Den Danske Vitruvius
The coat of arms of Copenhagen
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| Author | Lauritz de Thurah |
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| Country | Denmark |
| Subject | Danish architecture |
| Publisher | Ernst Henrich Berling |
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Publication date
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1746-49 |
Den Danske Vitruvius I-II (English: The Danish Vitruvius I-II) is a richly illustrated 18th-century architectural work on Danish monumental buildings of the period, written by the Danish Baroque architect Lauritz de Thurah. It was commissioned by Christian V in 1735 and published in two volumes between 1746 and 1749. The title refers to the Roman architect and engineer Vitruvius, who published De architectura in the 1st century AD, am authoritative treaties on the architecture of the time. The direct inspiration for de Thurah's Den Danske Vitruvius was Colen Campbell's Vitruvius Britannicus.
With its numerous illustrations, Den Danske Vitruvius is a valuable source of information on the many Danish buildings of the mid-18th century, which have since been demolished, rebuilt or lost in fires.
A facsimile edition published in 1966-67 includes a third volume, based on an until then unpublished manuscript kept at the Royal Danish Library. It covers buildings completed later than 1749.
Lauritz de Thurah had a military education and was a self-taught architect who learned much of what he knew by studying the inspiring buildings he saw on his travels outside Denmark between 1729 and 1731. His architectural writings can be seen as a natural continuation of this interest.
In 1735 de Thurah received a royal grant to collect information and to write a comprehensive work on architecture in Denmark, detailing all the royal buildings in the country.
It appeared between 1746 and 1749, published at the King's expense, and printed by the best Danish printer at that time, Ernst Henrich Berling.
Den Danske Vitruvius provides a richly illustrated documentation of monumental Danish buildings of the period. Like Campbell's work, it is not a treaties in the empirical vein but basically a cateloque of designs. Descriptions are short and text appears in Danish, French, and German in parallel columns.
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