Vaughan Hart

Who is Vaughan Hart?

Vaughan Hart is a leading architectural historian, and Professor of Architecture in the Department of Architecture and Civil Engineering at the University of Bath. Hart studied architecture at Bath and Cambridge Universities. He worked first as an architectural assistant to Colin St John Wilson on the British Library project in London, before studying for a doctorate in Cambridge on Inigo Jones under Joseph Rykwert. Hart has published widely in the field of architectural history, specialising in the Italian architectural treatises and in British architectural history of the Renaissance and Baroque periods. Hart's concerns lie in particular with the symbolic function of architecture, and with the meaning of architectural forms. He is the co-translator of the treatises of Sebastiano Serlio, and he has also translated the two guidebooks to Rome published by Andrea Palladio. Hart's translation of these formed part of a wider project initiated by Rykwert and Robert Tavernor through their translation of the treatise by Leon Battista Alberti. In addition, Hart's monographs include influential studies of the work of Inigo Jones, Sir John Vanbrugh and Nicholas Hawksmoor, all published by Yale University Press for the Paul Mellon Centre for Studies in British Art. The latter monograph was awarded the Best Book on British Art Prize of the American College Art Association in 2005.