A Few Words Suffice: Banister Fletcher, the Architectures of Ancient America, and 19th Century French and British Historiographies

This study aims to illuminate the pivotal role of ancient American civilizations in the development of European architectural historiography. During the second half of the 19th century, with special emphasis on France and Great Britain, the new knowledge of Natural History was transferred as a theoretical support to certain aspects of the human epic. The architectures of the past emerged as key pieces of material culture that helped to understand the development of different societies and the claim to justify different degrees of civilisation that, synchronically, humanity presented. From this perspective, the text is structured with the bibliographical references cited by Banister Fletcher on American architecture, which serve to organise the proposed narrative.