From Library Journal
Perhaps the most influential practitioner in the history of Western architecture and one of the earliest neoclassicists, Palladio created a singular corpus of architecture, the legacy of which is seen and felt in buildings of all types throughout the Western world. His theoretical and promotional treatise, I Quattro Libri dell' Architecttura, was first published in Venice in 1570 and sets forth a grammar of architecture. From building materials to residences to Roman temples, Palladio covered an incredible breadth of topics in his four volumes. This new translation in English, the first since Isaac Ware's of 1738, is simultaneously elegant and readable. The organization of the volume is immaculate: in addition to the informative introduction?which serves as a bibliographic essay on the various editions of the work?the list of illustrations from the 1570 edition, glossary, and bibliography all enrich the value of this treatise immeasurably. This edition also features the original woodcut illustrations, which are not as pristine as the engravings produced for Ware's edition but are carefully interleaved with the text. An important addition to academic libraries, architectural collections, and libraries collecting in the theory of art and architecture.?Paul Glassman, Pratt Inst. Lib., Brooklyn
Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc.
The New York Times Book Review, Martin Filler
Elegantly translated (in the first new English version since 1738) and illustrated with the lyrical, rarely seen woodcuts of Palladio's original, this welcome publication gets us closer to the plain-spoken voice of the master.... The high priest of proportion, he knew that the correct relation of the parts of a structure to the whole is not just an esthetic nicety but a functional necessity.
