The first architectural book in which the pictures matter as much as the words. Serlio’s Book IV (1537) laid out the five orders (Tuscan, Doric, Ionic, Corinthian and Composite) side by side for the first time, in a single woodcut that fixed the canon for centuries.
Serlio, a Bolognese pupil of Baldassarre Peruzzi, published his work out of order and over forty years, the later books in France where he worked for François I. It was written for practising builders rather than humanists, in the vernacular, with large woodcuts on nearly every page, and it was translated into Dutch, French, German, Spanish and English within a lifetime.
His plate of the five orders, ranged from the squat Tuscan to the slender Composite, made the idea of a series of orders visual and memorable. He also popularised the motif of an arched opening flanked by two narrow flat-headed ones: the “Serliana”, later called the Palladian or Venetian window.
The book, part by part
I Book I: Geometry
Practical geometry for builders.
II Book II: Perspective
Perspective, including the famous stage sets for comic, tragic and satyric scenes.
III Book III: Antiquities
Measured drawings of Roman buildings (the Pantheon, theatres, arches) and modern works by Bramante and Raphael.
IV Book IV: The five orders
The Tuscan, Doric, Ionic, Corinthian and Composite, each with its doors, windows, fireplaces and façades. Serlio assigns each order a character and proper use.
Rules: The five orders as a series · The Serliana
V Book V: Temples
Centralised churches on circular, oval, polygonal and cross-shaped plans.
VI Books VI–VIII: Houses, varia, military
Dwellings for every rank from peasant to prince; miscellany; the Roman military camp.