WREN, Cen, SIR Christopher, English architect: b. East Knoyle, Wiltshire, 20 Oct. 1632; d. Hampton Court, Berkshire, 25 Feb. 1723. He entered as a student at Wadham Col lege, Oxford, in 1646, having previously given proofs of genius by the invention of astro nomical and pneumatic instruments. In 1647 be wrote a treatise on spherical trigonometry upon a new plan, and the following year composed an algebraical tract on the Julian period_ He was one of the earliest members of the Philosophi cal Society at Oxford, which was the origin of the Royal Society, after the institution of which, in 1663, he was elected a Fellow and distinguished himself by his activity in pro moting the objects of that institution. In 1657 he was appointed professor of astronomy at Gresham College, but, being nominated to the Savilian professorship of astronomy at Oxford, resigned the former office, and in 1661 returned to the university. He received a commission In 1663 to prepare designs for the restoration of Saint Paul's Cathedral, then the largest Gothic edifice in the kingdom. While his designs were under consideration the cathedral was destroyed by the fire of 1666, and Wren had now an opportunity for signalizing his talents by the erection of an entirely new structure. In 1668 he succeeded to the office of surveyor of works, resigned his Savilian professorship in 1673, in 1674 received the honor of knighthood; and in the following year the foundation of the new cathedral was laid. In 16&) he was chosen president of the Royal Society. In 1683 he was appointed architect and one of the commission ers of Chelsea College; and the following year controller of the works at Windsor Castle. He was elected member of Parliament for Plymp ton in 1683. and to his public trusts were added in 1698 that of commissioner for the repair of 11estminster Abbey, and in 1699 that of archi tect of Greenwich Hospital. In 1700 he repre sented in Parliament the boroughs of Weymouth and Melcombe Regis. In 1708 he was made one of the commissioners for the erection of 50 new churches in and near the city of London. After having long keen the highest ornament of his profession he was, in l714, deprived of the star veyurship of the royal works from political mo tives He was then in the 85th year of his life, the remainder of which was devoted to saen attic pursuit, and the •tudy of the Scriptures. His remains were interred under the choir of Saint Paul s Cathedral, and over the choir en trance was placed the following inscription (since removed to another part of the church): Subtler coediter Haan Scales= et (Irma Coeditor.
Christ. Wreo; Qui visit Amos ultra opeavata.
Noa site red Boos gabbro. Lector. a Monumerdurn game.
Circunopice_ (Beneath is laid the builder of the church sled who lived above atiewe Teem sot for baronial bet ter the public Reader. d thee reel yet hie zeoeurnowt. look The edifices constructed by Wren were prin cipally public, including a royal hunting seat at Winchester and the modern part of the palace at Hampton Court. Some of the most remark able of his buildings, besides Saint Pants, are the monument on Fish Street Hill, the theatre at Oxford, the library at Trinity College. Cam bridge; the hospitals of Chelsea and Green wich; the church of Saint Stephen's, Wahrook: those of Saint Mary-le-Bow, Saint Michael. Cornhi11 and Saint Bridge, Fleet street : and the great campanile of Christ Church, Oxford_ The Royal Exchange and Custom-house, since de stroyed by fire and re-erected, were animate his works. As an architect he possessed an inex haustible fertility of invention combined with good natural taste and profound loaciwk-dge of the principles of his art. His talents were par ticularly adapted to ecclesiastical architecture. but in his palaces and private houses he some times achieved monotonous results, as at Hamp ton Court. The interior of the church of Saint Stephen's, Walbrook, which has been considered as his chefd'emtvre, exhibits a deviation from common forms equally ingenious and bernitaftil, and Saint Paul's Cathedral may be fairly reck oned among the most magnificent proctiocs of architectural genius. Yet the works of Wren have not passed without censure. Even in Saint Paul's, while the grandeur of the whole nark is admitted, many faults, and especially waste of interior space, are charged against ha Consult 'Parentalia, or Memoirs of the Family of the Wrens' (1750); Elmes, 'Sir Christophee Wren and His Times' (London 1823): aa7 ton, 'Churches of Sir Christopher Wren' (London 1848); Milman, 'Annals of Saint Paul's Cathedral' (1868; 'Life,' by Phillimore (lM.
) Loftie, 'Inigo Jones and Wren' (New York 1893); Marshall, 'Under the Dome of Saint Paul's' (1899); Dimock, 'Handbook of Saint Paul's Cathedral' (19)0)