Palladio, Andrea

I Quattro Libri dell'Architettura. Venice: Domenico de' Franceschi, 1570



Small folio (11 ½ x 7 7/8 in.; 292 x 200 mm). Architectonic woodcut title borders on four titles, numerous full-page and smaller woodcut text illustrations; some marginal soiling and spotting, upper edge of front free endpaper renewed. Seventeenth century mottled calf, triple-fillet ruled borders; rebacked with original spine laid down.

Berlin cat. 2592; Fowler 212; Mortimer, Italian, 352; Millard Italian and Spanish 65; PMM 92

First edition of this magisterial and widely influential work, which spread the authors ideas further than any of his buildings. The most popular publication by any architect, this work appeared in nine further editions through the eighteenth century, and there were numerous translations, especially in England and France.

The book is divided into four parts; the first deals with the fundamental principles of architecture including the five orders and with building materials, the second with private dwellings (an entirely new specialty at the time), the third with urban infrastructure, and the fourth with the architecture of ancient temples.