The Buildings and Designs of Andrea Palladio

Book excerpt: Andrea Palladio is unquestionably the most important architect in the Western world: his carefully proportioned, pedimented designs are the foundations for most single-family homes and public buildings in the United States and Europe. In 1776, architect and scholar Ottavio Bertotti Scamozzi began documenting and analyzing Palladio's designs, which were published in four volumes as Le fabbriche e i disegni di Andrea Palladio. Gathered together here for the first time in English in a single volume, The Buildings and Designs of Andrea Palladio is the complete works of Palladio, from his well-known villas of the Veneto to his lesser-known engineering structures, such as bridges. Featuring the highest quality printing and binding, this large-format stunner features more than two hundred reproductions and showcases Palladio's designs for villas, churches, and civic buildings, and for the first time, the English translation of Scamozzi's introduction to Palladio's remarkable oeuvre.