ABSTRACT
The early nineteenth century witnessed several attempts by Dutch authors to produce a handbook of civil architecture. One of the most frequently cited sources in Dutch nineteenth-century handbooks is Jean Rondelet's Traite theorique et pratique de l'art de batir. While Rondelet acknowledged the existence of a theory for the decoration of buildings, he did not intend to deal with it in his book. He regarded beauty as primarily a product of the taste and temperament of the architect. In terms of organization and subject matter, the handbooks were fairly consistent. Building materials and construction science formed the nucleus of every book, while the sequence of chapters was 'from the simple to the more complex', as Brade put it. Building materials and construction science formed the core of Dutch handbooks, unlike Rondelet's L'art de batir, they also devoted space to design theory and aesthetics, to the layout and decoration of buildings.
