THE CONWAY LIBRARY

Introduction to Part 1 - Architecture

The material in this microfiche is derived from two quite different sections of the Conway Library, and is thus ordered in two quite different ways.

1) The architecture of France and Italy up to 1800 is arranged topographically, i.e. alphabetically by place. Within this framework, ecclesiastical buildings generally precede secular buildings. Where France is concerned, efforts have been made in recent years to file monuments under the name of their commune rather than the site as such, following the Dictionnaire national des communes de France, Paris, 1977, and the Dictionnaire des Eglises de France, ed. J. Brosse, 5 vols., Paris, 1966. This particularly affects monuments in rural districts, e.g. for the abbey of Chaalis see Fontaine-Chaalis (Oise); for the abbey of L’Epau see Yvre L’Evêque (Sarthe). This system is not, however, by any means consistent: older material is, in many cases, still filed under site name.

2) The 19th and 20th century material is filed according to country and then by century. In the case of 19thc. Architecture, these sections are further subdivided into ecclesiastical and secular (a subdivision which at present does not apply to 20thc.), in this order. In larger locations, buildings are arranged alphabetically either following the name of the building or the address, but in 19th and 20thc. Paris the organisation is either by building type ie Educational, Government Offices etc., or by street name. It should be noted that architecture includes architectural sculpture, such as portals and capitals.

We have followed the arrangement of the photographs used by the Conway Library, e.g. Photographs of exterior of building then details of exterior, interior followed by details of interior. However, this system has not always been used. Similarly, the order of interior photographs does vary especially if there is a published guide which has been followed.

In a few cases, e.g. Morocco, no date or period information is listed on the mount. The two or three alphabetical sequences are the divisions for pre-1800, 19th and 20th century architecture. Occasionally, where there is only one photograph for a town, e.g. Italy to 1800 Badia, these have been collected by the Conway library into a miscellaneous folder and appear that way in the microfiche.

The order of churches within towns sometimes varies in the Conway Library and we have followed this, e.g. Florence, for which churches are filed ignoring S & SS; in Rome, letter by letter including S & SS. However, these differences quickly become apparent.

Finally, please note, in France 20thc, Cité de Refuge is annotated Cité de Université – Armée de Salut.

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