Robert Willis (engineer)

This article is about the 19th century engineer, phoneticist, and architectural historian. For other people with the same name, see Robert Willis.

Robert Willis

The Reverend Robert Willis (27 February 1800 – 28 February 1875) was an English academic. He was the first Cambridge professor to win widespread recognition as a mechanical engineer, and first to set the scientific study of vowels on a respectable foundation. He is now best remembered for his extensive writings on architectural history, including many studies of mediaeval cathedrals and a four-volume treatise on the architecture of the University of Cambridge. He was described by Pevsner as "the greatest English architectural historian of the 19th century".[1]: 499 

  1. ^ Pevsner, Nikolaus (1970). The buildings of England: Cambridgeshire (Second ed.). Harmondsworth: Penguin. ISBN 0140710108.