“ein liebhaber aller freyen khünst”: BONIFAZ WOLMUT AND THE ARCHITECTURE OF THE EUROPEAN RENAISSANCE

Abstract

This dissertation addresses the development of the Central European Renaissance through the career of a single architect, Bonifaz Wolmut (c. 1500-1579). As Prague’s chief architect in the sixteenth century, Wolmut was among the most important European architects of his era. His projects, including the Belvedere, ball court, and Diet Hall at Prague Castle, and the tower and organ loft of St. Vitus cathedral, set a new direction for northern Renaissance architecture with an innovative mix of classicizing and Gothic forms. Additionally, Wolmut owned a large collection of books on astronomy, astrology, mathematics, and history, many of which are still extant and available for study, thus shedding light on the architect’s reading habits and participation in the intellectual communities of Vienna and Prague. Despite his contributions to sixteenth-century architecture, Czech nationalism and Soviet isolationism ensured that the German-born Wolmut was treated as peripheral to the development of Renaissance architecture.

This dissertation constitutes the first complete study of Wolmut’s life, oeuvre, library and context and will establish his place in the history of architecture. In doing so, it addresses issues of the architect’s role at court, his use or rejection of sixteenth-century architectural publications, and the intersection of Renaissance and Gothic architecture in this period.