AALA Core Reference List: Dictionaries/Encyclopedias

Proprietary database. Oxford Art Online enables access and cross-search functionality to Grove and Oxford reference content in one location. Provides access to Grove Art Online, The Encyclopedia of Aesthetics, The Oxford Companion to Western Art, and The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Art Terms. Includes major architects and architectural topics and recommended readling lists. Includes links to image sources and relevant websites. Continually Updated.

Covers theories and principles as well as cultures and habitats.

Good for color photos of famous buildings with scaled sections, elevations, and plans; primarily arranged by period or style and place. Text in English, French, and German. Covers up to the 1960s.

Historically important.

Comprehensive encyclopedia with articles on architecture, artists, periods, sites, styles, and more. Includes bibliographies and black & white illustrations. Updated online version titled Grove Art Online available through Oxford Art Online.

Covers all aspects of architecture, including biographies of major contemporary architects, building types, styles, materials, organizations, etc. Includes bibliographies. Vol. 5 includes supplementary materials and an index.

"This book has its origins in a multilingual dictionary compiled by the International Federation of Landscape Architects committee for the Translation of Technical Terms."
English, French, German and Spanish.

French/English and English/French building and architectural terms.

Contains 30,000 architecture and construction "everyday terms."

Includes illustrations to help identify terms in English, French and German. Each volume focuses on terms associated with specific building types or elements. Volume 11 is the Index Universalis Multilingualis (includes Latin). Earlier editions German and French only.

Polyglot dictionary in French, German, and English with many architectural and construction terms.

Includes 4,000 entries plus illustrations. Contains several useful appendices covering abbreviations, conversion tables, and basic technical data for building, framing, lumber, plywood, hardware, electrical and plumbing.

Information clustered around basic aspects of architecture (rather than an alphabetical listing) allows for browsing illustrations while scanning for terms. Includes architectural design, history, and technology. Indexed.

Contains 210 brief articles written by experts in the field of building technology, each with bibliographic references.

Provides information about architects and defines terms related to architectural and landscape elements, materials, periods, styles, techniques, and building types. Includes line drawings and an extensive bibliography.

Includes architects, terms, techniques, and materials. Provides bibliographic references.

Nearly 25,000 definitions for terms found in the practice of architecture, construction, and associated fields, including terms found on drawings and specifications. Includes 2,500 illustrations.

Defines terms associated with building types, architectural details, and styles. Some illustrations.

Emphasis on terms used in British architecture. Excellent illustrations.

Gives definitions or brief articles on terms, styles, and major architects. Worldwide coverage. Major entries contain brief bibliographies.

Originated in a series of six talks broadcast by the BBC in 1963. Outlines the classical "orders," their expansion and use since the Renaissance and the relationship between the classical tradition and modern architecture. Highly illustrated.

An encyclopedia of prominent architects and buildings in western architectural history. Vol. 1 contains architect entries with biographical data and lists of publications. Includes a buildings name index. Vol. 2 contains architecture entries arranged by country and includes a list of publications relating to each building, with a separate architect index. Illustrated.

Defines terms covered in the literature published since 1945. Includes artists' groups, movements, and organizations, as well as some foreign terms. Bibliographic sources and an index are provided.

An illustrated dictionary of interior design terms, including design history and designers.

More than 7500 terms and 300 illustrations defining vocabulary across the field including land planning, environmental planning, construction, materials, methods, and botanicals.

Art, architecture, and archaeology in the antique world, from prehistory to c.500 A.D. Includes bibliographies and photographs. Also check the Supplemento.

Entries include photographs and plans.

Heavily illustrated. Provides comprehensive definitions of terms for architecture and construction, including styles such as deconstructivism.

Definitions of terminology dealing with materials, techniques, styles, furniture, and decorative arts. Some line drawings.

Comprehensive encyclopedia with signed articles on architecture, artists, movements, periods, styles, media, and sites. Entries are followed by bibliographies. Contains excellent illustrations, many in color. Vol. 15 is the index and vols. 16-17 cover newer discoveries and perspectives in the world of art.

Discusses major elements of American architecture. Good overviews.

Comprehensive architecture and planning dictionary in Italian, including historic and modern architects. Illustrated.

Cross referenced to The Penguin Dictionary of Civil Engineering.

International in scope. Contains biographies and entries under place names, monuments, periods, iconographical terms, and techniques. Provides cross-references, illustrations, and references.

Standard classical encyclopedia covering antiquities (including architecture), biography, literature, and history. Also check suppl. index and second series.