• 1 A more detailed list of this literature must be omitted here. Instead, I refer to Ziegler 2021.
• 2 See Paulus 2014a, Ziegler 2016, Von der Dunk 2016, Paulus 2020.

1Leonhard Christoph Sturm’s publications are characterized by didactic moments. In this regard, research has so far focused on his multi-volume annotated edition of Nikolaus Goldmann’s Architectura Civilis.1 The importance of Sturm’s Architectonische Reise-Anmerckungen (Augsburg, 1719) as a supplementary textbook has also been sufficiently acknowledged in recent years.2 Less attention has been paid to the fact that Sturm’s methodology was based on his teaching activities during his time as a teacher at the Ritterakademie (knights’ academy) in Wolfenbüttel. With this in mind, a previously little-noticed publication by Sturm will be presented as it provides insight into his teaching programme and travel studies in the context of chivalric education.

• 3 Conrads 1982, p. 294. All translations my own.
• 4 For the history and importance of the Wolfenbüttel Ritterakademie, see Kuhlenkamp 1975; Conrads 198 (...)

2In Wolfenbüttel, where the rulers of the small Guelph principality of Braunschweig-Wolfenbüttel resided, a knights’ academy existed between 1687 and 1712. In his publication on European knights’ academies of the early modern period, Norbert Conrads describes the academy as ‘the most important new foundation of the second half of the seventeenth century in the German-speaking area’.3 The academy in Wolfenbüttel did not follow the curriculum of existing German knights’ academies such as Lüneburg, which was mainly attended by the local nobility, but took inspiration from the renowned Academia Reale in Turin and the Collegium Illustre in Tübingen, striving for an independent character – not least in relation to the protestant university in neighbouring Helmstedt.4

• 5 On Lauterbach, see the dissertation by Hans-Henning Grote (Grote 1995), who has meticulously review (...)
• 6 Paulus 2006, pp. 30, 45.

3The importance of the academy in Wolfenbüttel, where more than 350 young aristocrats of all ranks and nations were educated during its short existence, was mainly the result of the work of two of its teachers, namely Johann Balthasar Lauterbach and Leonhard Christoph Sturm. They primarily taught arithmetic and geometry, as well as courses on ‘Physica Experimentalis’ (modern experimental physics), Dutch military architecture and ‘Architectura Militaris’, ‘Pyrobolica’ and ‘Architectura Civilis’: Sturm’s predecessor Lauterbach should be mentioned although I cannot go into further detail about his person and his work here.5 It is interesting, however, that he called his textbook, which he wrote at the Ritterakademie and which was only partially published, Architectura Civilis Practica. The addition of the word ‘practica’ is noteworthy: Lauterbach was apparently interested in ‘applied’ architectura civilis. Given that Lauterbach’s Architectura Civilis Practica, at least its first version, was a textbook developed for or from his teaching at the knights’ academy – that is to say, it directly reflected a teaching program – it is now time to bring the person of Leonhard Christoph Sturm back into consideration. After Lauterbach’s early death in April 1694, Sturm took over his position at the Ritterakademie, teaching the same subjects, but could not claim his title, that of Landbaumeister (a courtly master builder, i.e. a working architect), which Lauterbach had held in parallel to his professorship.6

• 7 The term ‘square’ is to be understood ambiguously in its use. It means both the physical place and (...)
• 8 According to the Verzeichnis Deutscher Drucke des 18. Jahrhunderts (VD18) database, an edition from (...)

4Most of Sturm’s works on architectural theory, such as the multi-volume commentary on Goldmann’s Architectura Civilis in the Vollständige Anweisung zur Civilbaukunst (first edition, Wolfenbüttel, 1696), as well as – and this will be of particular interest here – at least two chapters in Der Geöffnete Ritter-Platz (Opened Knight’s Square7), a handbook of the ‘vornehmste Ritterliche Wissenschafften und Übungen’ (most distinguished knightly knowledge and exercises), first published in Hamburg in 1700,8 were written during Sturm’s time in Wolfenbüttel, which ended in 1702 with his move to the Viadrina in Frankfurt an der Oder.

• 9 The publication is not mentioned in the basic literature on chivalric training and travel studies ( (...)
• 10 The authorship of the work is partly unclear. The individual authorship of the various parts of Der(...)

5Sturm’s teaching programme on topics such as civil architecture at the Ritterakademie and its tailoring to the needs and self-image of the nobility has not yet been studied in detail. However, an insight into it is provided by Sturm’s publications that specifically addressed the nobility: Die Geöffnete Baumeister-Academie, which has barely been considered in research so far,9 and Die Geöffnete Festung (Opened Fortress), which Sturm contributed, along with others, to Der Geöf[f]nete Ritter-Pla[t])z.10 This multi-volume work in a handy octavo format was first published in 1700 and has been reprinted several times. Besides Sturm, Paul Jacob Marperger, Johann Gröning, Ferdinand Christian Feustking, Samuel Reyher and others are named as editors and publishers of the complete Geöffnete Ritter-Platz.

• 11 ‘Es wird darin Nachricht angewiesen, von denjenigen Wissenschafften, so vornehmlich Cavaliers, hohe (...)
• 12 Der Geöffnete Ritter-Platz 1715, preface.
• 13 ‘da einem Gentil-homme mehr Wissenschafften in gemeinem Leben nöthig, als der Frantzösische Scriben (...)

6In the preface of the first part of the Geöffnete Ritter-Platz, ‘information is given about those sciences which are useful and highly interesting for gentlemen, persons of high rank, and all those who are interested in curious erudition’.11 It follows a criticism of Georges Guillet de Saint-George’s publication L’Art de l’Homme d’Epeé ou Diction[n]aire de Gentil-homme (first edition Paris 1678), which ‘nur bloß von der Fortification, Schiffwesen und Reiten durcheinander, fast ohne Methode handelt’ (deals only with fortification, navigation and horse riding in confusion, almost without method).12 Der Geöffnete Ritter-Platz, however, is supposed to methodically convey and expand those useful sciences. According to its preface, ‘since a gentleman needs more knowledge in common life than the French author presents in his Dictionaire, it has been deemed useful to add civil architecture, the fencing ground, hunter’s lodges, etc., which is so pleasant in this century’.13

• 14 ‘Hausväterliteratur (Hausvater, singular, means “father of the household”) was a widespread genre o (...)

7But why does the Architectura Civilis now find its way into the knowledge repertoire of Der Geöffnete Ritter-Platz and Die Baumeister-Academie? Unlike Hausväterliteratur14, which primarily deals with the economic concerns of the individual fields of knowledge, an essential justification lies in the purpose of preparing for the journey that was obligatory for every young aristocrat. As already mentioned, Sturm’s Architectonische Reise-Anmerckungen was also addressed to a fictitious young aristocrat – the intended readers thus have the same background.

• 16 ‘Alß das Reisen ein vortreffliches Mittel sey, junge Leute verständig, geschickt und angenehm zu ma (...)
• 17 ‘Dashero nichts gewöhnlichers ist, als daß Standes-Personen, Chevaliers, ja auch wohlhabende Bürger (...)

9Sturm himself has his say in the preface to his section, the Baumeister-Academie: ‘that travelling is an excellent means of making young people intelligent, skilful and pleasant is not in doubt’.16 But he would ‘gladly leave it to others to consider whether the vast majority of such young travellers do not see foreign curiosities beyond the fact that they can say that they have seen them’.17 He elaborates on this criticism:

• 20 Sturm 1702, preface, p. 6. The full reference is Aviler Augustin Charles d’, 1699, Auszführliche An (...)

11After all, the Baumeister-Academie comprises about 250 pages, but only a few plates. Sturm considers his publication to be merely an overview. For a more in-depth study, he recommends his ‘Ausübung der Goldmannschen Bau-Kunst’ (Vollständige Anweisung zur Civilbaukunst (first edition, Wolfenbüttel, 1696) and ‘D’Aviler’s Annotated Vignola’ (Auszführliche Anleitung zu der gantzen Civil-Baukunst, Amsterdam, 1699).20

• 21 ‘diejenigen Dinge, die man wissen muß insgemein, daferne man von Gebäuden und deren Stücken urtheil (...)

12The First Discourse deals with ‘the principiis of the art of building’. These are ‘those things that one must know in general, if one wants to judge buildings and their parts’.21 Sturm numbers proportion, symmetry and ‘combination’ among these principles. And Sturm also gives the reader some advice about applied architectural criticism:

• 23 See also Popplow 2015, pp. 97–100.
• 24 Sturm 1702, p. 10. This recommendation is also made by Sturm in the Reise-Anmerckungen. ‘Nachdeme m (...)

13For our topic, however, one question should be of particular interest: the question of the treatment of French architecture and art in Die Baumeister-Academie. How does Sturm position himself in Die Baumeister-Academie, which has a didactic approach and addresses a specific public?23 The study of travel is attributed an essential moment of critical knowledge acquisition. Sturm recommends that the traveller first acquires floor plans and elevations of the buildings and places to be visited.24 In the appendix, he gives the reader a list of the relevant works and literature.

• 25 Sturm 1702, p. 20.
• 26 Sturm 1702, p. 23.
• 27 Ibid.
• 28 ‘Liebet ein wenig extraordinaire Capricen.’ Ibid.
• 29 Sturm is inexact here and sometimes gives the wrong first names. From today’s perspective, the abse (...)
• 30 Ziegler 2021, see note 1; on the influence this work had on Sturm’s architectural theory, see Freig (...)

14Sturm repeatedly gives examples in his Baumeister-Academie, which he cites as reference buildings. Central is the second chapter, ‘Von den Baumeistern und Abrissen berühmter Gebäude’ (‘About master builders and famous buildings’).25 Beginning in Rome and starting with Michelangelo, Sturm names a number of Italian master builders and their buildings for the traveller to know. ‘In Paris’, he lists Libéral Bruant as the architect of the ‘Pallast aux Invalides’,26 furthermore Jules Hardouin-Mansart, under whose name the Orangerie of Versailles and thus the name of the site is mentioned for the first time.27 The one-and-a-half-page list of a total of ten French (mostly Parisian) master builders contains only a brief enumeration, without evaluative judgements; only with regards to Daniel Gittard (Saint-Jacques-du-Haut-Pas, Saint-Cloud) is there a somewhat critical undertone: Sturm remarks that Gittard ‘is fond of extraordinaire caprices’.28 Louis Le Vau, Claude Perrault, Jacques Lemercier, François Hardouin-Mansart, Jacques Bruant, Charles Errard and Salomon de Brosse were the seven other architects who made it into Sturm’s selection.29 The travel literature that Sturm generally recommends for preparation consists for the most part of French titles, mainly related to Paris: Germain Brice’s Description nouvelle de la ville de Paris (1698), which Sturm also used extensively for his Architectonische Reise-Anmerckungen, the older Guide de Paris du Sieur de Chuyes (Paris, 1654) and, as a somewhat surprising work in the small selection, Claude Perrault’s Paralèlle des Anciens et des Modernes (Amsterdam, 1693). Considering the target audience of the Baumeister-Academie, it is surprising that Sturm recommends a publication that includes a current theoretical architectural discourse as ‘travel reading’. Thus, Sturm obviously wanted not only to impart basic knowledge, especially with regard to the assessment of French architecture, but also to inform the reader in greater depth. Sturm, however, does not go further into the contents of Perrault’s publication, whose ‘modern’ position he only approved of in part, e.g. with regard to his stereotomy.30

• 31 Sturm 1702, p. 29.
• 32 Sturm 1702, p. 33.

15The general overview is followed by chapters on individual architectural elements, each of which provides examples of the variability of column positions and the correct use of column orders. Sturm draws from a canon that includes equally Italian, French, Dutch and German buildings, without ranking. Sturm refers, of course, to buildings in Paris, and Versailles is repeatedly included: the example of the Orangerie in Versailles, also praised in the Reise-Anmerckungen, appears as a model for the general use of the Tuscan order,31 the (Grand) Trianon (‘Tianen bey Versailles’) for the Ionic order and the palace for the Corinthian order.32 Thus, Sturm’s selective approach is an analytical one that aims to typify descriptions and thus subordinate itself to the intention of Der Geöffnete Ritter-Platz and its readership as an encyclopaedic textbook. The typifying description leaves little room for more detailed explanations of more complex architectural interrelations, which can be studied further on the selected buildings.

• 33 For example, the column partition of the gallery in front of Braunschweig’s Mosthaus (Burg Dankward (...)
• 34 Sturm 1702, p. 41.
• 35 Sturm 1702, p. 36.
• 36 Sturm 2021, pp. 68–69 (views 26–7): https://architrave.eu/view.html?edition=34zs7&page=26&translati (...)

16The same intermixing concerns the explanation of the types of columns and pillars: the criticism otherwise so typical of Sturm is rare here, but it appears, for example, as a sideswipe at the Braunschweig and Wolfenbüttel examples,33 and for Michelangelo’s architectural language.34 The criticism, however, is not as detailed as in the Reise-Anmerckungen. Sturm cites, for example, the facade of Saint-Gervais as a fine example of the application of the Doric order in superposition, and here he merely criticizes in an aside the fluting, which only starts higher up.35 This facade is also discussed in detail in the Reise-Anmerckungen because of the exemplary proportioning according to Sturm and the facade is also illustrated in a re-adjusted manner (table XXVII), but without the fluting, which he simply does not mention in the Reise-Anmerckungen.36

• 39 Sturm 2021, p. 55 (view 13): https://architrave.eu/view.html?edition=34zs7&page=13&translation=3q4r (...)
• 40 Ziegler 2021, see note 1.

18In the Reise-Anmerckungen, Sturm does not address these two points in his description of the Salle des Suisses.39 The anti-French attitude sometimes found in the Reise-Anmerckungen is absent from the Baumeister-Academie. This may also reflect the political situation at the time of its writing, as the Wolfenbüttel court was then allied with France.40

• 41 Sturm 1702, p. 41.
• 42 ‘In angenehmer Proportion der Fenster gehen die Franzosen allen vor.’ Sturm 1702, p. 44.
• 43 Sturm 1702, p. 45.

19Regarding beautiful examples of arcades and colonnades, the Louvre and some Parisian churches are cited alongside Roman and northern German examples. There is explicit praise of the designs of doors, wickets and windows: in the eyes of the author, the ‘entrées to Versailles and Saint-Cloud’41 find favour, and in general, Sturm states first of all about the windows: ‘The French are ahead of everyone in terms of pleasantly proportioned windows.’42 According to Sturm, they even surpassed the Italians in the design of the window surrounds.43 This is one of the few passages in the text in which the concepts of national supremacy and competitiveness are addressed.

• 44 Sturm 1702, p. 51.
• 45 Sturm 1702, pp. 54, 58.
• 46 Sturm 1702, p. 78.
• 47 ‘Des Dauphins Cabinet zu Versailles [...] ist ein Meister-Stück von solchen Arbeit.’ Sturm 1702, p. (...)
• 48 Sturm 1702, p. 132.

20With regard to the interior and furnishings, in the section on fireplaces, Sturm refers to the ‘grande mode’ in Paris of placing mirrored glass above them, including in the Palais d’Orléans and the Trianon.44 With regard to the installation of staircases, the open staircase in front of Saint-Cloud, and the indoor staircases of Versailles, Meudon and Saint-Cloud are cited.45 In ‘Von der Malerey’ (On painting), Versailles is mentioned authoritatively as a place where Charles Le Brun was active.46 With regard to the art of marquetery, Sturm recommends the Cabinet of the Dauphin at Versailles as ‘a masterpiece of such work’.47 In the fifth ‘discourse’ on ‘Gantzen Gebäuden’ (Whole buildings) the mirrored ceilings of the Tuileries, the Louvre, Versailles and Saint-Cloud, as well as the ceilings of the Trianon are appreciated.48 Otherwise, the Château de Versailles does not occupy a special position here either in terms of frequency of mentions.

• 49 Among other things, also in relation to the vases, Sturm 1702, p. 120.

21An exception, however, is found in the chapters on paintings and sculpture: here, the outstanding importance of Versailles as a hotspot of art in its time becomes obvious, as the place clearly stands out with individual descriptions in each of the sections on the sculpture genres.49 But Schloss Salzdahlum and its art collection was also accorded a special status.

• 50 Sturm 1702, pp. 134, 135.
• 51 Sturm 1702, p. 136.
• 52 Sturm 1702, p. 152 (Versailles and Marly).
• 53 ‘Herrlich aber und gantz sonderbar ist der Labyrinth in dem Garten zu Versailles.’ Sturm 1702, p. 1 (...)
• 54 ‘daß man sie nicht reine aussehen, und von unten herauff das Hauß kaum zu oberst noch sehen kann’. (...)
• 55 Sturm 1721, pp. 110–11 (views 68–9): https://architrave.eu/view.html?edition=34zs7&translation=3q4r (...)

22The pre-eminence of Versailles is clearly recognizable with regards to the art of the garden. It is thought to be exemplary for almost all elements of a garden50: cascades,51 avenues, espaliers, grottoes, orangeries, garden theatres, hermitages, menageries and aqueducts52. ‘But the labyrinth in the garden at Versailles is magnificent and very special to look at’53 and it receives a more detailed description. Sturm barely allows himself to be critical here, only the steep slope of the avenues disturbs him as ‘one cannot see them clearly, and from below one can hardly see the house at the top’.54 In the Architectonische Reise-Anmerckungen, this criticism is expanded upon.55

• 56 See Paulus 2014b, p. 106.
• 57 It seems that the Braunschweig dukes Rudolf August and Anton Ulrich, who ruled together, deliberate (...)

23To conclude: of course, Die Baumeister-Academie cannot approach the level of detail of the nuanced critical architectural description of the Reise-Anmerckungen. The taxonomy of Die Baumeister-Academie does not permit this differentiation. Sturm’s view is more moderate and neutral here. Despite the systematic order of Italian, French, Dutch, and finally German architecture and art, it is the quality and not the national affiliations of the examples that counts. Sturm himself also repeatedly changes this sequence in various passages. From a quantitative point of view, of course, it is evident that Italian and French examples are used more frequently than German or Dutch ones. Nevertheless, Die Baumeister-Academie was aimed at preparing the young aristocrat or the ordinary traveller for their trips to these countries. Also characteristic of Sturm’s view is the extensive omission of the southern German-Austrian region, the Iberian peninsula and England.56 Sturm had never been to any of these countries himself. He only knows the Netherlands and France from his own observations. He had studied Italian architecture in detail only through the literature.57 But because of the accessibility of the relevant literature on Italy in the Wolfenbüttel library, he was able to get comprehensive information about the buildings.

• 58 Raabe 1989.
• 59 https://bibliotheksrekonstruktion.hab.de/sturm/sturm-histSubject.htm (07.06.2021). See also the Pro (...)

24The question of how this study of literature, in turn, affected the evaluation and accuracy of his descriptions and analyses – also in comparison to the French buildings, which he was able to examine on site, may be a future topic. It is very helpful that we are well informed by the historical loan books of the Wolfenbüttel library that Sturm consulted in the ducal library during his time at the Ritterakademie.58 Another stroke of luck is that in a project that Jörn Münkner worked on at the Herzog August Bibliothek, the handwritten catalogue of Sturm’s library from 1719, comprising over 500 titles, has been evaluated and transferred into a freely accessible database.59 This provides us with another new research tool, in addition to the impressive ARCHITRAVE database, which adds a new perspective to research.

• 60 Herzog August Bibliothek Wolfenbüttel, TOP 30b: 9.

25It would be desirable to have a similar research tool on the Wolfenbüttel Ritterakademie and the library stocks: hence one could know, for example, whether the prints on Versailles kept in the collection were possibly used for study at the court and in the Ritterakademie, as I suspect they were in the case of the only surviving hand drawing of a French building, the facade of the palace of Marly.60 But at least we know from Die geöffneten Baumeister-Academie what everyone should have known about Versailles around 1700.