 Front page ofI quattro libri dell'architettura | |
| Author | Andrea Palladio |
|---|---|
| Original title | I quattro libri dell'architettura |
| Translator | Giacomo Leoni |
| Illustrator | Andrea Palladio |
| Language | Italian |
| Subject | Architecture |
| Genre | Non-fiction |
| Published | 1570 |
| Publisher | Dominico de' Francheschi[1] |
| Publication place | Italy |
Published in English | John Watts, London, 1716-1720 |
| Media type | |
I quattro libri dell'architettura (The Four Books of Architecture) is a treatise onarchitecture by the architectAndrea Palladio (1508–1580), written inItalian. It was first published in fourvolumes in 1570 inVenice, 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 byGodfrey Richards. The first complete English language edition was published in London by the Italian-born architectGiacomo Leoni in 1715–1720.[2]
The treatise is divided into four books:
The first book discusses building materials and techniques. It documents fiveclassical 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).[3]
The second book covers the designs of private urban townhouses and country villas[3] of the 1500s, in and around Venice, almost all designed by Palladio himself.[3] 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 byVitruvius inFano and the importantBasilica Palladiana in Vicenza.[4]
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 theSan Pietro in Montorio, designed byDonato Bramante,[5] 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 theTemple of Trajan.
The 26 temples discussed in include:
Palladio founded an architectural movement which takes its name from him,Palladian architecture.I quattro libri dell'architettura contains Palladio's own designs celebrating the purity and simplicity ofclassical architecture. Some of these ideas had got no further than the drawing board while others, for examplevilla plans, had been successfully built. The book's clarity inspired numerouspatrons and other architects. Palladian architecture grew in popularity acrossEurope and, by the end of the 18th century, had extended as far asNorth America.Thomas Jefferson,President of the United States, 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 ofMonticello and theUniversity of Virginia and also architectWilliam Buckland's at the 1774 Hammond-Harwood House in Annapolis, Maryland.
Palladio drew inspiration from surviving Roman buildings, Roman authors (especially the architectVitruvius) and Italian Renaissance architects. However,The Four Books of Architecture providedsystematic 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 shapegrammarcomposition that can be based on physical construction and visual style.
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:
