ABSTRACT
If we now turn to the content of the Dictionnaire raisonné de l’architecture, rather than its form, one aspect extends the dynamic tension discussed in the previous chapter: the splitting of its subject in two main headings: “Architecture” and “Construction.” The two longest articles, each numbering around 300 pages, form a rather unique feature of the Dictionnaire raisonné de l’architecture. In his Encyclopédie méthodique of 1820, Antoine-Chrysostome Quatremère de Quincy had devoted only a few pages to his article on “Construction,” a simple reminder that architects ought to be knowledgeable about building. It was articles like “Caractère” or “Coupole” that were most crucial to him. For Viollet-le-Duc, construction was the most essential. But then why discuss construction separately from architecture? What distinguished the two?
