Andrea Palladio
Andrea Palladio (Vicenza, 1508 - Venice, 1580) was an Italian architect. Two of his most famous works are Villa Capra and the Basilica, in Vicenza, Italy. He was later architectural adviser to the Venetian Republic.
In 1570, he published his masterwork: I Quattro Libri dell' Architettura, or The Four Books of Architecture. [1]
Palladio created around Venice villas for the Venetian nobility.
The English style of the seventeenth century is now known as "Palladian". Naturally, the Georgian architecture of the United States develops directly from Palladio through the later masters who followed Inigo Jones. Palladio's writings, particularly "Le Antichità di Roma" and the "Quattro Libri dell' Architettura", did more than anything else to spread his influence over Europe. [2]