''I quattro libri dell'architettura'' (''The Four Books of Architecture'') is a treatise on
architecture
Architecture is the art and technique of designing and building, as distinguished from the skills associated with construction. It is both the process and the product of sketching, conceiving, planning, designing, and constructing buildings ...
by the architect
Andrea Palladio
Andrea Palladio ( ; ; 30 November 1508 – 19 August 1580) was an Italian Renaissance architect active in the Venetian Republic. Palladio, influenced by Roman and Greek architecture, primarily Vitruvius, is widely considered to be one of ...
(1508–1580), written in
Italian. It was first published in four
volume
Volume is a measure of occupied three-dimensional space. It is often quantified numerically using SI derived units (such as the cubic metre and litre) or by various imperial or US customary units (such as the gallon, quart, cubic inch). Th ...
s in 1570 in
Venice
Venice ( ; it, Venezia ; vec, Venesia or ) is a city in northeastern Italy and the capital of the Veneto region. It is built on a group of 118 small islands that are separated by canals and linked by over 400 bridges. The isla ...
, illustrated with woodcuts after the author's own drawings. It has been reprinted and translated many times, often in single-volume format.
Book I was first published in English in 1663 in a London edition by Godfrey Richards. The first complete English language edition was published in London by the Italian-born architect
Giacomo Leoni
Giacomo Leoni (1686 – 8 June 1746), also known as James Leoni, was an Italian architect, born in Venice. He was a devotee of the work of Florentine Renaissance architect Leon Battista Alberti, who had also been an inspiration for Andrea Pallad ...
in 1715–1720.
[The Center for Palladian Studies in America, Inc., "Palladio and his Books." http://www.palladiancenter.org/palladiobooks.html ]
Organization
The treatise is divided into four books:
The first book discusses building materials and techniques. It documents five
classical orders (Doric, Ionic, Corinthian, Tuscan, Composite) in all their parts (bases, columns, architraves, arches, capitals, trabeations), as well as discussing other building elements (vaulted ceilings, floors, doors and windows, fireplaces, roofs and stairs).
The second book covers the designs of private urban townhouses and country villas of the 1500s, in and around Venice, almost all designed by Palladio himself. This includes nine palazzi, 22 villas (13 of them completed, another five partly completed), and a series of unrealized projects. The plates of completed projects sometimes differ from the buildings as actually constructed.
The third book addresses matters of city planning: streets, stone street paving, bridges of both stone and wood, and piazzas, with examples drawn from Roman origins alongside contemporary examples; also basilicas, including the basilica designed by
Vitruvius
Vitruvius (; c. 80–70 BC – after c. 15 BC) was a Roman architect and engineer during the 1st century BC, known for his multi-volume work entitled '' De architectura''. He originated the idea that all buildings should have three attribut ...
in
Fano and the important
Basilica Palladiana
The Basilica Palladiana is a Renaissance building in the central Piazza dei Signori in Vicenza, north-eastern Italy. The most notable feature of the edifice is the loggia, which shows one of the first examples of what have come to be known as the ...
in Vicenza.
The fourth book contains five chapters of general introduction, then 26 chapters, each of which describe the designs of specific Roman temples dating from antiquity, along with one contemporary church design. (The exception is the
San Pietro in Montorio, designed by
Donato Bramante
Donato Bramante ( , , ; 1444 – 11 April 1514), born as Donato di Pascuccio d'Antonio and also known as Bramante Lazzari, was an Italian architect and painter. He introduced Renaissance architecture to Milan and the High Renaissance styl ...
, consecrated in the year 1500.) Palladio's selections range geographically from Rome, Naples, Spoleto, Assisi, Pola and Nîmes. Illustrations of the temples include careful measurements of existing building elements, together with Palladio's own conjectural interpretations of the temple's facades where only fragments remained, as at the
Temple of Trajan.
The 26 temples discussed in include:
* Chap. VI. ''Of the Draughts of some ancient Temples that are in Rome, and first of the Temple of Peace'' (
Temple of Peace, Rome)
* Chap. VII. ''Of the Temple of Mars the Avenger'' (at the
Forum of Augustus
The Forum of Augustus ( la, Forum Augustum; it, Foro di Augusto) is one of the Imperial fora of Rome, Italy, built by Augustus (). It includes the Temple of Mars Ultor. The incomplete forum and its temple were inaugurated in 2 BC, 40 years aft ...
)
* Chap. VIII. ''Of the Temple of Nerva Trajan'' (
Temple of Trajan)
* Chap. IX. ''Of the Temple of Antoninius and Faustina'' (
Temple of Antoninus and Faustina)
* Chap. X. ''Of the Temples of the Sun and Moon'' (
Temple of Venus and Roma)
* Chap. XI. ''Of the Temple vulgarly call'd the "Galluce"'' (
Temple of Minerva Medica (nymphaeum))
* Chap. XII. ''Of the Temple of Jupiter'' (
Temple of Seraphis)
* Chap. XIII. ''Of the Temple of Fortuna virilis, or Manly Fortune'' (
Temple of Portunus
The Temple of Portunus ( it, Tempio di Portuno) or Temple of Fortuna Virilis ("manly fortune") is a Roman temple in Rome, Italy, one of the best preserved of all Roman temples. Its dedication remains unclear, as ancient sources mention several te ...
)
* Chap. XIV. ''Of the Temple of Vesta'' (
Temple of Vesta
The Temple of Vesta, or the aedes (Latin '' Aedes Vestae''; Italian: ''Tempio di Vesta''), is an ancient edifice in Rome, Italy. The temple is located in the Roman Forum near the Regia and the House of the Vestal Virgins. The Temple of Vesta h ...
)
* Chap. XV. ''Of the Temple of Mars'' (
Temple of Hadrian
The Temple of Hadrian (Templum Divus Hadrianus, also Hadrianeum) is an ancient Roman structure on the Campus Martius in Rome, Italy, dedicated to the deified emperor Hadrian by his adoptive son and successor Antoninus Pius in 145 CE This temp ...
)
* Chap. XVI. ''Of the Baptism of Constantine'' (
Lateran Baptistery)
* Chap. XVII. ''Of the Temple of Bramante'' (
San Pietro in Montorio)
* Chap. XVIII. ''Of the Temple of Jupiter Stator'' (
Temple of Jupiter Stator (2nd century BC))
* Chap. XIX. ''Of the Temple of Jupiter the Thunderer'' (
Temple of Jupiter Feretrius)
* Chap. XX. ''Of the Pantheon, now call’d the Rotonda.'' (
Pantheon, Rome)
* Chap. XXI. ''Of the Draughts of some Temples that are out of Rome, or in other parts of Italy; and the first of the Temples of Bacchus'' (
Santa Costanza
Santa Costanza is a 4th-century church in Rome, Italy, on the Via Nomentana, which runs north-east out of the city. It is a round building with well preserved original layout and mosaics. It has been built adjacent to a horseshoe-shaped church, n ...
)
* Chap. XXII. ''Of the Temple whose Vestiges are seen near St. Sebastian’s Church on the Appian Way'' (
Santi Cosma e Damiano
The basilica of Santi Cosma e Damiano is a titular church in Rome, Italy. The lower portion of the building is accessible through the Roman Forum and incorporates original Roman buildings, but the entrance to the upper level is outside the Forum ...
)
* Chap. XXIII. ''Of the Temple of Vesta'' (
Temple of Vesta, Tivoli
The Temple of Vesta is a Roman temple in Tivoli, Italy, dating to the early 1st century BC. Its ruins sit on the acropolis of the city, overlooking the falls of the Aniene that are now included in the Villa Gregoriana.
History
It is not know ...
)
* Chap. XXIV. ''Of the Temple of Castor and Pollux'' (
San Paolo Maggiore)
* Chap. XXV. ''Of the Temple which is below Trevi'' (
Temple of Clitumnus
The so-called Temple of Clitumnus ( it, Tempietto del Clitunno) is a small early medieval church that sits along the banks of the Clitunno river in the town of Pissignano near Campello sul Clitunno between Spoleto and Trevi, Umbria, Italy. In 20 ...
)
* Chap. XXVI. ''Of the Temple of Scisi'' (
Temple of Minerva, Assisi)
* Chap. XXVII. ''Of the Draughts of some Temples which are out of Italy; and first of the two temples of Pola'' (
Temple of Augustus, Pula)
* Chap. XXVIII. ''Of the two Temples at Nîmes; of first of that which is call'd ''la Maison quarrée'', or the square House'' (
Maison Carrée
Maison (French for "house") may refer to:
People
* Edna Maison (1892–1946), American silent-film actress
* Jérémy Maison (born 1993), French cyclist
* Leonard Maison, New York state senator 1834–1837
* Nicolas Joseph Maison (1771–1840) ...
)
* Chap. XXIX. ''Of the other Temple of Nîmes'' (
Temple of Diana, Nîmes
A temple (from the Latin ) is a building reserved for spiritual rituals and activities such as prayer and sacrifice. Religions which erect temples include Christianity (whose temples are typically called churches), Hinduism (whose temples ...
)
* Chap. XXX. ''Of two other Temples at Rome, and first of the Temple of Concord'' (
Temple of Saturn)
* Chap. XXXI. ''Of the Temple of Neptune'' (
Temple of Neptune (Rome))
Author
Palladio founded an architectural movement which takes its name from him,
Palladian architecture
Palladian architecture is a European architectural style derived from the work of the Venetian architect Andrea Palladio (1508–1580). What is today recognised as Palladian architecture evolved from his concepts of symmetry, perspective and ...
. ''I quattro libri dell'architettura'' contains Palladio's own designs celebrating the purity and simplicity of
classical architecture
Classical architecture usually denotes architecture which is more or less consciously derived from the principles of Greek and Roman architecture of classical antiquity, or sometimes even more specifically, from the works of the Roman architect ...
. Some of these ideas had got no further than the drawing board while others, for example
villa
A villa is a type of house that was originally an ancient Roman upper class country house. Since its origins in the Roman villa, the idea and function of a villa have evolved considerably. After the fall of the Roman Republic, villas became s ...
plans, had been successfully built. The book's clarity inspired numerous
patron
Patronage is the support, encouragement, privilege, or financial aid that an organization or individual bestows on another. In the history of art, arts patronage refers to the support that kings, popes, and the wealthy have provided to artists su ...
s and other architects. Palladian architecture grew in popularity across
Europe
Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a subcontinent of Eurasia and it is located enti ...
and, by the end of the 18th century, had extended as far as
North America.
Thomas Jefferson
Thomas Jefferson (April 13, 1743 – July 4, 1826) was an American statesman, diplomat, lawyer, architect, philosopher, and Founding Father who served as the third president of the United States from 1801 to 1809. He was previously the nati ...
,
President of the United States
The president of the United States (POTUS) is the head of state and head of government of the United States of America. The president directs the Federal government of the United States#Executive branch, executive branch of the Federal gove ...
, was a keen admirer of Palladio and once referred to the book as "the Bible". ''The Four Books'' was used to inform his own work as the architect of
Monticello
Monticello ( ) was the primary plantation of Founding Father Thomas Jefferson, the third president of the United States, who began designing Monticello after inheriting land from his father at age 26. Located just outside Charlottesville, V ...
and the
University of Virginia
The University of Virginia (UVA) is a public research university in Charlottesville, Virginia. Founded in 1819 by Thomas Jefferson, the university is ranked among the top academic institutions in the United States, with College admission ...
and also architect William Buckland's at the 1774 Hammond-Harwood House in Annapolis, Maryland.
Palladio drew inspiration from surviving Roman buildings, Roman authors (especially the architect
Vitruvius
Vitruvius (; c. 80–70 BC – after c. 15 BC) was a Roman architect and engineer during the 1st century BC, known for his multi-volume work entitled '' De architectura''. He originated the idea that all buildings should have three attribut ...
) and Italian Renaissance architects. However, ''The Four Books of Architecture'' provided
systematic
Systematic may refer to:
Science
* Short for systematic error
* Systematic fault
* Systematic bias, errors that are not determined by chance but are introduced by an inaccuracy (involving either the observation or measurement process) inheren ...
rules and plans for buildings which were creative and unique. Palladio's villa style is based on details applied to a structural system built of bricks. He offers two types of general rules in the corpus: design rules (those based on appearance) and construction rules (those based on the logic of villa construction). Here rules of the two types are identified in sets from which subsets of identifiers and rules can be written.
Each of the nine rule-sets contains many sub-identities of components and procedures for physical construction. A rule-set such as “Walls”, that identifies five sub-rules based on wall thickness, only needs construction rules; there is no need for rules based on style. In contrast, rules for “Frames” are based on a geometric style of curves and shape proportions. The results will yield clear identities for a shape
grammar
In linguistics, the grammar of a natural language is its set of structure, structural constraints on speakers' or writers' composition of clause (linguistics), clauses, phrases, and words. The term can also refer to the study of such constraint ...
composition that can be based on physical construction and visual style.
Rule-sets
These identities are taken from the first book of architecture and a survey of built villas. These are the nine rule-sets that define identity:
#Walls —
parametric formula
#Ceilings — parametric formula
#Stairs — parametric formula
#Columns — parametric object
#Doors — parametric formula
#Windows — parametric formula
#Frames — parametric object
#Roof — parametric formula
#Details — parametric object and formula
See also
*
Palladian villas of the Veneto
*
''De architectura'' (''10 books on architecture'')
References
Sources
*
External links
*
I quattro libri dell'architettura, ne' quali, dopo un breue trattato de' cinque ordini, & di quelli auertimenti, che sono piu necessarii nel fabricare; si tratta delle case private, delle vie, de i ponti, delle piazze, de i xisti, et de' tempij.' — downloadable pdf first edition from the Library of Congress
*
' — facsimile of the book at rarebookroom.org
*
Complete bibliography for the 16th and 17th centuries
{{Andrea Palladio
Architectural history
Architectural treatises
Works by Andrea Palladio