Palladio's Rome [Hardcover]

Andrea Palladio (Author), Vaughan Hart (Author), Mr. Peter Hicks (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: 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.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"This pocket-sized edition, the first one-volume edition in English, allows the modern visitor or armchair tourist to follow in the footsteps of the Renaissance traveller, seeing the city as it was described by one of the world's greatest architects." London Review of Books "Here is another episode in the long later fascination with the antiquities of Rome. As a publishing project it is delightfully quixotic... Yale has supplied lavish illustration and the editors' commentary is often fuller than Palladio's text and packed with information - an unexpected and welcome bonus." Robert Harbison, Architects Journal" --This text refers to the Paperback edition.

About the Author

Vaughan Hart is professor of architecture, department of architecture and civil engineering, University of Bath. He is author of the award-winning Nicholas Hawksmoor: Rebuilding Ancient Wonders, published by Yale University Press. Peter Hicks is visiting research fellow, department of architecture and civil engineering, University of Bath, and historian, Fondation Napoléon, Paris. Hart  and Hicks are the coeditors of Paper Palaces: The Rise of the Renaissance Architectural Treatise, and they are cotranslators of Sebastiano Serlio: On Architecture, Volumes 1 and 2, all published by Yale University Press.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 320 pages
• Publisher: Yale University Press (June 21, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0300109091
• ISBN-13: 978-0300109092
• Product Dimensions: 8.7 x 5 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,061,128 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars In the footsteps of the Renaissance Traveller, June 30, 2006

By 

A Rome Lover (UK) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Palladio's Rome (Hardcover)

This book serves as a wonderful guide to a neglected side of Rome. Palladio's two guidebooks to the 'City of Wonders' published in 1554 were addressed to both his fellow architects and to religious tourists. He leads the reader into the ruins through the walls and gates, moves on to the roads, bridges, sewers and aqueducts, and then to the circuses, triumphal columns, arches and, finally, the temples. By using its useful annotated maps on site, this book allows the reader to follow in the footsteps of the Renaissance tourist. A reviewer in the New York Times described it as "A fascinating snapshot of Rome a century before the Baroque architects got their hands on it."

2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A remarkable guide to Rome, June 29, 2006

By 

a reader (paris) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Palladio's Rome (Hardcover)

By using this book modern readers can get an extraordinary view of Rome, following in the footsteps of Palladio, the Renaissance master architect, as he takes them round the churches and antiquities. Just the right size to fit in your pocket, will change the way you see the 'eternal city'.