Yale University Press
June 21, 2006
Andrea Palladio (1508–1580), one of the most famous architects of all
time, published two enormously popular guides to the churches and antiquities of
Rome in 1554. Striving to be both scholarly and popular, Palladio invited his
Renaissance readers to discover the charm of Rome's ancient and medieval
wonders, and to follow pilgrimage routes leading from one church to the next. He
also described ancient Roman rituals of birth, marriage, and death. Here
translated into English and joined in a single volume for the first time,
Palladio's guidebooks allow modern visitors to enjoy Rome exactly as their
predecessors did 450 years ago.
Like the originals, this new edition is pocket-sized and therefore easily
read on site. Enhanced with illustrations and commentary, the book also includes
the first full English translation of Raphael's famous letter to Pope Leo X on
the monuments of ancient Rome. For architectural historians, tourists, and
armchair travelers, this book offers fresh and surprising insights into the
antiquarian and ecclesiastical preoccupations of one of the greatest of the
Renaissance architectural masters.
320 p., 22 x 13 cm
EAN 9780300109092