ABSTRACT
This book identifies a long unfamiliar subject of early scientific theory – pneumatology (from pneuma, meaning air, wind, spirit, soul) – which has been curiously overlooked in the well-explored field of Renaissance architecture. Re-introducing a once central aspect of architectural theory, the chapters investigate sixteenth- and seventeenth-century pneumatic architecture and its relations with other disciplines in the arts and sciences, demonstrating how pneuma sheds light on a wide range of artistic production. While much of modern Renaissance scholarship has emphasized the mathematics of ideal architecture, this book recontextualizes essence, wind and ventilation as principals of classical building, and shows that one of the primary goals of Renaissance architects was to enhance the powers of pneuma so as to foster the art of well-being. Therefore this book substantiates the thesis that pneuma was a fundamental link for establishing harmony between the human body, architecture and the cosmos, and that a building was envisioned as a mediator between the inhabitant’s soul and the anima mundi, the soul of the world.
