Description: Pierre de la Ruffiniere du Prey traces Pliny's influence as a continuous theme throughout the history of architecture. First he looks at what Pliny considered to be the essential qualities of a villa. He then discusses the many buildings Pliny inspired: from the Renaissance estates of the Medici, to papal summer residences near Rome, to Thomas Jefferson's Monticello and the home of former Canadian prime minister Pierre Elliott Trudeau. Equally important to du Prey's study are the many designs by architects past and present that remain on paper. These imaginary restitutions of Pliny's villas, each representative of its own epoch, trace in microcosm the evolution of the classical tradition in domestic architecture. In analyzing each project, du Prey illuminates the work of such great masters as Michelozzo, Raphael, Palladio, and Schinkel, in addition to well-known modern architects Leon Krier, Jean-Pierre Adam, and Thomas Gordon Smith. This book will appeal to anyone who has ever dreamed of a place in the country, as well as to classicists, archaeologists, cultural historians, and contemporary architects and landscape designers. In addition to scores of black-and-white illustrations, forty-eight striking color reproductions intensify the personal quality of this beautiful study.

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