The Architecture of A. Palladio; in Four Books. Containing a short treatise of the five orders and the most necessary observations concerning all sorts of building; as also the different construction of private and publick houses, high-ways, bridges, market-places, xystes, and temples, with their plans, sections and uprights.

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A very clean and attractive example. 2nd edition, 1721, 4 parts in one volume, 218 engraved plates on 203 sheets. In contemporary panelled & speckled calf. Spine relaid, remains of old laid down, gilt title. Internally, complete, with engraved portrait of Palladio, engraved frontispiece, [1], TP,[2], [1] dedication, [2], subscribers (140), [6] prefaces, 54. [2] 2nd book tp & verso, 57-93. [2] 3rd book tp & verso, 1-37, [1]. [2] 4th book 41-90. [4] table, hinges strengthened. Engravings by B. Picart, M. Vander Gucht, J. Harris and T. Cole (engravings numbered to 230 including 12 text illustrations and folding plates with several numbers), 2 plates dated 1715 & 1-1719, occasional light spotting or toning to a few plates, bookplate to fpd of Strickland Freeman, Fawley Court, Bucks, 1810 (author of The Art of Horsemanship altered and abbreviated... 1806), hinges reinforced, text block edges sprinkled red, a little rubbed with some small patches of worming, 2 pls bound out of sequence, short repaired margin tear to pl75, folio, 463*285 mm, Berlin Kat. 2598; ESTC T22366; Fowler 224. The second edition in English, first published in 1715, using the same plates. Both editions important in introducing Palladianism or the neo-classical architectural style in Britain. Andrea Palladio, transformed architecture not only during his lifetime, but his reinterpreted Classical stylings were imitated from the 18th century until today. Today Palladio's architecture is a model for building with the 3 rules of architecture attributed to Vitruvius-a building should be well-built, useful, and beautiful to look at. Palladio's Four Books of Architecture was widely translated, a work that quickly spread Palladio's ideas throughout Europe and into the New World of America. (Craven) Born Andrea Di Pietro della Gondola, he was later named Palladio after the Greek goddess of wisdom. The new name is said to have been given to him by an early employer, supporter, and mentor, the scholar and grammarian Gian Giorgio Trissino (1478-1550). It is said that Palladio married a carpenter's daughter but never bought a house.