ANDREA PALLADIO

Believed to have been born the son of a carpenter in 1518, Palladio became the protégé of a scholar and poet Gian Giorgio Trissino who gave him his name derived from that of Pallas, the goddess of Wisdom. He was educated as an architect and began an illustrious career in the 1540s. He is responsible for some of the most famous buildings in Venice. In 1570 his treatise on architecture 'I quattro Libri dell'Architecttura' was published in Venice, and it was this famous work that Isaac Ware felt inspired to republish in England in 1738.