Sebastiano Serlio Research Articles

Sebastiano Serlio's Drawings in the Nationalbibliothek in Vienna for hisSeventh Book on Architecture

Sebastiano Serlio (1475–1555) wrote one of the first architectural treatises in a modern language to be printed with illustrations. His first installment, Book IV, On the Five Roman Orders, was published in Venice in 1537. It followed Albrecht Durer's illustrated treatise on fortification, Befestigung der Stett, Schloss, und Flecken, which was published ten years earlier in Nuremberg in 1527. Serlio must have known of Durer's treatise, since he adapted the organization of Durer's fortified city in his illustrated version of Polybius' Book on Military Camps (Munich, Bayerische Staatsbibliothek, Codex Icon 190). Serlio's treatise on architecture consists of eight books: Books I and II, On Geometry and Perspective (Paris, 1545), Book III, On Antiquity (Venice, 1540), Book IV, Book V, On Churches (Paris, 1547), The Extraordinary Book on Doors (Lyons, 1551), Book VI, On Domestic Architecture, which remained unpublished, and Book VII, On Accidents.

Sebastiano Serlio's Drawings in the Nationalbibliothek in Vienna for His Seventh Book on Architecture

Sebastiano Serlio's Drawings in the Nationalbibliothek in Vienna for His Seventh Book on Architecture

Palladio and Vitruvius: composition, style, and vocabulary of the "Quattro libri".

After a short preamble on the history of the text of Vitruvius during the Renaissance and Palladio's encounter with it, this paper assesses the Vitruvian legacy in Palladio's treatise, in focusing more particularly on its composition, style, and vocabulary and leaving other aspects of this Vitruvianism, such as his architectural theory and the five canonical orders, for consideration in subsequent publications. The discussion on composition concerns Palladio's probable plans to complete ten books, as an explicit reference to Vitruvius' treatise. As regards style, the article highlights Palladio's intention to produce an illustrated treatise like those of Francesco di Giorgio Martini, Sebastiano Serlio, and Giacomo Barozzi da Vignola (whereas the treatise of Vitruvius was probably almost unillustrated), and Palladio's Vitruvian stress on brevity. Palladio is shown to have preferred vernacular technical terminology to the Vitruvian Greco-Latn vocabulary, except in Book IV of the "Quattro libri" in connection with ancient Roman temples. The composition, style, and vocabulary of the "Quattro libri" are important issues which contribute to an assessment of the extent of Palladio's adherence to the Vitruvian prototype in an age of imitation of classical literary models.

Sebastiano Serlio's Late Style in the Avery Library Version of the Sixth Book on Domestic Architecture

Sebastiano Serlio's Late Style in the Avery Library Version of the Sixth Book on Domestic Architecture

The Literary Remains of Sebastiano Serlio

The Literary Remains of Sebastiano Serlio

The Literary Remains of Sebastiano Serlio

The Literary Remains of Sebastiano Serlio

The Literary Remains of Sebastiano Serlio

Exactly four hundred years have passed since Sebastiano Serlio of Bologna,1 then on the verge of his sixty-sixth birthday,2 conducting from Venice a small caravan consisting of his wife Francesca Palladia and numerous children, including one “petit enfant qui n'est encores pour endurer en ce temps icy tel voyaige,”3 arrived in Paris to begin life anew.4 The date was epochal for the Renaissance of French

The Literary Remains of Sebastiano Serlio

The Literary Remains of Sebastiano Serlio