It links them to the architect’s better-known publications: the illustrated edition of Vitruvius for Daniele Barbaro (1556), Four Books on Architecture (1570), and Commentaries of Julius Cesaer (1575). The introduction situates the guidebooks in the context of Palladio’s architectural training and intellectual development. In the meantime, the volume will find a logical place on our desks. Nonetheless its weight makes it likely that only a dedicated Romanist will tote it around, and so one hopes for a paperback edition in the future. With city maps at the beginning, Palladio’s Rome makes an attractive guidebook for today’s traveler. But best are the color plates-views of familiar sites from new angles, and buildings that are seldom reproduced, especially churches. Printed on sturdy, glossy paper, the text has exquisite illustrations with multiple views of Renaissance Rome to satisfy a desire for the visual sketches, prints, illustrations from treatises, and maps evoke a vanished city. Thus it beckons the traveler, armchair or otherwise. The form of the book is novel because the size and shape resemble a modern-day Michelin (though not a sixteenth-century guide). Vaughan Hart and Peter Hicks have edited and translated both guidebooks, combining them for convenience in a single volume. In keeping with standard practice of the time, the texts are brief and unillustrated, but the contents are surprising given the identity of the author. Palladio made several visits to Rome when he was still an aspiring architect, producing a pair of guidebooks that were published in 1554-one an introduction to the ancient city ( The Antiquities of Rome), and the other a companion guide to the churches of contemporary Rome ( Description of the Churches). Palladio’s Rome offers an unusual recreation of the Renaissance city in the words of the celebrated architect from northern Italy.
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