Inigo Jones (Art History)

Introduction

Inigo Jones (b. 1573–d. 1652) is widely acknowledged to have been England’s most important architect. He was also the single-most important figure in the visual arts in England in the 17th century. Jones famously travelled to Italy and studied at first-hand the buildings of the Italian masters, and admired in particular those of Andrea Palladio. As the court designer to the Stuart kings, James I and Charles I, he is credited with introducing the classical language of architecture to the country, that is, the coherent display of the antique architectural Orders on façades following Renaissance building practices by then common throughout Europe. The first half of the 17th century saw a fundamental change in the popular style of English architecture. While previous English architect-masons had used the Orders in isolated but coherent ways, as on the gate to the Old Schools in Oxford and on that to Gonville and Caius College in Cambridge, no one had used the Orders to compose an entire façade, as Jones was to do at the Banqueting House in Whitehall from 1619. Jones also designed such seminal works as the Queen’s House at Greenwich and the Queen’s Chapel at St James’s Palace during his long service as Surveyor of the King’s Works. His most important work, the refacing of Old St Paul’s Cathedral, was largely destroyed in the Great Fire of London in 1666, and was demolished to make way for Wren’s building. Alongside his design of buildings, Jones designed the costumes and perspective settings for a series of court masques. He also laid out the first public squares in London, at Covent Garden and Lincoln’s Inn Fields. Jones was awarded the title of “Vitruvius Britannicus” soon after his death, and came to be seen as the quintessential English Palladian in the 18th century through the work of Lord Burlington and Colen Campbell.

General Overviews

No single work could possibly encompass all of Jones’s activities, but some works offer a biography or a comprehensive study of an area of his interests, whether in building or theater. The Palladian school of interpretation of his work is advanced in Wittkower 1943, Saxl and Wittkower 1948, Summerson 1966, and more recently in the readable account Tavernor 1991. His close relationship with his pupil and assistant John Webb has now received attention in Bold 1989. An attempt at a detailed overview of Jones is offered in Fusco 1985, without much discussion of his masque designs however. General, readable accounts of his work are to be found in Lees-Milne 1953, Summerson 1953, and Worsley 2007, the latter taking issue with some of Summerson’s stylistic assumptions when considering his work in the northern European context.

Bold, John. John Webb: Architectural Theory and Practice in the Seventeenth Century. Oxford: Clarendon, 1989.
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Although this book focuses on the work of John Webb, much content inevitably concerns his master, Jones, and the interrelationship between the two. Webb was the first in England to receive such an architectural apprenticeship. The consideration of Webb’s role as Jones’s clerk on site is important (although the text has a few inaccuracies, such as the claim that Jones remodeled the whole of the exterior of Old St Paul’s Cathedral).
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Fusco, Annarosa Cerutti. Inigo Jones: Vitruvius Britannicus; Jones e Palladio nella cultura archittonica inglese 1600–1740. Rimini, Italy: Maggioli Editore, 1985.
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This book (in Italian) places Jones firmly in the tradition of Palladianism. It is organized by theme, although a section catalogues Jones’s works, both certain and attributed (however, see the more authoritative list in Colvin 2008, cited under Biographies and Biographical Details). Jones’s study of the treatises of Palladio, Serlio, and Scamozzi are all dealt with in detail. There is little attempt here to cover Jones’s lifelong involvement with masque design.
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Lees-Milne, James. The Age of Inigo Jones. London: Batsford, 1953.
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Although a considerable amount has been published on Jones since this book first appeared, it still has much to offer concerning the social and aesthetic setting of his work.
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Saxl, Fritz, and Rudolf Wittkower. British Art and the Mediterranean. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1948.
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This is a catalogue of a photographic exhibition on the connections between British and Mediterranean cultures held at the Warburg Institute of London in 1941. Jones’s knowledge of Palladian architecture is emphasized, with the Queen’s House compared with the proportions used by Palladio in his plan for Villa Pisani. Reprinted, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1969.
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Summerson, John. Architecture in Britain 1530–1830. Harmondsworth, UK: Penguin, 1953.
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Together, chapters 7–9 give a lucid and concise survey of Jones’s work: arranged thematically, the chapters are entitled “Inigo Jones at the Court of James I”; “The Surveyorship of Inigo Jones, 1615–1643”; and “Inigo Jones, His Contemporaries and Followers.” For criticism of Summerson’s categorization of Jones’s buildings into what he terms the “Artisan style,” see Worsley 2007. Eighth revised edition printed in 1991.
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Summerson, John. Inigo Jones. Harmondsworth, UK: Penguin, 1966.
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This book offers a succinct account of Jones’s life and work, arranged chronologically. For anyone beginning to study Jones, this is a very good place to start. Indeed for many years it was the only biographical study, bar the more basic text in Gotch 1928 (cited under Biographies and Biographical Details). Not surprisingly given when the book was written, there is a Palladian bias, but other influences, including that of Serlio, are also recognized. Republished and edited, with footnotes and a brief bibliography, by Howard Colvin (New Haven, CT, and London: Yale University Press, 2000).
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Tavernor, Robert. Palladio and Palladianism. London: Thames and Hudson, 1991.
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Jones is here once again presented as, first and foremost, Palladio’s disciple. The text describes his intention to “carry forth the banner of Vitruvio-Palladianism,” and repeats the well-established scheme emphasizing Jones’s early naivety enlightened by travel to Italy in 1614 and a close study of Italian, and particularly Palladian, buildings. The book is still one of the best sources for this interpretation of Jones.
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Wittkower, Rudolf. “Pseudo-Palladian Elements in English Neo-classical Architecture.” Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes 6 (1943): 154–164.
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This article presents Jones’s designs for doorways and windows, and the Venetian or Serlian window in particular, in the context of the writings of Serlio and the work of Scamozzi. Jones’s design of these details is seen as inspiration for the subsequent English Palladians. Reprinted in Wittkower 1974.
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Wittkower, Rudolf. Palladio and English Palladianism. London: Thames and Hudson, 1974.
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Republishes Wittkower 1943, Wittkower 1948 (cited under Biographies and Biographical Details), and Wittkower 1953 (cited under Architectural Drawings). Following in the footsteps of the 18th-century Palladians Campbell and Burlington, Wittkower here presents Jones as the disciple of Palladio.
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Worsley, Giles. Inigo Jones and the European Classicist Tradition. New Haven, CT, and London: Yale University Press, 2007.
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Worsley sets out to overturn the Summerson-inspired view of Jones as “backward” in his preference for a plain architectural style (Summerson 1953), in the face of apparently more refined, and ornamental, European classical tastes. This involves detailed study of the style of contemporary work by the French architects François Mansart and Jean Androuet du Cerceau, Dutch architects Jacob van Campen and Pieter Post, German architects Jakob Wolf and Elias Holl and, most famously, the Italians Vincenzo Scamozzi and Alessandro Tesauro.
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18th-Century Reception

Lord Burlington and Colen Campbell attempted to establish a norm in architectural tastes based on the “true” classical style, devoid of the Baroque ornamental excesses of the likes of Nicholas Hawksmoor and Christopher Wren. In Campbell 1715–1725 Palladio was put forward as the prophet, and Jones his disciple. This view of Jones as a “Palladian” was reemphasized in Kent 1727 and Vardy 1744.

Campbell, Colen. Vitruvius Britannicus; or, The British Architect. 3 vols. London: Colen Campbell, 1715–1725.
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Jones was identified as the “Vitruvius Britannicus” of the book’s title, and his buildings were interpreted as pointing the way toward a morally wholesome national style. The book contains many plans and elevations of buildings by, or attributed to, Jones. Reprinted, Mineola, NY: Dover, 2007.
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Kent, William. The Designs of Inigo Jones: Consisting of Plans and Elevations for Publick and Private Buildings. 2 vols. London: William Kent, 1727.
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Funded by Lord Burlington and prepared by William Kent with engravings by Henry Flitcroft, this work was intended to keep Palladianism in the public eye. The designs are in fact as much by Webb as by Jones (as Kent acknowledges in his “Advertisement”)—those for Whitehall Palace have been put together from the drawings by Webb, while other engravings (such as of St Paul’s) are based on now-lost drawings by Jones once in Burlington’s collection. Reprinted, Farnborough, UK: Gregg, 1967.
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Vardy, John. Some Designs of Mister Inigo Jones and Mister William Kent. London: John Vardy, 1744.
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An addendum to Kent 1727, and a further attempt to link Kent’s name to that of Jones. Kent’s work follows seventeen designs by Jones, manly for chimneypieces. Reprinted, Farnborough, UK: Gregg, 1967.
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Biographies and Biographical Details

Details of Jones’s life, with some embellishment, were first recorded in Webb 1665, and we get glimpses of his conceited character and possible religious leaning in contemporary reports recorded in Wittkower 1948 and Jansson 2003. His famous quarrel with his partner in masque production, the poet Ben Jonson, adds further color to the picture, as recorded in Gordon 1949. Biographies in Gotch 1928 and more recently Leapman 2003 offer readable accounts accessible to students and the general public. A concise starting point is provided in Colvin 2008.

Colvin, Howard. “Inigo Jones.” In A Biographical Dictionary of British Architects 1600–1840. 4th ed. 584–593. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2008.
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Colvin’s famous dictionary, of which the most up-to-date revised edition is this (the fourth), gives a concise and accurate overview of Jones’s life and works. It contains a list of his attributed and confirmed built works.
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Gordon, Donald J. “Poet and Architect, the Intellectual Setting of the Quarrel between Ben Jonson and Inigo Jones.” Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes 12 (1949): 152–178.
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This article examines the relationship between Jones and his closest colleague in the design of the Stuart court masques, Ben Jonson. Jonson famously caricatured Jones as “Coronell Vitruvius” or “Colonel Iniquo Vitruvius” in Love’s Welcome at Bolsover (1634) and, as studied here, in so doing threw light on the architect’s working methods and character.
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Gotch, J. Alfred. Inigo Jones. London: Methuen, 1928.
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An influential early study of Jones, Gotch’s book records sources for the architect’s travels and friendships including that with Edmund Bolton. It is largely based on A. P. Horne’s entry in The Dictionary of National Biography (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1891–1892) and Peter Cunningham’s Inigo Jones: A Life of the Architect (London: Shakespeare Society, 1848–1849). The text is accessible, if somewhat unsophisticated. Reprinted, New York: B. Blom, 1968.
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Jansson, Maija. “The Impeachment of Inigo Jones and the Pulling Down of St Gregory’s by St Paul’s.” Renaissance Studies 17.4 (2003): 716–746.
DOI: 10.1111/j.1477-4658.2003.00043.xSave Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
Jones’s partial demolition of the church of St Gregory’s abutting the west face of St Paul’s, to make way for his new portico, led to charges of high-handedness (as “sole monarch” of the work) leveled against him by the Puritan authorities in the House of Commons in 1640. This article throws light on Jones’s possibly overbearing character and on this interesting, and somewhat neglected, event.
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Leapman, Michael. Inigo: The Troubled Life of Inigo Jones; Architect of the English Renaissance. London: Headline Review, 2003.
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Although there are few new insights, this book offers a readable account of Jones’s life (following the populist style of the title, Jones is referred to as “Inigo” throughout). It is at its best in the account of what Jones saw on his travels in Italy in 1614 (chapter 9), with a map of his route. However, Gotch 1928 still has much to offer concerning Jones’s biography.
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Webb, John. A Vindication of Stone-Heng Restored. London: R. Davenport for The. Bassett, 1665.
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This book, a vindication of Jones’s Stonehenge attribution to the Romano-British (in Jones 1655, cited under British Antiquarianism) after criticism by Walter Charleton (in 1663), contains some biographical notes, both legendary and factual. The 1725 edition (London: D. Browne Junior) has prefixed a “Memoirs Relating to the Life and Writing of Inigo Jones Esq.”
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Wittkower, Rudolf. “Puritanissimo Fiero.” Burlington Magazine 90 (1948): 50–51.
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This article discusses the report made by the papal agent, Gregorio Panzani, to Cardinal Francesco Barberini of a meeting with Charles I and Henrietta Maria at which pictures gifted by Pope Urban VIII were viewed. The report contains some glimpses into the character of Jones, who was also present, not least that he was said to be a “stern Puritan” (Puritanissimo fiero: on Jones’s religious denomination, see Hart 2011, cited under British Context). Reprinted in Wittkower 1974 (cited under General Overviews).
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Travels

Jones was well travelled. He may well have made his first visit to Italy in 1601. Then in 1603 he went to Denmark, where he is reported in Webb 1665 (cited under Biographies and Biographical Details) to have entered the service of King Christian IV. This Danish influence is studied in Randsborg 2004. Jones may have travelled again to Italy in 1605, when he was described as a “great traveller.” During Jones’s tour of France in 1609 with Lord Cranborne, he visited Paris, Bordeaux, Toulouse, Provence, and the Loire Valley. Higgott 1983 discusses the Provence itinerary in detail, and the additional identification of this visit with that by Cranborne is now to be found in Chaney and Wilks 2014. In 1613 Jones travelled to Heidelberg with Thomas Howard, the second Earl of Arundel. Both then crossed the Alps into Italy in June and embarked on what amounted to a grand tour that was to last for just over a year. Chaney 1993 details Jones’s time in Naples, and Burns 2003 describes the influence of Vincenzo Scamozzi who he met in Venice in August 1614. General accounts of these travels and their significance to the architect are to be found, for example, in Tavernor 1991 (cited under General Overviews), Anderson 1999, and Hart 2011 (cited under British Context). However the emphasis on Jones’s travels, and on his annotations to his copy of Palladio made at the time, has served to support the somewhat old-fashioned Palladian interpretation of his work, at the expense of recognizing the equally important influence of local context.

Anderson, Christy. “Palladio in England: The Dominance of the Classical in a Foreign Land.” In Palladio and Northern Europe: Books, Travellers, Architects. Edited by Howard Burns and Guido Beltramini, 122–129. Milan: Skira, 1999.
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This essay appeared in what served as a catalogue of an exhibition (held at the Palazzo Barbaran da Porto in Vicenza, Italy) and, together with contributions by Burns and Beltramini, emphasizes the importance to the development of English architecture of Jones’s first-hand contact with Palladio’s buildings through his travels in Italy.
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Burns, Howard. “Note sull’influsso di Scamozzi in Inghilterra: Inigo Jones, John Webb, Lord Burlington.” In Vincenzo Scamozzi 1548–1616. Edited by Franco Barbieri and Guido Beltramini, 129–131. Venice: Marsilio Editori, 2003.
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Jones’s famous visit to Scamozzi in Venice in August 1614 was not a meeting of minds, with the Englishman recording in his copy of Palladio that the elderly Italian was “purblind” and that “in most thinges” Scamozzi “erres” (Book I, p.50). But there can be no doubting that Scamozzi was an important source for Jones and Webb, as this article shows.
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Chaney, Edward. “Inigo Jones in Naples.” In English Architecture, Public and Private: Essays for Kerry Downes. Edited by John Bold and Edward Chaney, 31–53. London: Hambledon, 1993.
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This chapter examines the buildings that Jones witnessed during his two-month stay in Naples in 1614, as part of his tour of Italy with Lord Arundel. In particular, it considers Jones’s appreciation of the so-called Temple of Castor and Pollux (the church of San Paolo Maggiore) evidenced by his annotations in his copy of Palladio. Revised in chapter 7 of Chaney’s The Evolution of the Grand Tour: Anglo-Italian Cultural Relations since the Renaissance (London: Routledge, 1998), 168–202.
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Chaney, Edward, and Timothy Wilks. The Jacobean Grand Tour: Early Stuart Travellers in Europe. London: I. B. Tauris, 2014.
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Chapter 3 is the first of four that recount in some detail the progress of Jones and Lord Cranborne during their “Grand Tour de France” (which the authors illustrate with their own photographs of places and buildings visited en route, together with contemporary engravings). References with illustrations are made throughout to Jones’s relevant annotations in his copy of Palladio.
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Higgott, Gordon. “Inigo Jones in Provence.” Architectural History 24 (1983): 24–34.
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This article examines Jones’s visit in 1609 to study the Roman buildings of Provence (including the theater at Orange and the Pont du Gard), based on a close analysis of his handwriting and references to Paris and Provence in his copy of Palladio. For the identification of this visit with that made by Lord Cranborne in the same year, see now Chaney and Wilks 2014.
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Randsborg, Klavs. “Inigo Jones & Christian IV: Archaeological Encounters in Architecture.” Acta Archaeologica 75 (2004): 3–98.
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Among general topics concerning Danish Vitruvianism, this book includes (chapter 7) a study of Jones’s links with the Danish Court of Christian IV, brother of James I’s wife, Anne. This follows a reference by Webb that Jones had worked for Christian IV.
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The British Context

Much research has been done since the late 20th century to move away from the Palladian interpretation of Jones. Rather than focusing on Italian sources for his style, in the traditions of the 18th century, a number of key works have asked a different question: What were the native influences on Jones in his attempt to fashion a new style of architecture appropriate for the Stuart age? Early clues were provided in Yates 1969 and its examination of the Neoplatonic philosophy of John Dee and Robert Fludd, and these were extended at first in Rykwert 1980 and then in Hart 1994. The importance of Stuart court culture and politics, as well as court patronage, to Jones’s work has been recognized in Parry 1981, Howarth 1985, Smuts 1987, Howarth 1993, and Newman 1994. The influence on Jones of the economic growth in London stimulated through collecting and building is considered in Peck 2000. Most recently, the neglected influence of English arts and crafts on Jones has been recognized in Hart 2011. However more work is needed on Jones’s relationship with his individual patrons, and especially with the two Stuart queens, Anne of Denmark and Henrietta Maria. The particular influence of these female royals, with their background in Denmark and France, is not as clear as that of their male partners.

Hart, Vaughan. Art and Magic in the Court of the Stuarts. London and New York: Routledge, 1994.
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Following the early leads in Yates 1969, this book examines the influence of Dee’s Neoplatonism on Jones, and the expression of its cosmology through Stuart court masques, sermons, processions, and architecture. Neoplatonic and Hermetic philosophy are seen to animate the theory of Divine Right cultivated by the Stuart monarchs and given expression by Jones in his work.
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Hart, Vaughan. Inigo Jones: The Architect of Kings. New Haven, CT, and London: Yale University Press, 2011.
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Rather than recalling Palladianism, this book examines the influence on Jones of native arts (including heraldry and processions) and his hostility to opulent forms of Italian architecture witnessed on his travels. Jones’s work is examined in light of his interest in the architectural theory of decorum, focusing on his use of the Orders. His architecture is seen in its national context, caught up in the religious and political tensions that would lead to civil war.
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Howarth, David. Lord Arundel and His Circle. New Haven, CT, and London: Yale University Press, 1985.
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This book examines the life of one of Jones’s most important early patrons, Thomas Howard, the second Earl of Arundel. Jones and Arundel famously visited Italy in 1613–1614 (on which see Travels), and his influence on Jones is outlined.
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Howarth, David. “The Politics of Inigo Jones.” In Art and Patronage in the Caroline Courts. Edited by David Howarth, 68–89. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1993.
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The chapter seeks to place Jones at the center of court politics under Charles I. It examines Jones’s role in staging William Davenant’s masque Britannia Triumphans (London: John Haviland for Thomas Walkley, 1638), to show how closely Jones was involved in the politics of the years of Personal Rule. His masques are here understood as the physical expression of social and political values and, as such, a vital instrument of the state.
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Newman, John. “Inigo Jones and the Politics of Architecture.” In Culture and Politics in Early Stuart England. Edited by Kevin Sharpe and Peter Lake, 251–254. Basingstoke, UK: Macmillan, 1994.
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This chapter links Jones’s buildings to the political culture of Stuart England, and in so doing is something of a pioneer study. The impulse for royal order and harmony is identified with classical architecture’s requirement for the same principles. However, only scant mention is made of the highly relevant Whitehall Palace project, and its demise due to the court’s financial woes, a deficiency noted by the book’s reviewers.
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Parry, Graham. Golden Age Restor’d: The Culture of the Stuart Court, 1602–42. Manchester, UK: Manchester University Press, 1981.
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This book is a thorough account of the symbolism employed by the Stuart monarchs, and in particular their celebration of the return of the fabled antique British “golden age,” as disseminated through sermons, masques, and plays. Chapters examine the court of Prince Henry, the marriage of Princess Elizabeth, the influence of Lord Arundel, and the efforts by Jones to express their symbolism.
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Peck, Linda Levy. “Consuming Splendor: Building, Buying, and Collecting in London, 1600–1625.” In Material London, ca. 1600. Edited by Lena Cowen Orlin, 268–289. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2000.
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Between 1500 and 1700, London grew from a minor national capital to the largest city in Europe. The defining period of growth was from 1550 to 1650. This book examines Jones’s role in that economic development through his patronage by the avid collector Lord Arundel and his involvement in projects such as the New Exchange and Covent Garden.
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Rykwert, Joseph. The First Moderns: The Architects of the Eighteenth Century. London and Cambridge, MA: MIT, 1980.
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Although there is no single chapter on Jones, his importance as a transitional figure between the traditions of the medieval masons on the one hand and the Renaissance architectural masters on the other is recognized in chapter 6. Rather than stressing the standard Palladian sources, the book looks to French influences and (building on Yates 1969) the work of Englishmen Dee and Fludd.
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Smuts, R. Malcolm. Court Culture and the Origins of a Royalist Tradition in Early Stuart England. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1987.
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Smuts traces the movement from a diffuse courtly culture under Elizabeth I that embraced provincial influences (for example through the royal Progress) to a concentration of elite patronage centered on London. The flamboyant clothes and prodigy houses of the aristocracy gave way to the more somber classical style of Jones.
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Yates, Frances. Theatre of the World. London: Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1969.
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Yates examines the importance of Vitruvius to the Neoplatonists John Dee and Robert Fludd. In chapter 5 she attempts to see Jones “in a new perspective” as a student of Dee’s mathematico-magical arts and of the work of Fludd, a near-contemporary. This chapter opened up a new way of seeing Jones, and was an early break with the Palladian view of him.
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British Antiquarianism

While Jones’s study of the ancient Roman buildings of France and Italy has been well documented, his interest in ancient and medieval British monuments has received much less attention. Yet Aubrey 1972 records Jones’s study of medieval castles. In order to give his own work a national ancestry, Jones was keen to establish that there had once been a native race of civilized Britons who had received instruction in the arts and sciences from the Romans. For this, he needed physical evidence, and he thought he had found it when sent in 1620 by James I to survey Stonehenge. Jones identified the stones as the remains of Tuscan columns forming a Roman temple. Orgel 1971 has shown that when the survey was eventually published by Webb, in Jones 1655, he not only Christianized the monument but Protestantized it in the course of identifying it with the Roman “god” Coelus. Because of the posthumous publication, the question of authorship has been examined in Tait 1978, Hart 1994, and Handa 2006. Irrelevant to the view of Jones as a Palladian, the Stonehenge study was at first judged a “blunder” in Wittkower 1953 (cited under Architectural Drawings), but has since become recognized in Hart 1994 and van Eck 2008 as central to Jones’s concerns.

Aubrey, John. Brief Lives. Edited by Oliver Lawson Dick. Harmondsworth, UK: Penguin, 1972.
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Aubrey provides glimpses into Jones’s interest in British monuments during a visit to the architect’s manor house in Butleigh, England. Here Aubrey witnessed Jones’s drawings of “old Gothick, or ancient Castles” (see p. 95).
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Handa, Rumiko. “Authorship of The Most Notable Antiquity (1655): Inigo Jones and Early Printed Books.” Papers of the Bibliographical Society of America 100.3 (2006): 357–378.
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This article identifies the books referred to throughout the Stonehenge study, and thereby facilitates the dating of passages, especially those that must have been written by Webb because the work cited was published after Jones’s death. The article discusses James I’s identification with the deity Coelus, to whose dedication Jones ascribes the “Tuscan” monument, but is undermined by the incorrect understanding of James’s catafalque as also Tuscan (when it is in fact Doric).
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Hart, Vaughan. Art and Magic in the Court of the Stuarts. London and New York: Routledge, 1994.
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Jones’s Stonehenge study is here shown to be part of a wider Stuart court project to promote an imagined native antiquity. The ambiguity of authorship of the study, by both Jones and Webb, is discussed in an appendix. Jones’s antiquarian interest in other British monuments including Druid structures (reported by William Stukeley) is also discussed.
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Jones, Inigo. The Most Notable Antiquity of Great Britain, Vulgarly Called Stone-Heng, on Salisbury Plain, Restored, by Inigo JONES, Esq, Architect General to the King. London: James Flesher for Daniel Pakeman, 1655.
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This is the only publication on architecture by the Jones-Webb partnership, appearing three years after Jones’s death. It was compiled by Webb from Jones’s notes. Jones surveyed Stonehenge in 1620 in attempting to prove a homegrown antiquity for classical architecture. The book argued that Stonehenge was once a Tuscan temple built by civilized Romano-British. Walter Charleton’s rebuttal, Chorea Gigantum, was published in 1663; Webb’s attempted vindication in Webb 1665 (cited under Biographies and Biographical Details). (London: D. Browne Junior, 1725; facsimile editions 1972 and 2003, the most recent in 2009 with an introduction by Caroline van Eck.)
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Orgel, Stephen. “Inigo Jones on Stonehenge.” Prose 3 (1971): 107–124.
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This article discusses Jones’s conception of Stonehenge as a Roman temple dedicated to Coelus. Orgel points out that there was no Roman cult of Coelus and no antique temple was dedicated to him. As the personification of the heavens, he was the equivalent to God the Father. Jones is shown not only to have Christianized Stonehenge, but also to have Protestantized the monument.
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Tait, Alan Anderson. “Inigo Jones’s ‘Stone-Heng.’” Burlington Magazine 120 (1978): 155–159.
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Tait concludes that Webb must have provided the historical and literary references in Jones 1655, while Jones authored the geometrical analysis of the stone’s circular plan.
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van Eck, Caroline. “Statecraft or Stagecraft? English Paper Architecture in the Seventeenth Century.” In Festival Architecture. Edited by Sarah Bonnemaison and Christine Macy, 113–128. London and New York: Routledge, 2008.
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In examining the interrelationship between “paper” architecture—masques and reconstructions of lost buildings—and actual buildings, this article considers Jones’s Stonehenge study. It rehearses the by-now established understanding of the study as an attempt to identify evidence of a national antiquity, to justify the present. While not new, the argument is clearly restated (except reference is made to Jones’s reconstruction of Stonehenge using the Doric Order, when in fact it is Tuscan).
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Library, Notes, and Annotations

In the absence of a master, Jones learned most from his travels and from closely studying the books in his library. Through his underlining and annotations, we see Jones studying passages on matters ranging from philosophical theory to mundane building practice. We also see him translating these ideas, in both a literary and an architectural sense, from Italian into English and from ancient contexts into modern ones. In helping to understand the range of his interests and to follow closely his studies, it is fortunate to have preserved a section—possibly the majority—of this library. Around fifty books survive, almost all of which are held at Worcester College in Oxford (forty-six volumes, listed in Harris, et al. 1973 and Anderson 2007, both cited under Studies of the Library and Annotations). The exceptions are a Vitruvius edited by Daniele Barbaro at Chatsworth House in Derbyshire, a Lomazzo in a private collection, a Serlio at Queens College in Oxford, and a further Serlio at the Canadian Centre for Architecture in Montreal. A eulogy to Henry Prince of Wales by George Chapman is attributed to Jones’s ownership in Anderson 1995 and Anderson 2007 (both cited under Studies of the Library and Annotations), although this is now disputed by Chaney in Jones 2006 (cited under Facsimiles and Transcriptions of Annotations). Anderson 2007 also cites further works that Jones must have owned, based on his references, but which are now lost. While Jones’s notes and annotations have received much recent attention, there have been far fewer attempts to relate these notes to Jones’s built work, although see Higgott 1992 (cited under Studies of the Library and Annotations) and now Hart 2011 (under British Context).

Facsimiles and Transcriptions of Annotations

A number of facsimiles have appeared of books containing Jones’s notes. His most important source among the Renaissance treatises was no doubt his copy of the 1601 edition of Palladio, in which he made copious notes, and this has appeared in facsimile in Jones 1970. Jones’s concerns with imagination and its importance to the artist as well as its relationship with nature are reflected in his notes in Jones 1997. Important notes on architectural and art theory are also to be found in what is called the “Roman Sketchbook” held at Chatsworth House, and these are transcribed and reproduced in facsimile in Jones 2006.

Jones, Inigo. Inigo Jones on Palladio: Being Notes by Inigo Jones in His Copy of I Quattro Libri dell Architettura di Andrea Palladio 1601. 2 vols. Edited by Bruce Allsopp. Newcastle-on-Tyne, UK: Oriel, 1970.
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A facsimile edition of Jones’s copy of Palladio held at Worcester College, with a transcription of his notes in the second volume (with a few inaccuracies; for a more reliable transcription of the notes, see the edition of Palladio’s Quattro Libri, edited by Licisco Magagnato and Paola Morini [Milan: il Polifilo, 1981]).
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Jones, Inigo. Three Volumes Annotated by Inigo Jones: Vasari’s Lives (1568), Plutarch’s Moralia, Plato’s Republic. Edited by Anthony W. Johnson. Turku and Vaasa, Finland: Akademi University Press, 1997.
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This volume brings together a transcription of Jones’s annotations in three of the most important works in his library, especially Vasari concerning the role of artists and their work, and it contains a useful introduction by Johnson.
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Jones, Inigo. Inigo Jones’s “Roman Sketchbook.” 2 vols. Edited by Edward Chaney. London: Maggs Brothers for the Roxburghe Club, 2006.
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Jones’s so-called “Roman Sketchbook” held at Chatsworth House is one of the most important documents in recording his thoughts on the uses and abuses of ornament. The first of this lavish two-volume set (published by the Roxburghe Club) contains a lengthy biographical introduction, with sections on the Sketchbook and Jones’s legacy, all supported with very complete footnotes. The second volume contains a transcription of Jones’s annotations and a facsimile.
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Studies of the Library and Annotations

Jones’s notes on various topics have been much studied, not least in Newman 1988 and Newman 1992 considering the development of his handwriting, Anderson 1995 and Anderson 2007 on the books in his library, Semler 2003 on his consideration of ornament, Theodore 2009 on his medical notes, and Gerbino and Johnston 2009 on his mathematical studies. Jones’s notes in his “Roman Sketchbook” (see Jones 2006, cited under Facsimiles and Transcriptions of Annotations) shed particular light on his interest in the relationship between architecture and gender, evident in his concern with male and female ornamental forms and in what circumstances either of these could be used. This topic is examined in Anderson 1997 and Hart 2011 (under British Context).

Anderson, Christy. “Learning to Read Architecture in the English Renaissance.” In Albion’s Classicism: The Visual Arts in Britain, 1550–1660. Edited by Lucy Gent, 239–286. New Haven, CT, and London: Yale University Press, 1995.
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This chapter offers an overview of the importance of Jones’s annotations, not only to his education but also to our understanding of his work. It traces the wider links between books and buildings, and between reading about and experiencing architecture in the period. Jones’s awareness and use of heraldry is recognized, in line with the pioneering work of others (see the references in Hart 1994 and Hart 2011 (both cited under British Context).
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Anderson, Christy. “Masculine and Unaffected: Inigo Jones and the Classical Ideal.” Art Journal 56 (1997): 48–54.
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This article examines Jones’s notes in his “Roman Sketchbook” and his projection of classical architecture as a male style particularly suited to the Stuart courtly gentlemen and royal household.
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Anderson, Christy. Inigo Jones and the Classical Tradition. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2007.
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This book introduces the idea that native craft practices were important to Jones. However its real strength lies in its study of his annotations. It is at its most original in this study, outlining for the first time the full range of Jones’s scholarship. Nevertheless, frustratingly there is too little attempt to trace this study of theory in practice. The appendix lists the surviving books from Jones’s library, with their location.
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Anderson, Christy. “Words Fail Me: Architectural Experience beyond Language.” In Architecture et théorie: L’héritage de la Renaissance. Edited by Jean-Philippe Garric, Frédérique Lemerle, and Yves Pauwels. Paris: Institut National Histoire de l’Art, 2011.
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This article (originating as a paper given at the Centre d'études supérieures de la Renaissance (CESR) in Tours on the 3–4 June 2009) examines the role and meaning of Jones’s annotations in his education as an architect, and in his conception of classical architecture as a language with a vocabulary of ornamental forms.
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Gerbino, Anthony, and Stephen Johnston. Compass and Rule: Architecture as Mathematical Practice in England 1500–1750. New Haven, CT, and London: Yale University Press, 2009.
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The fourth chapter of this book, entitled “The Vitruvian Model: Inigo Jones and the Culture of the Book,” examines Jones’s reliance on the Italian treatises in his collection as a source for art theory. In particular it focuses on his study of geometry and mathematical instruments, and on the role these played in Jones’s practice. The emphasis of contemporary English architectural manuscripts and publications on these aspects is also considered.
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Harris, John, Stephen Orgel, and Roy Strong, eds. The King’s Arcadia: Inigo Jones and the Stuart Court. London: Arts Council, 1973.
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This is a catalogue of an exhibition held at the Banqueting House in 1973. It is arranged chronologically in three parts, “Jones in the Making,” “The British Vitruvius” and “The King’s Arcadia.” There is a section cataloguing the most important books in Jones’s collection, and Appendix Three is a list of his books at Worcester College in Oxford (but see now Anderson 2007).
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Higgott, Gordon. “‘Varying with Reason’: Inigo Jones’s Theory of Design.” Architectural History 35 (1992): 51–77.
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This important article questions the view that Jones predominantly believed that architecture should embody perfect geometry and numerical ratios (see Wittkower 1953 under Architectural Drawings). In his early studies, it argues, Jones developed the idea of varying ornament according to the classical concept of decorum (see Hart 2011 under British Context). Much later, on reading Barbaro’s edition of Vitruvius (1567), he understood how proportions could be varied to take account of optical effects (the principle of eurhythmia).
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Newman, John. “Italian Treatises in Use: The Significance of Inigo Jones’s Annotations.” In Les Traités d’Architecture de la Renaissance. Edited by Jean Guillaume, 435–441. Paris: Picard, 1988.
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After consideration of the importance to Jones of his library, this short chapter focuses on his study of the proportioning of the Orders, Vitruvian terminology, and the concept of the architect.
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Newman, John. “Inigo Jones’s Architectural Education before 1614.” Architectural History 35 (1992): 18–50.
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Jones’s most important visit abroad, to Italy, was in 1613–1614, and this article examines his period of study before this on-site encounter. It extends the analysis in Higgott 1983 (cited under Travels) of Jones’s study of the antique buildings of Provence in 1609, based on a close analysis of his handwriting. Jones’s annotations before his Italy trip are extensive, not least in his copy of the 1601 edition of Palladio, providing much evidence of his self-education.
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Semler, Liam E. “Inigo Jones, Capricious Ornament and Plutarch’s Wise Men.” Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes 66 (2003): 123–142.
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This article examines Jones’s annotations on the uses of ornament, especially his notes of 1615 recorded in his “Roman Sketchbook” (see Jones 2006, cited under Facsimiles and Transcriptions of Annotations). It focuses on his comments concerning the use of grotesque (or “capricious”) ornament in interiors and garden buildings. The article draws on Serlio’s observations on “licentious” forms as a context for Jones’s use of oppositions (canonic/licentious, male/female, inside/outside, gravity/gaiety), and on Plutarch’s Moralia for his linkage of imagination and nature.
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Theodore, David Michael. “‘Aproued on My Self’: Inbetween the Sheets of Inigo Jones’s Palladio.” MA diss., McGill University, 2009.
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This thesis examines Jones’s notes on medical matters made in the terminal flyleafs of his much-studied copy of Palladio. While Rykwert 1980 (cited under British Context) identified the name of Robert Fludd in Jones’s notes, his other citations have not received attention and are here identified for the first time.
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Individual Buildings and Monuments

While the buildings of some architects (like Vanbrugh and Hawksmoor) have had periods out of fashion, those of Jones have received consistent admiration from their inception. However, it was not until the 20th century that commentators recognized the interrelationship between his built and stage works (see Theater and Stage Designs) or, most recently, the importance of his theoretical deliberations, beyond the works of Palladio, as recorded in his annotations and notes (see Library, Notes, and Annotations). Greater clarity concerning the working relationship between Jones and Webb, and the latter’s drawing style, has led to many building attributions passing from the master to the pupil (see Bold 1989 under General Overviews and Colvin 2008 under Biographies and Biographical Details where an authoritative list of Jones’s built works can be found).

Surviving Buildings

Only four buildings survive for which Jones’s authorship is undisputed. These are the Banqueting House at Whitehall (the subject of studies in Palme 1957, Strong 1980, Hart and Tucker 2002, and Filet 2015), St Paul’s at Covent Garden (see Channing Downs 1967 and Duggan 2000, both cited under Urban Designs), the Queen’s chapel at St James’s Palace, and the Queen’s House at Greenwich (studied in Chettle 1937, Bold 2000, Higgott 2006, and Higgott 2007). An argument has been made for the additional attribution to Jones of the pavilions at Stoke Park in Northamptonshire in Worsley 2005.

Bold, John. Greenwich: An Architectural History of the Royal Hospital for Seamen and the Queen’s House. New Haven, CT, and London: Yale University Press, 2000.
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Two chapters of this survey of the history of Greenwich Hospital deal with the Queen’s House, one on “Building and Function” and the other on “Decoration and Later History.” In these, Jones’s designs at various stages of the house’s construction are discussed in a readable and succinct way. The illustrations of the interior and the design drawings and paintings are especially informative.
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Chettle, George. The Queen’s House, Greenwich. Greenwich, UK: Trustees of the National Maritime Museum, 1937.
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This is the first serious study of the Queen’s House, which includes important details from the Works Accounts such as the thatching of the building around 1629, as it stood only partly completed following the death of Anne of Denmark in 1618.
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Filet, Jérémy. “Representations of Inigo Jones’s Banqueting House: Development of Sketches and Architectural Symbolism.” Revue de la Société d’études anglo-américaines des XVII et XVIII siècles 72 (2015): 173–196.
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Like Hart and Tucker 2002, this article examines the possible symbolic meaning of Jones’s Banqueting House façade, and his use of the Composite Order. It discusses the Banqueting House’s appearance in the background to Paul van Somer’s portrait of James I of 1620.
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Hart, Vaughan, and Richard Tucker. “‘Immaginacy set free’: Aristotelian Ethics and Inigo Jones’s Banqueting House at Whitehall.” RES 39 (2002): 151–167.
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This article examines the possible symbolic meaning of Jones’s Banqueting House façade, and its arrangement of the Orders, in the light of the Rubens painted ceiling and Jones’s study of Aristotle’s ethics. Republished with additions in Hart 2011 (cited under British Context).
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Higgott, Gordon. “The Design and Setting of Inigo Jones’s Queen’s House, 1616–40.” Court Historian 11.2 (2006): 135–148.
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This article’s aim is to clarify the nature of Jones’s initial design for the Queen’s House in 1616. It reconsiders the design and setting of the north range in the palace garden and the function of the south range in the royal park. The article corrects the earlier assumption in Harris and Higgott 1989 (cited under Architectural Drawings) that the first phase of building (1616–1619) was demolished and work started again from the ground up in the early 1630s.
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Higgott, Gordon. “Inigo Jones’s Designs for the Queen’s House in 1616.” In The Renaissance Villa in Britain, 1500–1700. Edited by Malcolm Airs and Geoffrey Tyack, 140–166. Reading, UK: Spire, 2007.
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This chapter provides a reliable guide to the stages of the building of Jones’s Queen’s House, including a detailed discussion of the surviving drawings of 1616. Despite the title, the chapter goes beyond the inception of the work in 1616.
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Palme, Per. The Triumph of Peace: A Study of the Whitehall Banqueting House. London: Thames and Hudson, 1957.
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This book presents Jones’s Banqueting House in the context of diplomatic negotiations between James I and the Spanish court for the marriage of Prince Charles to the infanta. It discusses the fact that although unsuccessful, these negotiations formed part of James’s cultivation of the role of Solomon and peacemaker eventually celebrated in Rubens’ ceiling panels inside the hall.
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Strong, Roy. Britannia Triumphans: Inigo Jones, Rubens and Whitehall Palace. London: Thames and Hudson, 1980.
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Strong presents Charles I’s ambition to build a new palace at Whitehall, recorded in various schemes drawn by Webb (see Whinney 1946 under Architectural Drawings), as an exercise in recreating a modern Solomon’s temple. He compares the designs to the Escorial in Spain, also modeled on the biblical temple, through the use of sacred geometry in their plans.
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Worsley, Giles. “Stoke Park Pavilions Northamptonshire.” Country Life 199 (2005): 90–95.
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Worsley argues for the attribution to Jones of the pavilions at Stoke Park in Northamptonshire (although they had been included in Summerson 1966 under General Overviews), of importance given the fact that only four buildings survive for which Jones’s authorship is undisputed (Banqueting House, St Paul’s at Covent Garden, the Queen’s Chapel at St James’s Palace, and the Queen’s House at Greenwich).
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Surviving Monuments

Jones’s burial monument in St Benet’s Church at Paul’s Wharf in London was destroyed in the Great Fire in 1666, but a surviving monument to Lady Francis Cotton in Shropshire was attributed to Jones in Newman 1973.

Newman, John. “An Early Drawing by Inigo Jones and a Monument in Shropshire.” Burlington Magazine 115 (1973): 360–367.
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Newman demonstrates that the Cotton monument in St Chad’s Church, Norton-in-Hales in Shropshire, was designed by Jones. As proof, there is discussion of Jones’s drawing for the monument of c. 1610 (in the RIBA Library Drawings Collection, London). The symbolism of the monument is discussed, including its use of twin “Solomonic” columns.
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Destroyed and Unrealized Buildings and Monuments

Destroyed buildings and monuments by Jones include, most prominently, his refaced Old St Paul’s Cathedral (recorded in Dugdale 1658 and studied in Summerson 1964, Hart 1995, Anderson 1997, and Higgott 2004), the Prince’s Lodging at Newmarket (studied in Harris 1959), Somerset House (studied in Thurley 2009), and James I’s catafalque (studied in Peacock 1982). Jones’s unrealized projects include the New Exchange and Temple Bar on the Strand (studied in Stone 1957 and Peacock and Anderson 2001).

Anderson, Christy. “La lettura dei testi come strategia di progettazione: Inigo Jones e la facciata occidentale della chiesa di Saint Paul.” Annali di architettura 9 (1997): 245–264.
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This article examines the influence of Jones’s studies of textual sources (especially the treatises) on his design for St Paul’s Cathedral, and most notably its west façade.
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Dugdale, William. The History of St. Paul’s Cathedral in London. London: Tho. Warren, 1658.
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Dugdale was a keen Royalist and he lamented the damage that the Puritans had caused to Jones’s refacing and portico at Old St Paul’s Cathedral. His book, with engravings of Jones’s façades by Wenceslaus Hollar, is an invaluable record of this work and gives important clues as to its intentions. Enlarged, London: Edward Maynard, 1716.
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Harris, John. “Inigo Jones and the Prince’s Lodging at Newmarket.” Architectural History 2 (1959): 26–40.
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Jones’s role as Surveyor of the Royal Works led to his buildings for Prince Charles at Newmarket between 1618 and 1619, most significantly the Lodging that is examined in this article. Some of the drawings for more minor buildings (for a stable elevation and brewhouse) here identified with the site have since been redated and reidentified by the author (see Harris and Higgott 1989 under Architectural Drawings).
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Hart, Vaughan. “Imperial Seat or Ecumenical Temple? On Inigo Jones’s Use of ‘Decorum’ at St Paul’s Cathedral.” Architectura 25.2 (1995): 194–213.
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The focus here is on the ambiguous contemporary understanding of Old St Paul’s as refaced by Jones in the 1630s. The urge for peace and religious toleration advanced by some Laudians is countered by imperial imagery employed by Jones. His study of the architectural principle of decorum provides a context for the expression of these two tendencies at the cathedral.
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Higgott, Gordon. “The Fabric to 1670.” In St Paul’s: The Cathedral Church of London 604–2004. Edited by Derek Keene, Arthur Burns, and Andrew Saint, 171–190. New Haven, CT, and London: Yale University Press, 2004.
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This chapter provides a useful survey of Jones’s involvement with the fabric of Old St Paul’s, from his unrealized scheme for a new tower in 1608 through to his work refacing the nave and transepts, including a magnificent western portico, in the 1630s. The chapter brings together the surviving drawings and views recording this work.
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Peacock, John. “Inigo Jones’s Catafalque for James I.” Architectural History 25 (1982): 1–5.
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This article discusses Jones’s sources for his design of a domed catafalque for James I, built at Westminster Abbey in 1625 and recorded in a drawing (at Worcester College in Oxford). The article identifies both Bramante’s Tempietto in Rome and Domenico Fontana’s catafalque for Sixtus V built in 1591 (and known to Jones through engravings).
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Peacock, John, and Christy Anderson. “Inigo Jones, John Webb, and Temple Bar.” Architectural History 44 (2001): 29–38.
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This short article examines a document in the British Library in London, written in the hand of Webb and dated 1638. This comprises notes on the design for an arch at Temple Bar, commissioned from Jones in 1636 but never built. As the article shows, the notes complement the surviving drawings of the scheme by both Jones and Webb (in the RIBA Library Drawings Collection, London). A transcription of the notes is included.
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Stone, Lawrence. “Inigo Jones and the New Exchange.” Archaeological Journal 114 (1957): 106–121.
DOI: 10.1080/00665983.1957.10854120Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
This article examines the circumstances behind Jones’s unexecuted scheme of 1608, recorded in a surviving drawing (at Worcester College in Oxford), for a façade to the planned New Exchange on the Strand adjoining Salisbury House. The article is based on archive documents at Hatfield House (home of the Salisbury family).
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Summerson, John. “Lectures on a Master Mind, Inigo Jones.” Proceedings of the British Academy 50 (1964): 169–192.
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This article considers Covent Garden and the restoration of St Paul’s (although much work on both has been done since, see especially Higgott 2004). Jones’s preliminary scheme for the cathedral’s west front is discussed. Summerson uses the surviving Building Accounts in discussing the construction work, and recognizes the importance of the gothic fabric to Jones and William Laud. Revised in Summerson’s The Unromantic Castle (London: Thames and Hudson, 1990), 41–62.
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Thurley, Simon. Somerset House: The Palace of England’s Queens, 1551–1692. Publication No. 168. London: London Topographical Society, 2009.
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This book served as a catalogue to an exhibition on the palace’s development into the 18th century. One chapter (6) deals with building works under Charles I, and particularly the destroyed Catholic chapel built to Jones’s designs for Henrietta Maria and completed in 1636. Thurley’s speculative bird’s-eye view of the palace in 1640 visualizes the chapel (p.50), of which knowledge is patchy.
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Urban Designs

In 1631 Jones laid out the first piazza in London, at Covent Garden. On this occasion he worked not for the crown but for Francis Russell, the fourth Earl of Bedford. The piazza was bordered by arcaded housing designed by Jones but working, or so it has been thought, with the French architect Isaac de Caus. The roles of de Caus and Bedford in the actual design are considered in Channing Downs 1967 and Duggan 2000, while the open “fourth” side of the piazza is discussed in Duggan 2003. The piazza was also bordered, on the western flank, by the first church to be built in London since the Reformation, St Paul’s (on which see also Summerson 1964, cited under Destroyed and Unrealized Buildings and Monuments). The church was constructed in 1631–1632 in the form of an ancient temple, complete with a Tuscan portico. With this church placed at the focus of the long vista, Covent Garden owed much to Renaissance ideal cities such as that painted by Piero della Francesca around 1470 or that built at Livorno (also called Leghorn, with whose cathedral Jones has been incorrectly associated). The other key urban scheme of the 1630s designed with Jones’s considerable involvement was Lincoln’s Inn Fields, discussed in Worsley 2001. Lindsey House, built on the west side of the square in the years 1639–1641, is variously associated with Jones and Nicholas Stone. Both urban schemes were detailed in the Survey of London (Riley and Gomme 1912 and Sheppard 1970). Both schemes provided a prototype for the laying out of London’s squares for centuries to come. However, Jones’s work as an urban designer is still not fully understood, notably in terms of his precedent studies and sources.

Channing Downs, Arthur. “Inigo Jones’s Covent Garden: The First Seventy-Five Years.” Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians 26 (1967): 8–33.
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This article attempts to establish the facts concerning the chronology of developments at Covent Garden over the three quarters of a century after Jones built the piazza and its church, St Paul’s. As it points out, this early period has been the subject of much confusion and inaccuracy, with many records misrepresenting important details (such as the earliest view of the piazza, by Wenceslaus Hollar in the 1640s, which shows the church as an Ionic, not a Tuscan, building).
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Duggan, Dianne. “‘London the Ring. Covent Garden the Jewell of That Ring’: New Light on Covent Garden.” Architectural History 43 (2000): 140–161.
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Based on the fourth Earl of Bedford’s papers at Alnwick Castle and Woburn Abbey, this article confirms Jones’s authorship of the Covent Garden scheme (while Isaac de Caus is given relatively minor influence). It considers the involvement of the local parishioners and Charles I. A number of early ground plans are published. The patron, Bedford, is shown to have played only a restricted role in the scheme, while the influence of his religious leanings (especially on the church) is reconsidered.
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Duggan, Dianne. “The Fourth Side of Covent Garden Piazza, New Light on the History and Significance of Bedford House.” British Art Journal 3 (2003): 53–65.
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The south side of Jones’s piazza, nearest to the Strand, was boarded not by houses but by a wall and the garden to Bedford House. The apparent incompleteness of the design led Colen Campbell to “correct” matters in 1717 by illustrating the piazza with arcaded houses on all sides (in Campbell 1715–1725 under 18th-Century Reception). This article examines the south side, site of the property of Jones’s patron, the Earl of Bedford.
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Riley, W. Edward, and Laurence Gomme, eds. Survey of London. Vol. 3, St Giles-in-the-Fields, Pt I: Lincoln’s Inn Fields. London: London County Council, 1912.
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This volume gives all the key dates and individuals involved in the development at Lincoln’s Inn Fields, including evidence for Jones’s possible involvement with Lindsey House.
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Sheppard, Francis Henry Wollaston, ed. Survey of London. Vol. 36, Covent Garden. London: London County Council, 1970.
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Based on a detailed study of the surviving fabric and the Bedford Estate’s archives, this volume recounts the story of the piazza’s evolution, including the building of St Paul’s Church.
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Worsley, Giles. “Inigo Jones and the Origins of the London Mews.” Architectural History 44 (2001): 88–95.
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This article traces the origins of the London Mews, in considering Jones’s designs for the piazzas at Covent Garden and Lincoln’s Inn Fields in London. It points to the precedent provided by the Place Royal in Paris for an urban square with Mews houses.
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Materials, Site Organization, and Construction

Although Jones used many types of building materials, there can be no doubt that the material closest to his heart was stone. Witness his admiration for Rome’s ruins, all built with it, and his detailed study of the Orders. Jones’s admiration for the stone building traditions of England encouraged his study of a diverse range of structures, from the ancient monoliths of Stonehenge to the “ancient castles” that John Aubrey reported him drawing (in Jones 1655 and Aubrey 1972, both cited under British Antiquarianism). Even if the report of Jones’s early apprenticeship to a joiner at St Paul’s is true, he was first and foremost a mason at heart (see Summerson 1964 under Destroyed and Unrealized Buildings and Monuments). As Hart 1994 discusses, his refacing of the Old Cathedral in the 1630s was a tour de force in masonry, from the four foundation stones laid to symbolize the building’s physical and spiritual refoundation up to the stones Webb “beheld hanging in the air” (p.422). Jones was enthralled by the color of stone too, using three different types of it on his Banqueting House façade (a polychrome effect now lost to us in the refacing by John Soane). He is even credited with the earliest recorded use in an English text of the Italian stonecutter’s term granito, helping to give birth to the new English word, granite (Williamson 2012). Yet the study of Jones’s use of materials, and stone in particular, as well as his site organization of stone masons and joiners and his construction techniques, is limited to just a few works. Most notable in the case of materials is Williamson 2012 on stone as well as Gapper 2001 on ceiling plaster, timber, and paint, and in the case of site construction, Newman 1971 on the payments for site work on Nicholas Stone’s Goldsmith’s Hall, Colvin 1975–1982 on Jones’s Office of Works, Yeomans 1986 on his timber roof construction, and Hart 1994 on the refacing of St Paul’s.

Colvin, Howard, ed. The History of the King’s Works: 1485–1660. Vols. 3–4. London: Her Majesty’s Stationary Office, 1975–1982.
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This seminal work charts Jones’s building activities for the crown, in his role as Surveyor of the King’s Works. It draws on the Works’ Accounts and details the organization of labor and the payments for work. John Summerson gives an overview of Jones’s buildings and career (see especially “The Surveyorship of Inigo Jones,” Volume 3, chapter 7).
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Gapper, Clare. “The Impact of Inigo Jones on London Decorative Plasterwork.” Architectural History 44 (2001): 82–87.
DOI: 10.2307/1568736Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
This article examines Jones’s innovatory ceiling designs based on Italian, especially Venetian, models, where the ceiling is divided into simple geometric compartments by large timber beams. His preferred materials were timber and paint. This marked a dramatic departure from the contemporary English fashion for fretwork plaster ceilings, deploying enriched ribs, strapwork, pendants, and decorative motifs.
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Hart, Vaughan. “Inigo Jones’s Site Organisation at St. Paul’s Cathedral: Ponderous Masses Beheld Hanging in the Air.” Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians 53 (1994): 414–427.
DOI: 10.2307/990910Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
Hart’s article examines the timetable for Jones’s refacing of Old St Paul’s Cathedral. Using the Building Accounts held at both Lambeth Palace and the Guildhall Library, London, a picture of Jones’s site organization emerges involving the various building trades. Republished with additions in Hart 2011 (cited under British Context).
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Newman, John. “Nicholas Stone’s Goldsmith’s Hall: Design and Practice in the 1630s.” Architectural History 14 (1971): 30–39.
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Since the publication in 1896 of Sir Walter Prideaux’s Memorials of the Goldsmiths’ Company (London: Eyre and Spottiswoode), it has been known that it was Jones who in 1634 advised the company to erect a new hall rather than patch up the exiting, medieval building. This article consults the company’s Court Minute Books and relates how Jones influenced architectural tastes in London in the 1630s. The article also contains fascinating details as to the organization of, and payments for, the work.
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Williamson, Tom. Inigo’s Stones: Inigo Jones, Royal Marbles and Imperial Power. Kibworth Beauchamp, UK: Matador, 2012.
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This (self-published) book asks the reasonable question why, given Portland’s distance from London, did Jones choose its stone for the Banqueting House, Covent Garden, and Old St Paul’s? The worthwhile parts deal with Henry Farley’s campaign for the cathedral restoration, and with quarrying stone for the Banqueting House, as well as the relationship between its chief mason, Nicholas Stone, and his father-in-law, Hendrick de Keyser. However there is much here that is somewhat irrelevant geological background.
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Yeomans, David. “Inigo Jones’s Roof Structures.” Architectural History 29 (1986): 85–101.
DOI: 10.2307/1568502Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
This article examines Jones’s use of structural carpentry. The traditional arch or hammer-beam structures were unsuitable for flat ceiling construction of the type common to Renaissance buildings, and Jones is shown to have drawn on the illustrations of trussed roofs in Palladio and Serlio. The drawings (many by Webb) for the roof structures at the Banqueting House; the Queen’s House; the Queen’s Chapel at St James’s Palace; and St Paul’s, Covent Garden, are examined in detail.
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Theater and Stage Designs

Jones was heavily involved throughout his life in the design and production of court masques. One of the first of his buildings, the Banqueting House in Whitehall, was constructed between 1619 and 1623 as a setting for them. He produced over fifty masques and similar entertainments inspired by the Medici court tradition. Masques united the Renaissance arts of perspective and proportion (for scenery), of emblematics and arms (for costumes), and of mechanics and optics (for staging effects). More than 450 of his drawings for scenery and costumes survive, as opposed to less than one hundred of his architectural drawings. Various catalogues of these have been produced, of which Strong and Orgel 1973 remains the most important (it supersedes Simpson and Bell 1923–1924). The European sources for these designs have been studied in Peacock 1995. As first Orrell 1988 and then Hart and Robson 1996 have shown that in adapting the proscenium type of theater as the temporary masque stage, Jones followed in the footsteps of the Renaissance architectural theorist Sebastiano Serlio. A measure of how important these productions were to the Stuarts is the fact that James I’s eldest son, Prince Henry, and Charles I’s wife, Henrietta Maria, were both active performers. One of the first studies to recognize the significance of masque to the cult of Prince Henry was Strong 1967. Jones and Webb also designed a number of (now destroyed) theater buildings, such as the Drury Lane Cockpit, that are studied in Orrell 1985. The development of computer animation technology provides the opportunity for a reexamination of the staging of these court masques.

Hart, Vaughan, and Joe Robson. “A Computer Model of Inigo Jones’s Perspective Stage.” Computers and the History of Art 6.1 (1996): 21–27.
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This article reconstructs Jones’s set design for the penultimate masque entitled Salmacida Spolia (1640), for which a complete set of stage drawing by Webb have survived. Jones’s stage designs are understood in the context of the single-point perspective stage of Serlio. The article tests the design’s efficacy from various viewing angles and the ability of the shutters to hide the previous (now retracted) scene. Republished with additions in Hart 2011 (cited under British Context).
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Orrell, John. The Theatres of Inigo Jones and John Webb. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1985.
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This book contains nine meticulous studies of theater buildings, base on the dimensions recorded in surviving drawings, in the design of which either Jones or Webb—or (in most cases) both—were involved. Orrell shows for example that Webb’s stage plan for William Davenant’s The Siege of Rhodes (1656) could be made to fit Jones’s design for the Drury Lane Cockpit.
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Orrell, John. The Human Stage: English Theatre Design, 1567–1640. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1988.
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In a concluding chapter to this book, entitled “Inigo Jones’s Scene Designs,” Orrell examines Jones’s use of perspective in his masque scene drawings, in the particular context of Serlio’s scenes. The chapter focuses on Jones’s later masques for Charles I, notably Albion’s Triumph (1632), The Shepherd’s Paradise (1633), and Florimène (1635).
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Peacock, John. The Stage Designs of Inigo Jones: The European Context. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1995.
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This is the first (and to date the only) full-length, illustrated study of Jones’s stage designs between 1605 and 1640. Peacock shows that almost all of Jones’s designs were based on Italian and other continental sources, many identified here for the first time. The importance of the theoretical concept of “imitation” in Renaissance culture is outlined by way of explanation and context for Jones’s use of these sources.
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Simpson, Percy, and Charles Francis Bell, eds. Designs by Inigo Jones for Masques and Plays at Court. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1923–1924.
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This is a catalogue of masque drawings for scenery and costumes, mainly at Chatsworth House, with fifty-one plates. See now Strong and Orgel 1973. Reprinted, New York: Russell and Russell, 1966.
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Strong, Roy. “Inigo Jones and the Revival of Chivalry.” Apollo 86 (1967): 102–107.
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Strong looks at the chivalric “revival” surrounding the fiercely Protestant Prince Henry, and Jones’s role in it. In particular, his designs for Ben Jonson’s masque Prince Henry’s Barriers (1610) are discussed.
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Strong, Roy, and Stephen Orgel, eds. Inigo Jones: The Theatre of the Stuart Court. 2 vols. London: Sotheby Parke Bernet, 1973.
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This two-volume work is a fully illustrated catalogue, organized chronologically, of Jones’s drawings held at Chatsworth House for masque set designs and costumes. It supersedes Simpson and Bell 1923–1924. These masque drawings are accompanied by the illustration of sources, where identifiable. The book includes the masques’ text by Jonson, Townshend, and Davenant. Four introductory essays set the scene, “The Poetics of Spectacle,” “The Mechanics of Platonism,” “The Arts of Design,” and “Platonic Politics.”
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Architectural Drawings

Less than one hundred of Jones’s architectural drawings survive. On his death in 1652, these had been inherited by Webb, who subsequently bequeathed them to his son, William, under the provision that none be sold. However, a large number evidently were, and we next hear of them through John Aubrey. Lord Burlington acquired many of Jones’s drawings, some of which are now held in the RIBA Library Drawings Collection in London, although many more were lost. These drawings are catalogued in Harris 1972 and their provenance is discussed in Harris, et al. 1973. Other drawings are held at Chatsworth House in Derbyshire, and Worcester College in Oxford. Those at Worcester College were gifted by George Clarke in 1736 (along with Jones’s books, see Anderson 2007 under Studies of the Library and Annotations) and are catalogued in Harris and Tait 1979. The drawings by Webb for Whitehall Palace held there and at Chatsworth are discussed in Gotch 1912 and, in a reliable catalogue grouping them into the various schemes, in Whinney 1946. Some of Jones’s drawings and their underlying construction lines formed the basis of the understanding of him as a Platonist in Wittkower 1953. Jones’s study and practice of the art of drawing is considered in the context of Renaissance conventions in Peacock 1990 and Wood 1992. A selected corpus of drawings was argued to form the basis of a proposed treatise on architecture in Rowe 1947. A complete catalogue of Jones’s architectural drawings, with illustrations of all of them, appeared in Harris and Higgott 1989, and this remains the first port of call for the study of his drawings.

Gotch, J. Alfred. “The Original Drawings for the Palace at Whitehall Attributed to Inigo Jones.” Architectural Review 31 (1912): 333–364.
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The principal Whitehall drawings (produced for Charles I and dating from c. 1638) are preserved at Worcester College in Oxford, Chatsworth House, and the British Museum. As Gotch points out, the Chatsworth drawings and those at Oxford once formed a single collection because there are elevations in one that correspond with plans in the other, and vice versa. This work contains a full account of the drawings, and argues in favor of Webb as draftsman. But see Whinney 1946.
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Harris, John, ed. Catalogue of the Drawings Collection of the RIBA: [Vol.8] Inigo Jones and John Webb. Farnborough, UK: Gregg, 1972.
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Superseding an earlier catalogue edited by the author and Prunella Fraser, published in 1960 by the RIBA, this book is part of a larger set of volumes, arranged alphabetically, each dedicated to a particular architect (or, as here, linked architects). The RIBA now has a catalogue available online by subscription.
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Harris, John, and Alan Anderson Tait, ed. Catalogue of the drawings by Inigo Jones, John Webb and Isaac De Caus at Worcester College. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1979.
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An updated version of an earlier catalogue by Gotch published in 1913 (which also contained the Chatsworth drawings).
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Harris, John, and Gordon Higgott, eds. Inigo Jones, Complete Architectural Drawings. New York: Zwemmer, 1989.
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Originally a catalogue for an exhibition in New York, this volume illustrates all of the ninety-three surviving architectural drawings by Jones (as opposed to those by Webb), predominantly from the RIBA Library Drawings Collection in London, Worcester College in Oxford, and Chatsworth House, together with some figure drawings (catalogued by John Peacock) and stage drawings. They are arranged chronologically following Higgott’s examination of Jones’s handwriting and drafting technique, which identified four stages between 1608 and the later 1630s.
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Harris, John, Stephen Orgel, and Roy Strong, eds. The King’s Arcadia: Inigo Jones and the Stuart Court. London: Arts Council, 1973.
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This is a catalogue of an exhibition held at the Banqueting House in 1973. Its three parts (see this work under Studies of the Library and Annotations) include illustrations and discussion of many of Jones’s drawings. Appendix 1 deals with the provenance of these drawings.
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Peacock, John. “Inigo Jones as a Figurative Artist.” In Renaissance Bodies: The Human Figure in English Culture c. 1540–1660. Edited by Lucy Gent and Nigel Llewellyn, 154–179. London: Reaktion, 1990.
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Jones is here recognized as the most important figurative artist of the first half of the 17th century, an interest stemming from his beginnings as a “picture maker.” The article considers Jones’s reading of Vasari and Lomazzo on the role of the human form in art and architecture. A number of Jones’s figure drawings for masques are discussed, together with their sources.
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Rowe, Colin. “Theoretical Drawings of Inigo Jones: Their Sources and Scope.” MA diss., London University, 1947.
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This thesis was supervised by Rudolph Wittkower at the Warburg Institute, and examines a group of Jones’s (and Webb’s) so-called theoretical drawings (that is, ones not intended for any particular scheme) that were here argued to form the basis for a treatise on architecture.
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Whinney, Margaret. “John Webb’s Drawings for Whitehall Palace.” Walpole Society 31 (1946): 45–107.
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A key study of the drawings by Webb representing Jones’s Whitehall designs (dating from c. 1638), the article arranges the drawings into the various schemes. See also Gotch 1912.
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Wittkower, Rudolf. “Inigo Jones, Architect and Man of Letters.” Journal of the Royal Institute of British Architects 60 (1953): 83–90.
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Wittkower analyzes a number of Jones’s drawings to demonstrate his reliance on underlying score lines and geometry. The purpose is to show what Wittkower terms Jones’s “modular” or “metrical approach” and his reliance on Platonic harmony and proportion. This is seen as distinct from earlier Elizabethan attempts at classicism. The “metrical approach” is questioned in Higgott 1992 (cited under Studies of the Library and Annotations). Reprinted in Wittkower 1974 (cited under General Overviews).
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Wood, Jeremy. “Inigo Jones, Italian Art, and the Practice of Drawing.” Art Bulletin 74.2 (1992): 247–270.
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Following Peacock 1990, this article reexamines Jones’s notes to his copy of Vasari, as an insight into his knowledge of Italian art and his desire to master the principles of drawing (disegno). Examples of Jones’s figure drawings are considered (held at Chatsworth House), alongside their sources. The appendixes transcribe samples of Jones’s notes to Vasari and his observations on Italian painters recorded by Thomas Marshall in his commonplace book held in the Bodleian Library, Oxford.
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