(1682 - 1754), architect, yr. s. of Patrick Gibbs, merchant of Aberdeen; Soc. of Virtuosi 1716; FRS 1729; author of Book of Architecture [1728] and Rules for Drawing [1732]; at Spa 1749 - 52.
- 1703 - 8 Rome
'Being of a rambling disposition', Gibbs went abroad c.1700, staying some time in Holland, and travelling through France (which as a Catholic he was privileged to do in a time of hostilities). He appears to have made some study of architecture before he reached Italy.1 On 12 October 1703 he registered as a pupil in the Scots College in Rome to train as a priest,2 but he was intimidated by the Rector's rudeness and left at the end of August 1704, without taking his vows. He resolved to stay in Rome and apply himself to painting.
His genius for drawing soon led him to architecture which he studied under Carlo Fontana, then sixty-six years old, and P.F. Garroli, both of whom held office in the Accademia di S.Luca (but Gibbs's name does not appear in the Academy records). Later, in 1717, Gibbs told Lord Mar that his old masters in Rome, Fontana and 'Signor Abramo Paris', were both dead.3 In 1706 Gibbs was living near the Piazza di Spagna in the Strada Paolina.4 It is not clear how he supported himself, but his 'Cursory Remarks' ('memorandums for his own use') on modern buildings and antiquities in Rome,5 suggest he acted as a cicerone and with an eye to future patronage. In 1707 he met Sir John Perceval and he probably instructed one of the Blathwayt brothers. In October that year Perceval, back in England, expressed the hope that 'Mr Gibbs finds scholars to his mind'.6 But Gibbs replied on 3 December that 'things go so ill here, and there is such a pack of us, and so jealous of one another, that the one would see the other hanged'; he intended to make his 'stay as short here as possible', and only his need 'to stay some short time longer to perfectionate myself in this most miserable business of architecture' had prevented him returning home with Perceval, 'though it had been to carry a livery in your service'.7 In 1708 Gibbs heard that his brother William was ill and wished him to return; by November 1708 he was in Scotland, but by then his brother had died.
1. See T. Friedman, James Gibbs, 4 - 7. 2. Anderson, no.246. 3. HMC Stuart, 4:568. 4. AVR sa, S.Lorenzo in Lucina. 5. Part of 'A Manuscri by Mr Gibbs Memorandums, &c.' [the Gibbs ms], Soane Museum. 6. HMC Egmont, 2:217. 7. Ibid., 218 - 19.