Palladio - Architettura - 1740-1748

ARCHITECTURE AS IMPERIAL MYTH: PALLADIO IN A MONUMENTAL FOLIO
Eight volumes in five volumes - In Imperial Folio.
Monumental editorial undertaking of Venetian eighteenth-century publishing, this vast edition of Andrea Palladio’s work represents one of the most ambitious attempts to systematize and reinterpret the master’s legacy from Vicenza through a philological, antiquarian, and spectacular lens. Initially curated by Francesco Muttoni and later continued by Giorgio Fossati, the work transforms Palladian architecture into a true atlas of Venetian civilization: villas, churches, bridges, classical orders, and theoretical projects are brought back to life with imposing copperplate apparatus and a publishing language aimed at Europe’s great aristocratic libraries. The engraved plates, often of extraordinary scenic elegance, translate Palladian rationalism into monumental imagery, contributing to the birth of Palladio’s international myth in the heart of European neoclassicism.
MARKET VALUE
The great illustrated eighteenth-century editions dedicated to Andrea Palladio hold a central place in the international antiquarian market for architecture. Complete copies of the eight tomes are now very rare, especially when they include all the plates and the large folded plans. Incomplete but plate-rich copies, such as the present example, still retain considerable collecting and decorative interest. In the European and American markets, similar series generally range between €6,000 and €18,000, with higher values for complete copies in high-quality contemporary bindings.

PHYSICAL DESCRIPTION AND CONDITION
5 volumes containing 8 large folio tomes. Later half-leather bindings with gilded titles and ornaments on the spines; blue-embossed paper boards; sprayed edges and marbled endpapers. Signs of use to the bindings, with some spines partially detached, missing foot and cap of several volumes, abrasions and humidity traces. Double title-page in red and black in Italian and French with copperplate vignette, copper-engraved title pages, wood-engraved initials, and numerous copper-engraved architectural plates, many full-page and some folded. Folded topographic index of cities, castles and villas. Plates numbered: XLIV in the first volume (XVII-XVIII missing), XXXIX in the second (VIII and XXXII missing; plates I-VII inserted in the text), XCIII in the third with 5 folded tables, XLVI in the fourth, LIX in the fifth, XXI in the sixth, LIII in the seventh (VII-VIII missing), LI in the eighth (XXX-XXXI missing). Some tears and marginal restorations, normal browning and some stains. Manuscript provenance on the title pages: Marc Antoine de Velon. In old books, with a long history, some imperfections may be present, not always noted in the description. Pp.: (2); 22; 2nn; 88; (2).
(2); 6nn; 94; (2).
(2); 8nn; 8; 48; 4nn; 48; (2).
(2); 4nn; 44; 4nn; 24; (2).
(6); 2nn; 36; (4).

FULL TITLE AND AUTHOR
Architecture.
Venice, Angelo Pasinelli, 1740-1748.
Andrea Palladio.

CONTEXT AND SIGNIFICANCE
This imposing edition emerged at the moment when Palladio definitively became an international model of European architecture. The work does not merely reproduce The Four Books of Architecture, but builds a gigantic visual and theoretical repertory of the Palladian universe, integrating buildings, reliefs, critical observations, and documentary apparatus. The publishing project sits at the center of the eighteenth-century revival of classical architecture and directly engages with the English Palladianism phenomenon promoted by Lord Burlington and Giacomo Leoni.
The plates acquire a fundamental value here: not simple illustrations, but true study tools for architects, antiquarians, and collectors. The Venetian villas are presented as absolute models of mathematical harmony and landscape control; churches and palazzi as a perfect synthesis between ancient Rome and Venetian modernity. The visual apparatus also contributes to the construction of the aesthetic myth of the Serenissima in the midst of Enlightenment Italy.
The typographic monumentalism of the work reflects Venice’s central role as the European capital of artistic and architectural publishing. The engravings, often of exceptional quality, made this collection one of the main vessels for spreading the Palladian language across the continent.

BIOGRAPHY OF THE AUTHOR
Andrea Palladio was born in Padua in 1508 and died in Maser in 1580. Considered the most influential architect of the Venetian Renaissance, he developed an architectural language based on mathematical harmony, reinterpretation of the antique, and proportional balance. His villas, palaces, and churches exerted enormous influence on European and American architecture from the seventeenth century through the neoclassical era. The Quattro Libri dell’Architettura is one of the most important treatises in the history of western architecture.
Francesco Muttoni (1669–1747), a Vicentine architect and theorist, devoted a large part of his activity to studying and disseminating Palladio’s work, while Giorgio Fossati continued the publishing project, expanding its encyclopedic and documentary character.

PRINTING HISTORY AND CIRCULATION
Published in Venice between 1740 and 1748 by Angelo Pasinelli, this extensive collection represents one of the most important Palladian editions of the eighteenth century. The work was conceived for an international audience of architects, aristocrats, and scholars, at the height of Palladian taste’s diffusion in Europe. Complete copies of all eight tomes are nowadays difficult to obtain, as many copies were dismantled for the market of decorative plates and architectural engravings. The large plans and folded plates still hold strong independent collectible value today.

BIBLIOGRAPHY AND REFERENCES
ICCU / OPAC SBN, censuses of the Venice edition, Angelo Pasinelli, 1740-1748.
WorldCat, eighteenth-century editions of Palladio’s work edited by Muttoni and Fossati.
Puppi, Andrea Palladio, Milan, 1973, p. 182.
Fowler, Andrea Palladio.
Kruft, History of architectural theories.
Wittkower, Architectural Principles in the Age of Humanism.
Berlin Catalogue, Architecture and Ornament.
Cicognara, Catalogo ragionato of books on art and antiquities.
Millard, Italian and French Books of Architecture.
International antiquarian catalogs dedicated to architecture and Venetian vedutism of the eighteenth century.
Studies on European Palladianism and Palladio’s publishing fortune in the eighteenth century.