Book description
Christopher Wren (1632-1723) was the greatest architect Britain has
ever known. But he was more than that. A founder of the Royal Society,
he mapped the moon and the stars, investigated the problem of
longitude and the rings of Saturn, and carried out groundbreaking
experiments into the circulation of the blood. His observations on
comets, meteorology and muscular action made vital contributions to
the developing ideas of Newton, Halley and Boyle.
His Invention So Fertile presents the first complete picture
of this towering genius: the Surveyor-General of the King's Works,
running the nation's biggest architectural office and wrestling with
corruption and interference; the pioneering anatomist; the
mathematician, devising new navigational instruments and lecturing on
planetary motion.
It also shows us the man behind the legend. Wren was married and
widowed twice, he fathered a mentally handicapped child, quarrelled
with his colleagues and fell foul of his employers. He scrambled over
building sites and went to the theatre and drank in coffee-houses. The
book explores what it was like to be at Oxford during the
Commonwealth, as a generation struggled to make sense of a society in
chaos; it recreates the tensions which tore apart the court of James
II; it brings to life the petty jealousies that formed an integral
part of both the building world and scientific milieu of the Royal
Society.
Above all, His Invention So Fertile makes clear to the
general reader and the art historian just why Wren remains a cultural
icon - both a creation and a creator of the world he lived in.
Adrian Tinniswood is a historian and educationalist. He lectures
regularly in Britain and the US, and was for many years consultant to
the National Trust on heritage education. He is the author of eleven
books of social and architectural history including
His Invention So Fertile
, his acclaimed biography of Sir Christopher Wren. His most recent book,
The Verneys
, was shortlisted for the BBC Samuel Johnson Prize for Non-Fiction.
