THE FIRST BOOK

OF ARCHITECTURE

BY ANDREA PALLADIO.

PREFACE TO THE READERS.

Ornamental woodcut initial 'D' depicting a seated figure in a landscape with architectural ruins and foliage.

GUIDED by my natural inclination, I devoted myself in my early years to the study of Architecture: and because I was always of the opinion that the Ancient Romans, as in many other things, so also in building well, far surpassed all those who have come after them; I took as my master and guide Vitruvius Marcus Vitruvius Pollio (c. 80–15 BC), the Roman author of the only surviving architectural treatise from antiquity, who is the only ancient writer on this art; and I set myself to the investigation of the remains of Ancient buildings which, despite time and the cruelty of Barbarians, have remained. Finding them to be much more worthy of observation than I had previously thought, I began to measure every part of them with the utmost diligence and minute detail. I became such a tireless investigator—unable to see anything there that was not done with reason and beautiful proportion—that I then traveled not once, but many, many times to various parts of Italy and abroad, so that I might entirely understand from those remains what the whole was like, and reduce it to a drawing. Therefore, seeing how much the common practice of building is distant from the observations I made in the said buildings, and read in Vitruvius, and in Leon Battista Alberti A 15th-century architect and theorist who wrote the first great Renaissance treatise on the subject, and in other excellent writers who have lived since Vitruvius, and also from those buildings which I myself have newly practiced with much satisfaction and the praise of those who have used my work; it seemed to me a thing worthy of a man—who ought to be born not only for himself, but also for the utility of others—to bring to light the drawings of those buildings which I have collected over so much time and with so many dangers, and to set down briefly what seemed to me most worthy of consideration in them; and besides this, those rules that I have observed and do observe in building: to the end that those who read these books of mine may make use of whatever good is in them, and supply those things in which (as there will perhaps be many) I have failed. Thus, little by little, we may learn to cast aside strange abuses, barbaric inventions original: "barbare inuentioni" — Palladio refers here to the Gothic style, which Renaissance thinkers considered chaotic and un-classical, and superfluous expenses; and (what matters more) to avoid the various and continuous ruins that have been seen in many buildings. And I have set myself to this enterprise all the more willingly as I see that in these times there are very many students of this profession: of many of whom Messer Giorgio Vasari Author of the famous 'Lives of the Artists' and a contemporary of Palladio of Arezzo, a rare Painter and Architect, makes worthy and honored mention in his books. From this, I hope that the manner of building may be reduced, for universal benefit, and soon, to that perfection which is highly desired in all arts; and to which, in this part of Italy, it seems we have come very close. For not only in Venice—where all the good arts flourish, and which alone remains as an example of the greatness and magnificence of the Romans—have we begun to see buildings that possess some quality of the good, since Messer Giacomo Sansovino The Florentine architect who redesigned much of central Venice, including the Library of St. Mark, a Sculptor and Architect of celebrated name, first began to make the beautiful manner known, as is seen (to leave aside many other of his beautiful works) in the Procuratia Nuova The New Procuracies, the monumental administrative buildings flanking St. Mark's Square, which is the richest and most ornate building that has perhaps been made since the time of the Ancients; but also in many other places of lesser name, and especially in Vicenza, a city not very large in circuit, but full of most noble intellects and abundant in riches: and where I first had the occasion to practice that which I now send forth for the common benefit. There, one sees very many beautiful buildings, and there have been many gentlemen there most studious of this art, who by nobility and excellent learning are not unworthy to be numbered among the most illustrious; such as Signor Gian Giorgio Trissino A humanist scholar and Palladio's early mentor who gave him the name 'Palladio', the splendor of our times; and the brothers Lords Counts Marc’ Antonio and Adriano of Thiene; and Signor Antenore Pagello, Knight; and besides these, who having passed to a better life have left an eternal memory of themselves in their beautiful and ornate buildings; there is now Signor Fabio Monza, knowledgeable in very many things; Signor Elio de’ Belli, son of the late Signor Valerio Valerio Belli, a world-famous engraver of gems and crystals, celebrated for the craftsmanship of Cameos and carving in Crystal; Signor Antonio Francesco Oliviera, who besides the knowledge of many sciences is an excellent Architect and Poet, as he has demonstrated in his Alemana An epic poem concerning the campaigns of Emperor Charles V, a poem in heroic verse, and in a building of his at the Woods of Nanto, a place in the territory of Vicenza: and