'He lived more than ninety years, not for himself, but for the
public good', said Sir Christopher Wren's epitaph, and Lisa
Jardine's new biography is a fascinating study of the architect who
gave his nation what is still its pre-eminent public building, St
Paul's Cathedral. Jardine, a writer and academic with an impressive
string of publications, university posts and awards to her name,
stands in proper awe of Wren's 'brilliant versatility of mind',
which she explains in the context of the intellectual and political
times in which he lived. She begins with an exciting discovery
which sets the compass of the rest of the book. Wren's Monument to
the Great Fire, the column that stands in the City of London to
mark the site of the outbreak of the 1666 conflagration, has a
hidden laboratory in the basement, to be used in conjunction with
the hinged 'lid' on the urn that tops the structure to make
observations and experiments. Similarly, Wren's genius was based on
scientific pioneering as much as his understanding of aesthetic
harmonies. He lived through a period of great transition in the
arts, politics and learning. He was an enthusiastic supporter of
Charles II, restored to the throne in 1660, and a leading scientist
of an age that, while making ground-breaking discoveries in
physics, chemistry, medicine astronomy and engineering, was also
wedded to centuries-old 'knowledge' rooted in earthy folkloric
cures and religious taboos and superstitions. The creation of his
great buildings is dealt with in fascinating detail, from
conception to completion. Greenwich and Chelsea hospitals,
combining beauty and function with sublime grace, are another two
masterpieces, though the drawings of some projects that never came
to fruition leave a tantalizing sense of what might have been. And
of course, St Paul's, the crowning achievement, though the
brilliant, dedicated but truly modest polymath would, claims
Jardine, have been mortified to hear it claimed as his 'monument'.
(Kirkus UK)
The figure of Sir Christopher Wren looms large in English national consciousness. The imposing beauty of St Paul's Cathedral stands forever for the nation's achievement - its undamaged dome towering above the rubble of the Blitz in the Second World War a symbol of the London's indomitable fighting spirit.
The man behind the work was as remarkable as the monuments he has left us. Lisa Jardine takes us deep into Wren's imagination and discovers the unique, exacting nature of his mind and the emerging new world of late-seventeenth-century science and ideas.
Wren was a versatile genius who could have pursued a number of brilliant careers with equal virtuosity. A mathematical prodigy, an accomplished astronomer, a skilful anatomist, and a founder of The Royal Society, he eventually made a career in what he described in later life as 'Rubbish' - architecture, and the design and construction of public buildings. But he remained committed to science. The Monument to the Great Fire was built with a subterranean laboratory; the south-west tower of St Paul's was used as a vertical telescope during construction - both were designed to function as public monuments and as oversized scientific instruments.
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 through two civil wars, the English Commonwealth, the Great Fire, the Restoration, and the eventual extinction of the Stuart dynasty.
Jardine explores also Wren's personal motivations and passions. A sincere 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.
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