Den Danske Vitruvius

Den Danske Vitruvius

The coat of arms of Copenhagen
Author	Lauritz de Thurah
Subject	Danish architecture
Publisher	Ernst Henrich Berling
Publication date	1746–49
Publication place	Denmark

Den Danske Vitruvius (English: The Danish Vitruvius) is a richly illustrated 18th-century architectural work on Danish monumental buildings of the period, written by the Danish Baroque architect Lauritz de Thurah. It was commissioned by Christian VI in 1735 and published in two volumes between 1746 and 1749. The title refers to the Roman architect and engineer Vitruvius, who published De architectura in the 1st century AD, an authoritative treatise on the architecture of the time. The direct inspiration for de Thurah's Den Danske Vitruvius was Colen Campbell's Vitruvius Britannicus.^[1]

With its numerous illustrations, Den Danske Vitruvius is a valuable source of information on the many Danish buildings of the mid-18th century, which have since been demolished, rebuilt or lost in fires.

A facsimile edition published in 1966–67 includes a third volume, based on an until then unpublished manuscript kept at the Royal Danish Library. It covers buildings completed later than 1749.^[1]