For Palladio, the Quattro Libri served both a polemical and a promotional purpose.

WSJ: Ada Louise Huxtable | Her Critical Judgments Were Built to Last

All that Palladio learned from Vitruvius and from two later trips to Rome in the 1540s became the basis of the most influential books on architecture ever written, his Quattro Libri dell'Architettura, published in Venice in 1570.

WSJ: Palladio & His Legacy, at the Morgan Library & Museum | By Ada Louise Huxtable

Sponsored by the RIBA Trust and the Centro Internazionale di Studi di Architettura Andrea Palladio in Vicenza, the show also features handsome new models and some of the earliest publications of Palladio's work from the RIBA's and the Morgan's collections, including Lord Burlington's own copy of the Quattro Libri.

WSJ: Palladio & His Legacy, at the Morgan Library & Museum | By Ada Louise Huxtable