Making of The Four Books of Architecture - C82: Works of Nicholas Rougeux

Making of The Four Books of Architecture

By Nicholas Rougeux, posted on January 8, 2023 in Web

Architecture has repeatedly grabbed my attention since I was young—from studying it in high school and creating buildings in video games to designing websites for firms winning architectural awards. It’s fitting that my interest is piqued once again for a digital edition of one of the oldest and most well known architectural publications: Palladio’s treatise, The Four Books of Architecture.

Palladio’s treatise must have come up dozens of times during my research for other projects but it never caught my eye. For reasons that escape me, it finally did and I had a great time learning about its long history while creating its first digital edition.

Finding source material

First published in 1570 as four volumes (“books”) The Four Books of Architecture was an architectural treatise written and illustrated by Italian architect Andrea Palladio covering a broad range of topics influenced by the Greeks and Romans. It is often regarded as one of the most important, influential, and most studied architectural publications. Subsequent editions were often released as one publication containing all books but occasionally only featured parts of a single book. Apart from a brief preface, the treatise’s books contain succinct explanations and guidance on architectural design complemented by more than 200 plates of engravings illustrating the concepts and structures described.

Scans of the title page, first chapter, and plate from the first edition published in 1570

The first edition I found on the Internet Archive was the 1738 English edition by Isaac Ware, hailed by its own author and others as the first most faithful translation from the original Italian version with engraved plates truest to the original.

Scans of the title page, first chapter, and plate from Ware’s translation published in 1738

Of note are Ware’s remarks in his preface, which include strong opinions about two of the English editions that preceded his:

The first, and in all respects the best of the two, was done in the year 1721 by Mr. Leoni; who has thought fit not only to vary from the scale of the originals, but also in many places to alter even the graceful proportions prescribed by this great master, by diminishing some of his measures, enlarging others, and putting in fanciful decorations of his own: and indeed his drawings are likewise very incorrect; which makes this performance, according to his own account in the preface, seem rather to be itself an original, than an improvement on Palladio.

The other work (published in the year 1735) is done with so little understanding, and so much negligence, that it cannot but give great offense to the judicious, and be of very bad consequence in misleading the unskillful, into whose hands it may happen to fall.

—1738 Edition by Ware

I can’t help but enjoy the sharp-tongued eloquence of these two criticisms. They both set the stage for the author’s promise of his own efforts:

To do justice therefore to Palladio, and to perpetuate his most valuable remains amongst us, are the principal inducements to my undertaking so great and laborious a work; in executing of which, I have strictly kept to his proportions and measures, by exactly tracing all the plates from his originals, and engraved them with my own hands: so that the reader may depend upon having an exact copy of what our author published, without diminution or increase; nor have I taken upon me to alter, much less to correct, any thing that came from the hands of that excellent artist.

From the same motive I have chosen to give a strict and literal translation, that the sense of our author might be delivered from his own words.

—1738 Edition by Ware

These three translations were just a few of the dozens that were published. During my research, I found a few useful lists of all the editions that were published. The lists include mostly editions of The Four Books of Architecture but they also include others.

Internet Archive: List of available scans of Palladio’s works

Architectura: Bibliography of most editions, some with links to scans

Center for Palladian Studies in America: Archived page listing Palladio’s works

I compiled my own combined list of the entries and included it on the About page of the digital edition to supplement highlighting what I considered milestone editions.

Screenshot of partial data collected for each edition

Covers of each milestone edition

Choosing an edition to use as the basis for my digital edition was influenced by Ware’s comments and the introduction to the first modern printed edition by Dover Publishing in 1965. Dover’s introduction supports Ware’s claims of being the most faithful. With these comments in mind, I chose to base mine on...