Andrea Palladio · The Second Book
Chapter IV. Of the Tuscan Atrio, or porch
AFTER having set down some of those fabricks I have directed in cities, it is very proper that, to keep my promise, I should insert the designs of some of the principal parts of the houses of the antients,” And because the Atrio was a very remarkable part of them, I shall first make mention of the Atrio’s, or porches, and then of the places adjoined to them, and o proceed to the halls.
Vitruvius us says, in his sixth book, that there were five kinds of Atrio’s among the Antients, that is, the Tuscan, of four columns; the Corinthian, Testuginato, and Uncover'd 17. of which I do not intend to speak, The following designs are of the Tuscan Atrio. The breadth of this Atrio is two thirds of the length. The breadth of the Tablino is two fifths of that of the Atrio, and of the same length. ~ From this one pales into the Peristilio, that Is, into the court with portico’s round it; which is one third longer than it is broad. The portico’s are as wide as the’ columns are long. On the sides of the Atrio finall halls might be made, that would look over the gardens; and if they were made as one sees in the design, their columns would be of the Ionick order, twenty foot long, and the portico would be as wide as the intercolumniation. Above them there would be other columns, of the Corinthian order, oue fourth part less than those below; between which there would be windows to re. ceive light. Over the Anti there should be no covering, but they should have balustrades round them; and according to the situation, they might be made either longer or
g: tion, they mig ger or shorter than what I have designed, according as it should be necessary for the use and conveniency of those who were to dwell there, 18. Ii Here follows the design of this Atrio in a larger form.
B, Atrio. 1, Portico of the Peristillio.
D, Frize, or beam of Limitation. K, Loggia before the Atrio, which we may call
Public-domain text (London, published by Isaac Ware, 1738). Read from the Internet Archive’s scan (gri_33125011569684) of the copy in the Getty Research Institute, by way of Wikimedia Commons, where it is marked public domain. That scan’s text layer had lost the ends of the lines on every left-hand page, so the pages were read again from the scan’s images, the two readings compared word by word, and the text cleaned: the long s (ſ) is printed s and the ct and st ligatures as plain letters, words broken at the ends of lines are joined, and running heads, page numbers, signatures and catchwords are removed. Ware’s spelling, capitals and punctuation are otherwise kept (shew, publick, antient, compleat). Chapter titles and words the OCR misread were corrected against the page images. Some misreadings will remain, most of them in the italic prefaces and the Latin of Book III. Ware’s dedication, the list of subscribers, his table of terms, the errata and the bookseller’s advertisement are not reproduced. Nor are the 212 engraved plates, their inscriptions, or the keys to the letters on them that Ware prints in the text: where Palladio writes “as in the design” the figure is in the printed book.