Londoner Reaktionen auf die Querelle des Anciens et des Modernes. John Evelyns Übersetzung von Fréart de Chambrays Parallèle, Christopher Wren, Antonio Verrio und das Royal Hospital in Chelsea (1682‒1689)

This article cites the example of the Royal Hospital in Chelsea endowed by King Charles II of England in 1681 to discuss interlingual, inter- and intramedial translations processes that apply not only to that hospital (a home for war veterans), but to the entire replanning of London after the major conflagration of 1666. John Evelyn’s English translation of the Parallèle de l’architecture antique et de la moderne by Roland Fréart de Chambray, published in 1664, forms a frame of reference enabling a more precise understanding of the guidelines of urbanist design and the characteristics of the architecture and interior decoration of the Royal Hospital in Chelsea. Both the architect Christopher Wren and the painter Antonio Verrio made reference to the Querelle et Anciens und des Modernes in their contributions to the hospital’s design, thus addressing the political and cultural competition between England and France in the late phase of the Stuart reign by visual means.