Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of Illustrations
- Dedication
- Preface and Acknowledgments
- List of Abbreviations
- Introduction
- 1 London and the Early Years
- 2 Cambridge and Scientific Work to 1841
- 3 Remarks on the Architecture of the Middle Ages and the Membrological Approach
- 4 Evidence and its Uses in Architectural History
- 5 The Cathedral Studies: ‘Landmarks’ of Architectural History
- 6 Public Scientist, Private Man
- 7 The Practice of Architecture: Willis as Designer, Arbiter and Influence
- 8 ‘Architectural and Social History’: Canterbury and Cambridge
- Afterword: Willis's Legacy
- Appendix: Willis on Restoration
- Glossary
- Bibliography
- Willis Family Tree
- Index
6 - Public Scientist, Private Man
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 October 2013
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of Illustrations
- Dedication
- Preface and Acknowledgments
- List of Abbreviations
- Introduction
- 1 London and the Early Years
- 2 Cambridge and Scientific Work to 1841
- 3 Remarks on the Architecture of the Middle Ages and the Membrological Approach
- 4 Evidence and its Uses in Architectural History
- 5 The Cathedral Studies: ‘Landmarks’ of Architectural History
- 6 Public Scientist, Private Man
- 7 The Practice of Architecture: Willis as Designer, Arbiter and Influence
- 8 ‘Architectural and Social History’: Canterbury and Cambridge
- Afterword: Willis's Legacy
- Appendix: Willis on Restoration
- Glossary
- Bibliography
- Willis Family Tree
- Index
Summary
His practical knowledge of carpentry and machinery: his inventive genius: and his power of lucid exposition, made him a most attractive Professor, and his lecture room was always crowded. No matter how dry the subject, he knew how to make it interesting: not that he ever condescended to employ any of the modern methods of clap-trap by which ‘sensational’ lecturers ‘draw’: but whether he discoursed on rope-making or on the organ, on joints, or the Jacquard loom, he held his audience spell bound; and dismissed them charmed alike with the knowledge they had gained, and the pure English in which it had been conveyed to them.
‘The Late Professor Willis’, from the Cambridge Chronicle(6 March 1875)Before his appointment as Jacksonian Professor in 1837, Willis had carved out for himself a very personal position within the world of Cambridge scholarship. After his elevation to the professorial rank, he necessarily took on a more public role, paralleling those which he would play within the worlds of archaeology and architecture. Unlike Whewell or William Buckland (1784—1856), he never aspired to recognition as a ‘public moralist’ but whether called upon by the state, or through his own private initiative, Willis shouldered the wider responsibilities beginning to be required of a nineteenth-century intellectual. These ranged from representing the depth and breadth of Cambridge scholarship when he lectured to Prince Albert as Chancellor of the University, to devising and promoting apparatus for teaching mechanical principles to artisan audiences.
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- Publisher: Boydell & BrewerPrint publication year: 2013