Andrea Palladio: the Shakespeare of Renaissance architects, who gave us the word 'Palladian' but about whom little is known. A journey along the Brenta River in northeastern Italy, just a short distance from Venice, reveals the origin of the architecture of the private house, an art first practiced by Andrea Palladio. Until Palladio began designing simple, gorgeous, perfectly proportioned villas, architectural genius was reserved for temples and palaces. Palladio not only designed and built, he wrote. His 1570 architectural treatise was read and studied by great thinkers as diverse as Thomas Jeffferson and Inigo Jones, and it proved to be critical to the design of Monticello and the White House. More than just a study of one of history's seminal architectural figures, The Perfect House reflects Rybczynski's intimacy with and enthusiasm for his subject. He not only reveals why the villas were so architecurally and culturally influential, he also imparts his enormous affection and admiration for the man who designed them. Embracing the elements of Rybczynski's most successful books on domestic architecture, Home and The Most Beuatiful House in the World, this charming, revelatory meditation explores the dawn of domestic architecture, and provides a new way of looking at every building we inhabit or visit today....