Architect

Architect. The profession of architect as applied to one concerned solely with the designing and planning as distinguished from the construction of an edifice is evidently no more than four centuries old. There is no record of the practice of such separate art or activity until the 16th century, the natural supposition being that, prior to that time, the designing, ornamentation, and building were all in the same hands.

The question of who designed the cathedrals and other Gothic buildings during the period of about 1150-1550 A. D. is of especial interest to Freemasons, because that Gothic period forms a more or less identifiable island in the history of architecture, in which a peculiar type of construction and ornamentation was predominant, and because it was during that period the first writings (Gothic Constitutions), relating to Freemasonry were made. (See ARCHITECTURE.) Inigo Jones (1573-1652) followed the Gothic era and is one of the first, if not the first, man in the British Isles to be singled out as something of a designer, though he was referred to as Ingenator, a word probably derived from engine and engineer and akin to ingenious. Next comes Sir Christopher Wren, the architect of St. Paul’s Cathedral in London, which was finished about 1696, and of many other outstanding works.

The first book published in England on the subject of architecture was The First & Chief Grounds of Architecture, 1563, by John Shute, ”Paynter & Archytecte.” It was reprinted by Laurence Weaver, F.S.A., Hon. A.R.I.B.A., in 1912.