San Francisco Chronicle
Fascinating.


The New Yorker
Engrossing.


Book Description

Everything Sir Christopher Wren undertook, he envisaged on a grander scale -- bigger, better, more enduring than anything that had gone before. A versatile genius who could have pursued a number of brilliant careers with equal virtuosity, he was a mathematical prodigy, an accomplished astronomer, a skillful anatomist, and a founder of the Royal Society. Eventually, he made a career in what he described disparagingly in later life as "Rubbish" -- the architecture, design, and construction of public buildings.

Through the prism of Wren's tumultuous life and brilliant intellect, historian Lisa Jardine unfolds the vibrant, extraordinary emerging new world of late-seventeenth-century science and ideas.


About the Author
Lisa Jardine is the author of, most recently, On a Grander Scale: The Outstanding Life of Sir Christopher Wren, as well as Worldly Goods: A New History of the Renaissance and Ingenious Pursuits: Building the Scientific Revolution. She is Professor of Renaissance Studies at Queen Mary, University of London, and Director of the AHRB Research Centre for Editing Lives and Letters there, as well as an Honorary Fellow of King's College, Cambridge. She has been the judge of numerous literary awards, including the Orange Prize and the 2002 Booker Prize.

FROM THE PUBLISHER

Through the prism of the tumultuous life and brilliant intellect of Sir Christopher Wren, the multitalented architect of Saint Paul's Cathedral in London, historian Lisa Jardine unfolds the vibrant, extraordinary emerging new world of late-seventeenth-century science and ideas. The man behind the bold, imposing beauty of Saint Paul's was as remarkable as the monuments he has left us. Wren was a versatile genius who could have pursued a number of brilliant careers with equal virtuosity. A mathematical prodigy, an accomplished astronomer, a skillful anatomist, and a founder of the Royal Society, he eventually made a career in what he described disparagingly in later life as "Rubbish" -- architecture, and the design and construction of public buildings. Wren was a major figure at a turning point in English history. He mapped moons and the trajectories of comets for kings; lived and worked under six monarchs; pursued astronomy and medicine during two civil wars; exercised his creativity through the English Commonwealth, the Great Fire, the Restoration. His royal employment outlasted abdication, Dutch invasion, and the eventual extinction of the Stuart dynasty. Beyond the public achievements, Jardine explores Wren's personal motivations and passions. He was a sincere, intensely moral man with a remarkable capacity for friendship. His career was shaped by lasting associations forged during a turbulent boyhood and a lifelong loyalty to the memory of his father's master and benefactor, the "martyred king," Charles I. Everything Wren undertook, he envisaged on a grander scale -- bigger, better, more enduring than anything that had gone before.

FROM THE CRITICS

The Washington Post

It is in her discussions of Wren's accomplices such as Hooke that Jardine makes her best contributions. By placing Wren among the host of virtuosi resident in London and Oxford, she shows how he was not a "lone genius" toiling in isolation but instead, throughout his career, a team player who joined forces with other scientists, inventors and mathematicians. Wren the man actually remains an elusive figure, since he led a personal life that was inconspicuous in the extreme. But by painting a brilliant group portrait of Wren among his illustrious contemporaries, Jardine manages to put at least a little flesh on this most frustratingly private of creatures. — Ross King

The New Yorker

This engrossing biography charts Wren's trajectory from mathematical prodigy who invented transparent beehives and a copying machine to England's greatest architect, who rebuilt much of London -- most famously St. Paul's Cathedral -- after the Great Fire of 1666. Wren later claimed to regard all enterprises involving stone and mortar as "rubbish," and was prouder of his work as an astronomer and anatomist. His extraordinary versatility and industry give Jardine the opportunity to examine the political and scientific constellations of Restoration England. Such is her feel for the subject that, when she sees a long-forgotten basement room directly underneath Wren's Monument to the Great Fire, she immediately realizes that it is a laboratory -- that the building was designed not only as a monument but also as a multipurpose scientific instrument, including "a zenith telescope, with lenses at ground and upper-platform levels."

Publishers Weekly

This is the second biography of Wren (1632-1723) to appear in the last year, following Adrian Tinniswood's His Invention So Fertile (Oxford). Renaissance scholar Jardine (Ingenious Pursuits: Building the Scientific Revolution, etc.) takes the cultural historical tack that has brought her scholarly renown, providing not only a nearly day-by-day account of the polymathic British architect's most important moments but minutely detailed background on institutions like the Royal Society and the Royal Observatory (along with the Order of the Garter), on developing science (blood transfusion, longitude) and on people: the royal families, Robert Hooke, John Evelyn. Wren was appointed to the Rebuilding Commission established after the devastating Great Fire of London in 1666, becoming in time responsible for the design and rebuilding of all 51 churches destroyed by the fire, and for the reconstruction of St. Paul's. By the time Wren came to that work by which he is best known, he had already achieved enormous distinction as a scientist, inventor and mathematician-and he was 34 years old. By 1689, he was at work renovating Hampton Court Palace for William and Mary, the third royal family he had served; in their reign, he was appointed surveyor of Westminster Abbey in 1698, a post he held until his death. To stick with Jardine requires a serious interest in Wren and period history. The rich documentation-the full text of private and public papers (e.g., letters of patent, royal warrants, correspondence, receipts, marginalia, excerpts from diaries) and 80 b&w illustrations and a 16-page color insert-may dizzy the reader who is not intimate with 17th century prose style, but will astonish those who are. And Jardine's discovery of an underground chamber in the Monument to the Great Fire is something any amateur sleuth will enjoy. (Feb.) Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information.

Library Journal

Competing recent biographies on Christopher Wren (1632-1723) from two British historians may give selectors pause for soul- (and budget-) searching. Adrian Tinniswood's detailed His Invention So Fertile covers much the same ground as Jardine's work, with stronger descriptions of Wren's architectural innovations and building process. Wren wrote little about himself, famously preferring to let his buildings, inventions, and scientific discoveries speak for themselves. Both studies fall into the Great Man camp and rely heavily on the Wren Society's extensive though dated research volumes. Jardine, the author of biographies on Erasmus and Francis Bacon as well as several Renaissance histories, successfully plants Wren's contributions to knowledge and beauty in their social, political, and historical contexts. She also delves convincingly into his passion for mystical fraternities and the memory of King Charles I. Equally strong is her exploration of Wren's associations with Isaac Newton and Robert Hooke and his role in founding the Royal Society. Nearly 100 illustrations accompany the text. Libraries that can afford to will wisely purchase both titles.-Russell T. Clement, Northwestern Univ. Lib., Evanston, IL Copyright 2003 Cahners Business Information.

Kirkus Reviews