ANDREA PALLADIO (1518-1580). I Qvattro Libri dell´ architettura, Domenico de`Franceschi, Venedig 1570.
Fine copy with 4 parts in one volume. Title and three section-titles each within woodcut architectural border, printer's device above colophon, 221 woodcut illustrations some of which full- or double-page, by Giovanni and Cristoforo Chrieger, Cristoforo Coriolano and others, after Andrea Palladio. Probably contemporary full binding. Folio, 36 x 27 cm.
Wear, some few stains, minor tearing and folding.
Literature
Printing and the Mind of Man, Wiebenson, Architectural theory and Practice.
More information
First edition of the most influential architectural book in the Western World.
Palladio's lasting influence on architectural style in many parts of the world was exercised less through his actual buildings than through his textbook. This is divided into four sections: orders and elementary problems, domestic building, public building and town planning and temples. Palladio's work saw no less than 50 editions in the century that followed this first edition. I quattro libri was used extensively by architects, builders and teachers, but also by visitors to Rome as a kind of architectural guidebook.
The Quattro Libri exerted an astonishing impact on the architects and architecture of the centuries following its publication, and made Palladio the most imitated architect of all time.