Talk:William Thornton

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Inspiration[edit]

Is there a reference for this edit [1] Giano 18:33, 7 July 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Comparing Thornton's design with the elevation of Palladio's Villa Barbaro at Maser, from Palladio's Quattro Libri reveals no relationship that I can detect. We can ignore Thornton's domes in making the comparison, and we can be sure the model will have come from an engraving, so differences in the actual result at Villa Barbaro at Maser needn't occupy us. The prototype for the wings should occupy us more than the familiar pedimented octastyle central portico, like many many neo-Palladian buildings. The facts that the competition had already officially closed and that Thornton's drawings have been lost should appear in the article. And it might be noted that Dr. Thornton's elevations did not match his plans; the runner-up, Stephen Hallet, was called upon to make necessary adjustments. --Wetman 19:36, 7 July 2007 (UTC).[reply]

Thanks Wetman, it seems others agree too [2] I suspect that Palladio via Palladianism had a hand in the design but so too did the idealised municipal architecture of half the civilized world. Giano 21:39, 7 July 2007 (UTC)[reply]

The only villa inspiration would have to be confined to a model for the central block: by the end of the C18, the portico-with-low-dome theme is no longer just a "Pantheon"-type, in spite of "direct antecedent" talk. Thornton's dome was altered in 1806 and burned in 1814. The wing pavilions are more interesting, with their wider central bay with a blind arch framing the window, and the doubled pilasters at the ends. --Wetman 04:29, 8 July 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Board?[edit]

The article mentions abolition of "the board". Lowercase. What board is it that was abolished? This is a very strange way to write things. Usually a mention like that is a second mention of something that has been well-specified earlier in the article.69.86.131.76 (talk) 09:19, 12 December 2012 (UTC)Christopher L. Simpson[reply]

Wm. Thornton as a spelling reformer[edit]

Changed reference from a single page to the full text of the entire book

While the Magellanic Premium (1792) is listed under awards. There is no mention of what it was for.

It was for his book, Cadmus. https://archive.org/stream/jstor-1004878/1004878#page/n1/mode/2up (not the best reference, the one below is better)

https://archive.org/details/jstor-1004878/page/n1/mode/2up?view=theater

The subtitle could be the elements of written English. The book could be considered an extension of Franklin's efforts to devise a phonemic orthography for written English.

The new typography was a forerunner of the IPA and anticipated many of the special characters such as the turned e, the theta, the crossed D, and the n-tail.