History of Stone Vaulting in the Pre-Modern Mediterranean: Practices, Theories, and Patterns of Knowledge Transfer

In this book, I explore the history of stereotomy from a transnational, longue durée perspective across the Mediterranean Basin from the third century BCE—when the oldest of known stereotomic vaults was built—through the sixteenth and seventeenth century CE, when pioneering theoretical works such as those by Delorme and Vandelvira crossed the boundaries of the building trades and stereotomy became the focus of a broader intellectual debate about spatial geometry. All along, I argue that the history of stereotomy is far more complex, far more enigmatic, and far more fascinating than historians have assumed so far.