I quattro libri dell'architettura
I Quattro Libri dell'Architettura (The Four Books of Architecture) is an Italian treatise on architecture by the architect Andrea Palladio (1508-1580). It was first published in four volumes in 1570 in Venice, illustrated with engravings after the author's own drawings. It has been reprinted and translated many times (often in single-volume format). The first English language edition was prepared by the architect Giacomo Leoni for a London publisher in the eighteenth century.
Palladio founded an architectural movement named after him known as Palladian architecture. I Quattro Libri dell'Architettura contains Palladio's own designs celebrating the purity and simplicity of classical architecture. Some of these ideas had not got further than the drawing board while others, for example many of villa plans, had been successfully built. The book's clarity inspired numerous patrons and other architects. Palladian architecture grew in popularity across Europe and, by the end of the 18th century, had extended as far as North 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 were used to inform his own work as the architect of Monticello and the University of Virginia.
Palladio drew inspiration from surviving Roman buildings, Roman authors (especially the architect Vitruvius and Italian Renaissance architects. However, The Four Books of Architecture provided systematic 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 sub sets 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 shape grammar composition 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 rulesets that define identity:
- Walls - parametric formula
Villa Pisani (Montagnana) in I Quattro Libri dell'Architettura - Ceilings - parametric formula
- Stairs - parametric formula
- Columns - parametric object
- Doors - parametric formula
- Windows - parametric formula
- Frames - parametric object
- Roof - parametric formula
- Details - parametric object and formula
See also
External links
- I Quattro Libri dell'Architettura — facsimile of the book at octavo.com