Nikolaus Pevsner (January 30, 1902 - August 18, 1983) was a German-born British historian of art and, especially, architecture.

The son of a Jewish merchant, Pevsner was born in Leipzig, Saxony. He studied art history at the Universities of Leipzig, Munich, Berlin, and Frankfurt/Main in Germany (PhD 1924), worked at the Dresden Gallery (1924-28) and taught at Göttingen University (1929-33). In 1934, he moved to England to escape Nazism and taught at London, Oxford, and Cambridge Universities.

He is best known for his 46-volume series of county-by-county guides, The Buildings of England (1951-74), one of the great achievements of 20th-century art scholarship.

Pevsner conceived and edited the Pelican History of Art series (1953- ), many individual volumes of which are regarded as classics.

He died in London.

Selected bibliography

• Academies of Art, Past and Present (1940)
• An Outline of European Architecture (1943)
• Pioneers of Modern Design (1949; originally published in 1936 under the title Pioneers of the Modern Movement)
• The Buildings of England (1951-74)
• The Englishness of English Art (1956)
• The Sources of Modern Architecture and Design (1968)
• A History of Building Types (1976)

The Buildings of England

Pevsner began work on this series in 1947, and continued for the next 25 years. He wrote 32 of the books himself, and 10 with collaborators. The first volume was published in 1951. Work on the series continued after Pevsner's death.

The list below is of the volumes that were in print in January 2004. The dates after each title are of the first publication and of any revised edition. All are now published by the Yale University Press.

• Bath (2003)
• Bedfordshire, Huntingdon & Peterborough (1968)
• Berkshire (1966)
• Buckinghamshire (1960;1994)
• Cambridgeshire (1954;1970)
• Cheshire (1971)
• Cornwall (1951;1970)
• County Durham (1953;1983)
• Cumberland & Westmorland (1967)
• Derbyshire (1953;1978)
• Devon (1952;1989)
• Dorset (1972)
• Essex (1954;1965)
• Gloucestershire: The Cotswolds (1970;1999)
• Gloucestershire: The Vale & Forest of Dean (2002)
• Hampshire (1967)
• Herefordshire (1963)
• Hertfordshire (1953;1977)
• Kent: North East & East (1969;1983)
• Kent: West & the Weald (1969;1976)
• North Lancashire (1969)
• South Lancashire (1969)
• Leicestershire & Rutland (1960;1984)
• Lincolnshire (1964;1989)
• London 1: The City of London (1997)
• London 2: South (1983)
• London 3: North-West (1991)
• London 4: North (1998)
• London 6: The City of Westminster (2003)
• London City Churches (1998)
• Manchester (2001)
• Norfolk 1: Norwich & North East (1962;1997)
• Norfolk 2: South & West (1962;1999)
• Northamptonshire (1961;1973)
• Northumberland (1957;1992)
• Nottinghamshire (1951;1979)
• Oxfordshire (1974)
• Shropshire (1958)
• Somerset: North & Bristol (1958)
• Somerset: South & West (1958)
• Staffordshire (1974)
• Suffolk (1961;1974)
• Surrey (1962;1971)
• Sussex (1965)
• Warwickshire (1966)
• Wiltshire (1963;1971)
• Worcestershire (1968)
• Yorkshire: The North Riding (1966)
• Yorkshire: The West Riding (1959;1967)
• Yorkshire: York & East Riding (1972;1995)

The Buildings of Scotland

The series continued under Pevsner's name into Scotland. The series is not yet complete.

• Argyll and Bute (2000) ISBN 0300096704
• Dumfries and Galloway ISBN 0300096712
• Edinburgh ISBN 0200096720
• Fife ISBN 0300096739
• Glasgow ISBN 0300096747
• Highlands and Islands (1992) ISBN 0300096259
• Lothian, except Edinburgh ISBN 0300096267
• Stirling and Central Scotland ISBN 0300095945

The Buildings of Wales

The series has also been extended to Wales.

• Carmarthern and Ceredigion (to be published in 2005)
• Clwyd (1986) ISBN 0-300-09627-5
• Glamorgan(1995) ISBN 0-300-09629-1
• Gwent/Monmouthshire (2000) ISBN 0-300-09630-5
• Gwynedd (research in progress)
• Pembrokeshire (2004) ISBN 0-300-0178-3
• Powys (1979) ISBN 0-300-09631-3

The Buildings of Ireland

The Irish series is not so far advanced as the others. However the following have been published or are being prepared.

• Dublin
• North-West Ulster: the Counties of Londonderry, Donegal, Fermanagh & Tyrone (1979) ISBN 0-300-09667-4
• North Leinster (1993) ISBN 0-300-09668-2

External links

• Pevsner Architectural Guides (http://www.pevsner.co.uk)
• Nikolaus Pevsner (1902-1983) (http://www.kirjasto.sci.fi/pevsner.htm)