C O N T E X T 1 3 1 : S E P T E M B E R 2 0 1 3 51 where, what, why and how of temporary uses in great detail. It is packed full of case study chapters; only two out of the 19 are in the UK, with the majority, unsurprisingly, in Germany. The book also favours ‘in conversation’ chapters, which make you feel like you are reading a teenage magazine, albeit on a less racy topic. However, it is this eclectic style, combined with a large number and variety of contributors and texts from the past decade or so, that keeps the book fresh. Direct use to the historic building specialist is probably limited, unless one is engaged with the regeneration of an historic neighbourhood or even a town. The book is slightly odd in that it is not clear exactly who it is aimed at – most likely urban geographers and other built environment academics – and therefore its use for the everyday is quite limited.Yet the quirky nature of its content and presentation, with high-quality photos and graphics throughout, give it broad appeal. It does feel like a handbook, and it will perhaps be of most use to the strategic city planner looking for ideas, initiatives and guidance on regenerating an area, even just temporarily. KatieWray, assistant planning manager (specialising in heritage) at the Co-operative Group Inspiring Adam Four Emperors and an Architect: how Robert Adam rediscovered the Tetrarchy Alicia Salter, Lexicon Publishing, 2013, 196pp, colour illustrations, softback, ISBN 978 0 957571 90 7, £20 In 1756 Robert Adam visited Split (or Spalatro as he called it) on the Dalmatian coast to research Diocletian’s Palace.The trip resulted in his magnificent book Ruins of the Palace of the Emperor Diocletian at Spalatro and to a series of innovative buildings in England, including Kedleston, Syon, Osterley and the Adelphi, that were influenced by his studies. Two hundred and fifty years later Alicia Salter made the same journey. Her book Four Emperors and an Architect is the result. Salter’s researches are broader than Adam’s.They include not only the architecture of the palace, but the strange story of the Tetrarchy, and the impact that Adam’s visit had on his architectural career.The Balkan coast has never been an easy place to visit, and Adam’s party had to contend with accusations of spying. For Diocletian the palace was a place of retirement in his home territory, away from the political intrigues of Rome. He commissioned it in 296 AD, taking a keen interest in every aspect of its design and layout. By comparison, he visited Rome for the first time only in 303, to attend the opening of the famous baths named after him. On his accession in 284, Diocletian found himself with an empire on the verge of disintegration. Under attack on many fronts, inadequately funded and bureaucratically inefficient, it was in need of radical treatment.This Diocletian achieved in part by structural reforms, but also by inspirational leadership. His most striking initiative was the division of power, first by appointing a co-emperor to rule the western half of the empire, then eight years later by appointing two deputies – creating the Tetrarchy – which not only provided delegation, but also a natural succession. Each of the four Emperors – two Augusti and two Caesars – was encouraged to build his own palace. Salter examines the architectural legacy.This includes Galerius’s remarkable palace at Felix Rumuliana, which is still almost unknown outside the Balkans, Constantius Chlorus’s Porta Nigra and Basilica at Trier, and Maximian’s palace at Rome. As well as the Baths of Diocletian, Tetrarchic buildings at Rome include the Decennalian Monument and the gigantic Basilica of Maxentius.The First Tetrarchy existed peaceably for nearly 22 years, but was followed by a long period of confusion, with seven different emperors, before Constantine ended any form of power sharing by declaring himself sole ruler in 324. Before his trip to Spalatro, Adam spent two and a half years in Rome, as the prelude to setting up an architectural practice in London. He cultivated important contacts among visitors on the GrandTour (who might become his future clients), as well as fellow artists such as Piranesi and Clérisseau.There he studied the classical ruins, but his admiration for the Baths of Diocletian was probably the reason why he set his sights on the palace in Spalatro as the subject of serious analysis. On his return to London, his architectural practice took time to take off, in large part due to the publication of the Ruins of Spalatro. Using the success of the book, he introduced a change of style, allowing himself a freedom from the purer classical rules of other architects, and a greater decorative richness. In Diocletian’s palace he found a wealth of architectural ornament, and the way he used this in many of his greatest works is one strand of Salter’s book. The originality of her approach, however, is to explore so many complex strands within a relatively short book, and to do so with such clarity and dexterity.The chapters are deliberately mixed to avoid a chronological sequence, and to illuminate the relationships between the emperors and the architect, the politics and the architecture. The book is elegantly designed and illustrated. I read it among the ruins, not of Dalmatia, but of Sicily (which Adam also wished to visit but never did), and it gave me much to reflect on. Peter de Figueiredo, heritage consultant Pushing boundaries John Nash: architect of the picturesque Edited by GeoffreyTyack (with contributions by Richard Suggett, DavidWhitehead, GeoffreyTyack, RosemaryWallop, J Mordant Crook,MH Port, Jonathan Clarke and David Watkin), English Heritage, hardback, 198pp, 200 illustrations,ISBN 978 1848021 02 0,£45 Despite a wonderful legacy of late Georgian architecture and other seminal works, including early constructional engineering and town planning, John Nash was derided by many contemporaries and often considered unorthodox in approach. John Summerson wrote the standard biography of Nash in 1935, but until now little has been produced about this very significant architect. This publication contains a collection of excellent essays by leading specialists, tied together by a fluid but
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