On a Grander Scale: The Outstanding Life of Sir Christopher Wren

Multitalented architect of Saint Paul's Cathedral

Trough the prism of the tumultuous life and brilliant intellect of Sir Christopher Wren, the multitalented architect of Saint Paul's Cathedral in London, historian Lisa Jardine unfolds the vibrant, extraordinary emerging new world of late-seventeenth-century science and ideas.
The man behind the bold, imposing beauty of Saint Paul's was as remarkable as the monuments Wren has left us. Sir Christopher Wren was a versatile genius who could have pursued a number of brilliant careers with equal virtuosity. A mathematical prodigy, an accomplished astronomer, a skillful anatomist, and a founder of the Royal Society, Sir Christopher Wren eventually made a career in what he described disparagingly in later life as "Rubbish " - architecture, and the design and construction of public buildings.

Major figure at a turning point in English history

Sir Christopher Wren was a major figure at a turning point in English history. He mapped moons and the trajectories of comets for kings; lived and worked under six monarchs; pursued astronomy and medicine during two civil wars; exercised his creativity through the English Commonwealth, the Great Fire, the Restoration. Sir Christopher Wren's royal employment out lasted abdication, Dutch invasion, and the eventual extinction of the Stuart dynasty.

Sir Christopher Wren's personal motivations and passions

Beyond the public achievements, Jardine explores Sir Christopher Wren's personal motivations and passions. Wren was a sincere, intensely moral man with a remarkable capacity for friendship. His career was shaped by lasting associations forged during a turbulent boyhood and a lifelong loyalty to the memory of his father's master and benefactor, the "martyred king," Charles I.
Everything Sir Christopher Wren undertook, he envisaged on a grander scale - bigger, better, more enduring than anything that had gone before.

Lisa Jardine

Lisa Jardine is the author of Worldly Goods: A New History of the Renaissance and Ingenious Pursuits: Building the Scientific Revolution. She is Professor of Renaissance Studies at Queen Mary, University of London, and Director of the AHRB Research Centre for Editing Lives and Letters there, as well as an Honorary Fellow of King's College, Cambridge.
Lisa Jardine writes and reviews for major British national newspapers and magazines, and has presented and appears regularly on arts, history and current-affairs programs for TV and radio. Lisa Jardine judged the 1996 Whitbread Prize, the 1999 Guardian First Book Award, and the Orwell Prize, and was Chair of Judges for the 1997 Orange Prize. Lisa Jardine is currently Chair of Judges for the 2002 Booker Prize. Lisa Jardine is married to architect John Hare and has three children.
Publisher: Harper Collins
ISBN: 0060199741

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