Palladio & Schenk

Palladio

Through this volume, Palladio became the most imitated architect of all time. His Four Books of Architecture were respectively devoted to materials and building techniques, houses, streets and public buildings, and Roman temples. This well-known cutaway perspective of the circular Pantheon is from the fourth book. Palladio argued that the circle was beautiful because of the movement of the cosmos and that the ‘simple, uniform, equal, strong and spacious' shape was visible evidence of the ‘Oneness, the Infinite Essence, the Uniformity, and the Justice of God.' The Pantheon was the largest domed structure in the world at that time. The exhibited volume is the second edition of this canonical work and was published a year after the architect's death.
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Schenk

IThis publication by Amsterdam publisher and engraver Peter Schenk is typical of those that were appearing at the turn of the 18th century. The page shown depicts the ruins of the aqueduct the Aqua Marcia. It conveyed water to both the baths of Diocletian and to those of Caracalla.
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