Palladio’s Homes, 2009
The Old School Press, Somerset, UK
A celebration of Italian printing as well as one of Italy’s greatest architects who left not just a legacy of great buildings but also a detailed exposition of his ideas in ‘I Quattro Libri dell’Architettura’, first published in 1570. The chapters which layout his general principles for the placing and design of villas are reprinted here in the original Italian, together with a parallel translation of 1738 by the English architect Isaac Ware. It also includes reflections by later architects and commentators such as Inigo Jones and Goethe, who visited and wrote about Palladio’s villas.
112 pages, 365 x 265mm, printed on Amatruda paper hand-made in Amalfi, linocuts and pen and ink drawings by Carlo Rapp. Quarter-bound in dark grey cloth, the boards covered by ‘Cloudy Sky’ three-pulp paper by Cave Paper of Minneapolis, all contained in a wrap of board in the same cloth as the spine; book and wrap carry a spine label. 170 copies. Numbered.
£250 (plus P&P and insurance)