architectural_style radcliffe camera
James Gibbs ( 23 December 1682  5 August 1754 ) was one of Britain ' s most influential architects . Born in Scotland , he trained as an architect in Rome , and practised mainly in England . He is an important figure whose work spanned the transition between ___MASK47___ architecture and a Georgian architecture heavily influenced by Andrea Palladio . Among his most important works are St Martin - in - the - Fields , in London , and the cylindrical , domed Radcliffe Camera at Oxford University . ___MASK76___ is the name given in most English - speaking countries to the set of architectural styles current between 1714 and 1830 . It is eponymous for the first four British monarchs of the House of Hanover  George I , George II , George III , and George IV  who reigned in continuous succession from August 1714 to June 1830 . The style was revived in the late 19th century in the United States as ___MASK70___ and in the early 20th century in Great Britain as Neo - ___MASK76___ ; in both it is also called ___MASK35___ . In America the term " Georgian " is generally used to describe all building from the period , regardless of style ; in Britain it is generally restricted to buildings that are " architectural in intention ", and have stylistic characteristics that are typical of the period , though that covers a wide range . Characteristics . The style of Georgian buildings is very variable , but marked by a taste for symmetry and proportion based on the classical architecture of Greece and Rome , as revived in ___MASK31___ . Ornament is also normally in the classical tradition , but typically rather restrained , and sometimes almost completely absent on the exterior . The period brought the vocabulary of classical architecture to smaller and more modest buildings than had been the case before , replacing English vernacular architecture ( or becoming the new vernacular style ) for almost all new middle - class homes and public buildings by the end of the period . ___MASK47___ is a term sometimes used to refer to the developments in English architecture that were parallel to the evolution of Baroque architecture in continental Europe between the Great Fire of London ( 1666 ) and the Treaty of Utrecht ( 1713 ). The Radcliffe Camera ( Camera , meaning `` room '' in Latin ; colloquially , `` Rad Cam '' or `` The Camera '' ) is a building of Oxford University , England , designed by James Gibbs in neo - classical style and built in 1737 -- 1749 to house the Radcliffe Science Library . It is sited to the south of the Old Bodleian , north of St . Mary ' s Church , and between Brasenose College to the west and All Souls College to the east . The Library ' s construction and maintenance was funded from the estate of John Radcliffe , a notable doctor , who left £ 40 , 000 upon his death in 1714 . According to the terms of his will , construction only began in 1737 , although the intervening period saw the complex purchase of the site . The exterior was complete in 1747 and the interior finished by 1748 , although the Library ' s opening was delayed until 13 April 1749 . Upon completion , Francis Wise was appointed as its first librarian . Until 1810 , the Library housed books covering a wide range of subjects , but under Dr George Williams it narrowed its focus to the sciences . Williams brought the Library from a state of neglect up to date , although by 1850 the Radcliffe Library still lagged behind the Bodleian . It was at this point that Henry Wentworth Acland , then librarian , laid out plans for the Radcliffe Library building to merge with the University and the Library ' s collection of books to be moved to the newly constructed Radcliffe Science Library , which were accepted by the Library ' s trustees and the University . It was at this point that the building became known as the Radcliffe Camera , serving as a reading room for the Bodleian . ___MASK7___ is the building style of the Baroque era , begun in late 16th - century Italy , that took the Roman vocabulary of ___MASK31___ and used it in a new rhetorical and theatrical fashion , often to express the triumph of the Catholic Church and the absolutist state . It was characterized by new explorations of form , light and shadow , and dramatic intensity .