2 What is Architectural History?
In setting out the terms for the academic study of architec-
tural history, Wölffl in inscribed a series of concepts and
questions that have proved fundamental to the architectural
historian’s practice. Even as architectural historians have
left Wölffl in and his methodology behind, developed new
approaches and cultivated fresh territories of enquiry, they
remain indebted to this initial systematization and intellectu-
alization of architecture as a modern historical fi eld. None-
theless, as a discipline architectural history echoes a common
problem faced by many historical disciplines and specializa-
tions: there is as little agreement on what architectural history
is and how it should be done as on what architecture is and
how it should be made.
1 Il Gesù, Rome, offi cially the Chiesa del Santissimo Nome di
Gesù all’Argentina. Construction commenced 1568; consecrated
- Principal architects Giacomo Barozzi da Vignola and
Giacomo della Porta.