Term Papers on Sir Christopher Wren

Term Paper Title	Sir Christopher Wren
# of Words	1665
# of Pages (250 words per page double spaced)	6.66

Sir Christopher Wren

Sir Christopher Wren was born on Oct. 20, 1632, in East Knoyle, Wiltshire, England. Wren, the son of a rector, was the youngest child, the only boy, and delicate in health. Before Christopher was three, his father was appointed dean of Windsor, and the Wren family moved into the court. It was among the intellectuals around Charles I that the boy first developed his mathematical interests. His life at Windsor was disrupted by the outbreak of civil war in 1642. The deanery was captured and the Dean was forced to flee, first to Bristol, then to the country home of a son-in-law, William Holder, in Oxfordshire. Wren was sent to school at Westminster but spent much time under Holder's tuition, experimenting in astronomy. He translated William Oughtred's work on sundials into Latin and constructed various astronomical devices.  However, there was an important turn toward physiology in 1647 when he met the anatomist Charles Scarburgh. Wren prepared experiments for Scarburgh and made !
models representing the working of the muscles.  In 1649 Wren went to Wadham College, Oxford, as a "gentleman commoner," a status that carried certain privileges, and was graduated with a B.A. in 1651.  Receiving his A.M. in 1653, Wren was elected a fellow of All Souls College in the same year and began an active period of research and experiment in Oxford, ending with his appointment as Gresham professor of astronomy in Gresham College, London, in 1657. In the following year, with the death of Oliver Cromwell and the ensuing political turmoil, the college was occupied by the military, and Wren returned to Oxford. He later returned to Gresham College, where classes resumed.  In 1661 Wren was elected Savilian professor of astronomy at Oxford, and in 1669 he was appointed Surveyor of Works to Charles II. One of the reasons why Wren turned to architecture may have been the almost complete absence of serious architectural projects in England at the time. The architect Inigo Jones !
had died 10 years previously, and there were few others who were capable of the designs wren had in mind, leaving a wide open field for him to excel in.  Opportunity came, for in 1662 he was busy with the design of the Sheldonian Theatre at Oxford.  At the same time, Sheldon, who was the noble paying for the theater, probably was consulting Wren about London's decaying St. Paul's Cathedral.  By 1665 architecture at the court of Louis XIV in Paris France, had reached a climax of creativity. The Louvre Palace was approaching completion, and the remodeling of Versailles had begun. Bernini, the great sculptor and architect, was in Paris making designs for the Louvre's east front, and the artist allowed Wren to look through his drawings.  At Oxford, in the spring of 1666, he made his first design for a dome for St. Paul's. It was accepted in principle on Aug. 27, 1666. One week later, however, London was on fire. The Great Fire of London reduced two-thirds of the City to a smoking !
desert and old St. Paul's Cathedral to a ruin. Wren was most likely at Oxford at the time, but the news, drew him at once to London. Between September 5 and 11 he determined the precise area of destruction, worked out a plan for rebuilding the City on new and more regular lines, and gave it to Charles II. Others also submitted plans, and the King proclaimed on September 13 that a new plan for London would be adopted. No new plan, however, proceeded any further than the paper on which it was drawn. The problems of survey, compensation, and redistribution were too great. A rebuilding act was passed in 1667. It allowed only for the widening of certain streets, laid down standards of construction for new houses, levied a tax on coal coming into the Port of London, and provided for the rebuilding of a few essential buildings.  In 1669 the King's Surveyor of Works died, and Wren was then given the title. In December he married Faith Coghill and moved into the Surveyor's official res!
idence at Whitehall, where he lived, so far as is known, until his dismissal in 1718.  In 1670 a ...

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