As the ideal type of centralized building Palladia's Villa Capra-Rotonda (Plate
1) has, perhaps more than any other house, imposed itself upon the imagination.
Mathematical, abstract, four square, without apparent function and totally memorable,
its derivatives have enjoyed universal distribution; and, when he writes of it,
Palladia is lyrical.
The site is as pleasant and delightful as can be found, because it is on a small hill
of very easy access, and is watered on one side by the Bacchiglione, a navigable
river; and on the other it is encompassed about with most pleasant risings which
look like a very great theatre and are all cultivated about with most excellent
fruits and most exquisite vines; and therefore as it enjoys from every part most
beautiful views, some of which are limited, some more extended, and others
which terminate with the horizon, there are loggias made in all four fronts.'