This book identifies Palladio's personal touch, to pinpoint the most typical features of his language, his preferences, tics, obsessions, working method and the various stages of his training and creative career. The text traces Palladio's life story; the start of his career as a stone-cutter, then his works (the villas and palaces, the theatre and the churches), his building types and models, his studies on the architectural orders, the theme of the loggia and the role played by decoration, his passion for numbers and proportion, the connection between architecture and music, his capacity to think of a building in ideal terms, the technique of the intersection of spaces, stone and plastered brick (marmorino), the building site, defeats and his great (but late) success, and the myth created by a generation that had not personally known him. 303 colour 94 b/w illustrations
