First Book of Architecture by Andrea Palladio

First Book of Architecture by Andrea Palladio

Alongside Leon Battista Alberti, the edifices and the so-called Quattro libri by the Italian Andrea Palladio make him the most influential master builder and architectural theorist of the early modern era. Its four volumes comprise a series of publications about architecture and has been frequently translated and now exists in every world language. After its 1715 translation into English by the architect Giacomo Leoni, Palladio’s work influenced the protestant and Anglican architecture of northern Europe above all. It concerns itself with inter alia building materials, foundations, ordering of columns, floors, and doors. This is a Spanish edition from 1625, which was translated by Francisco di Praves and printed in the workshop of Juan Lasso. The text is furnished with countless detailed and sharply engraved print graphics, illustrating what is explained.

Architecture in Theory and Practice

The master builder Andrea Palladio left behind a comprehensive architectural work, which is the topic of intense discussion today. Every year, thousands of art enthusiasts make the pilgrimage to his villas, most of which were built in Venice. The so-called Palladian architecture is spread across the entire world today. His fame is grounded, however, in his own construction activity and four books on architecture that came to be a reflection on fundamental architectural questions. In the first book, Palladio discusses all of the basic elements to be observed by the construction of a building. The second book is devoted to the construction of private homes in the city and in the country. Public secular buildings and the art of urban architecture are themes of the third book. The fourth and most comprehensive book finally concerns itself with sacred buildings of antiquity.

The First Architect of the Renaissance

Andrea di Piero della Gondola, Palladio’s actual name, was arguably the most important architect of Upper Italy during the Renaissance. Palladio was the first “pure” architect in the history of medieval architecture, whose fame reached beyond the borders of Italy. He concerned himself exclusively with the construction of edifices and was active in no other artistic field. His role models were Roman antiquity and the great architecture of the Italian Renaissance, above all Bramante, Michelangelo, Sanmicheli, and Sanosovino. Their construction projects were never pedantically imitated by him, but rather were continuously transformed creatively and unconventionally for the respective building assignment. Palladio’s architectural style demonstrated a unique harmony and elegance in all of his edifices. He won great influence as the founder of Palladian architecture through his buildings and his theoretical writings. He was considered to be an example for the classically-indebted architects of Western and Northern Europe, Great Britain, and the United States.