Vitruvianism and Palladio

Leon Battista Alberti's treatise on architecture was published in 1485, the first treatise on architecture to be printed. ¹ It was followed the next year by Vitruvius’ treatise, which quickly put Alberti's in the shade. Alberti's dense, Latin, humanist content and its republicanism did not appeal to a Europe that was becoming increasingly princely. Vitruvius’ was also shorter, his theory was simpler, and it came with antiquity's sanction. In 1511 Fra Giovanni Giocondo's seminal small folio Latin edition with 136 woodcut illustrations, readable text, a glossary, and dedicated to Pope Julius II “would turn out to be one of the most influential books of the sixteenth century. It served as a fundamental basis for the practice of architecture in early modern Europe, and through its circulation among European merchants, colonists, and missionaries, for the rest of the world.” ² Before Alberti's saw print again in Italy in 1546 another half dozen editions or translations of Vitruvius appeared including the extensively illustrated folio translation and commentary of Cesare Cesariano in 1521. ³ The new century belonged to Vitruvius.