Palladio's+villas

Andrea di Pietro della Gondola, known to history as "Palladio," was born in 1508 in Padua, a mainland possession of the island-based Republic of Venice. Apprenticed to a stonecutter in Padua when he was 13 years old, Andrea broke his contract after only 18 months and fled to the nearby town of Vicenza. In Vicenza he became an assistant in the leading workshop of stonecutters and masons. Andrea's presumably settled life was transformed in 1537, when he was 30 years old. At that time he was engaged by Gian Giorgio Trissino, one of the period's leading scholars, to assist in executing new additions which Trissino had designed for his own villa at Cricoli just outside Vicenza. Thre cooperation with Trissino introduced him to the principles of classical architecture and the other disciplines of Renaissance education. By 1538, probably aided by Trissino's influence, Palladio and his workshop had begun construction of Villa Godi, the first of a series of country villas and urban palaces designed by Palladio in the following years for patrons among the provincial nobility of Vicenza. A decade later Palladio began receiving commissions for country villas from prominent and wealthy leaders of the nobility of Venice, Vicenza, Padova and other towns at the country. Among his most famous villas are to be recalled: __Villa Capra or La Rotonda__, Villa Piovene, Villa Godi, Villa Thiene, Villa Gazzotti, __Villa Saraceno__ and __Villa Poiana__. Finally, in 1570, following years of preparation, he published in Venice the masterwork that ensured his place in architectural history, //I Quattro Libri dell' Architettura [The Four Books of Architecture]//. The book set out his architectural principles as well as practical advice for builders. The most critical element, perhaps, was the set of meticulous woodcut illustrations drawn from his own works to illustrate the text. The work was subsequently translated into every European language. Palladio died in his adopted town of Vicenza in 1580.
 * __ANDREA PALLADIO'S BIOGRAPHY__**