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Charles H. Caffin’s How to Study Architecture is a scholarly survey that treats the history of building as a unified art, linking architecture with sculpture and painting under the banner of the “Fine Arts.” The work opens with a formal acknowledgment of the scholars and illustrators who contributed to its preparation, then launches into a detailed table of contents that maps the subject from primitive structures through the classical, medieval, Renaissance, and modern periods. The introductory chapter defines “æsthetic” perception and argues that beauty and utility are inseparable in architectural practice, setting a tone of systematic, interdisciplinary inquiry.

Written in the late‑19th‑century academic style, Caffin’s prose is dense, formal, and richly descriptive, employing philosophical reflections on perception alongside exhaustive lists of monuments and illustrations. Readers who appreciate meticulous historical overviews, enjoy extensive visual documentation, and are comfortable with a measured, lecture‑like voice will find this volume a rewarding guide to the evolution of architectural form.

Opening lines

The author gratefully acknowledges the critical assistance given to him on certain points by Professor William H. Goodyear, W. Harmon Beers and William Warfield; and his indebtedness to Caroline Caffin for compiling the index and to Irving Heyl for several architectural drawings. For some of the illustrations he has put himself under obligations to the following publications, through the courtesy of the Librarian of the Metropolitan Museum of Art--“Histoire de l’Art,” by Perrot et Chipiez; “Assyrian Sculptures,” by Rev. Archibald Paterson; “Monuments Modernes de la Perse,” by Pascal Coste; “Ruins of the Palace of Diocletian at Spalato” by R. Adams, and “The Annual of the British School at Athens.” …

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