New from Princeton Inessential Colors: Architecture on Paper in Early Modern Europe Basile Baudez Architectural drawings of the Italian Renaissance were largely devoid of color, but from the seventeenth century through the nineteenth, polychromy in architectural representation grew and flourished. Basile Baudez argues that colors appeared on paper when architects adapted the pictorial tools of imitation, cartographers’ natural signs, military engineers’ conventions, and, finally, painters’ affective goals in an attempt to communicate with a broad public. Inessential Colors traces the use of color in European architectural drawings and prints, revealing how this phenomenon reflected the professional anxieties of an emerging professional practice that was simultaneously art and science. Traversing national borders, the book addresses color as a key player in the long history of rivalry and exchange between European traditions in architectural representation and practice. Featuring a wealth of previously unpublished drawings, Inessential Colors challenges the long-standing misreading of architectural drawings as illustrations rather than representations, pointing instead to their inherent qualities as independent objects whose beauty paved the way for the visual system architects use today. Basile Baudez is assistant professor of architectural history in the Department of Art and Archaeology at Princeton University. His books include Architecture et tradition académique and A Civic Utopia: Architecture and the City in France, 1765–1837. "This richly illustrated book is an important work of scholarship that brings to light a wealth of new material, both graphic and textual. Baudez's wide scope, careful use of primary sources, and grasp of the literature are truly impressive. — Merlijn Hurx, author of Architecture as Profession: The Origins of Architectural Practice in the Low Countries in the Fifteenth Century $65.00 December 21, 2021 9780691213569 288pages 9 x 11.5 In. 176 color Illus. Order online at press.princeton.edu or by phone (800) 833-3324 Customer Service Inquiries Ingram Content Group LLC One Ingram Blvd., La Vergne, TN 37085 Phone (800) 833-3324 ips@ingramcontent.com