COMUNICACIÓN Y PRENSA

Owen Jones
Lewes, East Sussex: Ivy Press, 2016
The grammar of ornament was first published in London in 1856. The edition we are recommending today, printed in 2016, follows the original 1856 text, although some of the place-names have changed slightly over the years and in some cases they are completely different. The editor of this new edition has identified many of the current names of the buildings that have other names in the book, so as to make it easier to locate some of the ornamental motifs compiled by Owen Jones.
This collection covers a huge period from Antiquity to the Renaissance,and begins with the drafting of the 37 principles of the natural laws of ornamentation according to Owen Jones, who then organises the ornamental motifs into 20 chapters. The first 19 explore the motifs used by nineteen different civilizations, while the twentieth and last chapter focuses on leaves and flowers in nature, without associating them with any specific civilization. We should not forget of course that Chapter 10 is devoted to the ornamental motifs in the Alhambra.
Owens illustrated this collection of ornamental motifs using a pioneering printing technique known as chromolithography, in which colour had an unusually prominent role, and which was one of the key factors in the success of this book.
Any reader who leafs through this book will discover the wide variety of ornamental motifs that can be observed in our architectural spaces.