GWILT

gwilt, joseph (1784-1863), english architect and writer, was the younger son of george gwilt, architect surveyor to the county of surrey, and was born at southwark on the 11th of january 1784. he was educated at st paul's school, and after a short course of instruction in his father's office was in 1801 admitted a student of the royal academy, where in the same year he gained the silver medal for his drawing of the tower and steeple of st dunstan-in-the-east. in 1811 he published a _treatise on the equilibrium of arches_, and in 1815 he was elected f.s.a. after a visit to italy in 1816, he published in 1818 _notitia architectonica italiana, or concise notices of the buildings and architects of italy_. in 1825 he published an edition of sir william chambers's _treatise on civil architecture_; and among his other principal contributions to the literature of his profession are a translation of the _architecture of vitruvius_ (1826), a _treatise on the rudiments of architecture, practical and theoretical_ (1826), and his valuable _encyclopaedia of architecture_ (1842), which was published with additions by wyatt papworth in 1867. in recognition of gwilt's advocacy of the importance to architects of a knowledge of mathematics, he was in 1833 elected a member of the royal astronomical society. he took a special interest in philology and music, and was the author of _rudiments of the anglo-saxon tongue_ (1829), and of the article "music" in the _encyclopaedia metropolitana_. his principal works as a practical architect were markree castle near sligo in ireland, and st thomas's church at charlton in kent. he died on the 14th of september 1863.