Palladio's Canonical Corinthian Entablature and the Archaeological Surveys in the Fourth Book of I quattro libri dell'architettura

Abstract

… From every one The best she hath, and she, of all compounded, Outsells them all. Shakespeare, Cymbeline, 3.5.72-74 Palladio's presentation of Roman temples in the fourth book of his treatise I quattro libri dell'architettura is one of the most significant published archaeological texts of the Cinquecento and has enjoyed great authority for centuries. When it appeared in 1570, Palladio's archaeological opus presented a milestone in the history of Roman archaeology. The sheer size of the project, which incorporated surveys of twenty-five major Roman buildings carefully measured and drawn, including extensive surveys of architectural details and the elements of the classical orders, presented in ninety-nine woodcuts, by far exceeded any similar publication of the time. Palladio's contemporaries Antonio Labacco and Pirro Ligurio presented a couple of Roman buildings in their publications, while Serlio's presentation was more substantial but presented measurements unsystematically and often left readers wondering about the actual forms of the buildings. Palladio's is arguably the most ambitious project in the history of Roman archaeology. Even in later centuries, similar projects by Antoine Desgodetz or Edward Cresy and George Lidwell Taylor were much more limited in scope.