich zu einen Closter, übrigens aber der mehreste Theil nach teutscher Landes-Art mit Einheiz-Stätte auf Oefen und nur Theils mit Camins eingerichtet ... : zu welchen auch die Façaden mit merklich abwechslender Architectur aufgezogen find : ueber diss sind noch zwanzig Plans auf Kayserlich, Königlich, Chur- und anderer hoher Fürsten Namen, Risse auf aleiche Art mit aller Geflissenheit und distincter Architectur dergestalten auf einen Bogen aufgezogen, dass solche eingeschlagen mit denen vorstehenden in einen Format gebunden werden können (Schwabach: Gedruckt Mizler, 1773). Collection of Rachel Lambert Mellon, Oak Spring Garden Library, Upperville, Virginia.