He was Andrea Palladio a Famous Architect of Italy, where taking Notice of the Irregularities and Deformities in Building, introduced by Invasions of the Goths, and other Barbarians; to prevent those Inconveniences for the future, he thought fit to instruct the World in the Rules and Practices of the Learned Antients, having Opportunity to observe the Foot-steps of their Labours, ev'n at Rome itself, where being the greatest Concourse of Noble Men and Noble Minds, they spared neither Care nor Cost in Building. (Godfrey Richards, "Preface to the Reader," in The First Book of Architecture by Andrea Palladio. London, 1721. Redwood Library. Gift of Mrs. Robert H. Charles, 1996.) 

The birth of Palladianism in America is directly related to the theme of this year's Newport Symposium, The Grand Tour. An institution during the Enlightenment, the Grand Tour dates its origins to the Age of Exploration, the Renaissance. The spread of the classical styles of architecture in the 18th century to the English-speaking world is a direct result of the influence of ancient Roman ruins and Italian Renaissance buildings on British tourists. The Earl of Shaftesbury in his Characteristicks of Men, Manners, Opinions, Times (London, 1711) admonished readers aspiring "to the character of a man of breeding and politeness ... to form his judgment of arts and sciences upon right models of perfection." Where is this perfection to be found? 

If he travels to Rome, he enquires which are the truest Pieces of Architecture, the best Remains of Statues, the best Paintings of a Raphael, or a Carache. However antiquated, rough, or dismal they may appear to him, at first sight; he resolves to view `em over and over, till he has brought himself to relish `em, and finds their hidden Graces and Perfections. (vol.1, p. 338)

The publication in 1570 of Palladio's treatise I Quattro libri della architettura set the standard for a style that would endure for centuries, a style based on uncompromising symmetry and harmonic proportions. In fact, by the end of the 16th century, the classical motifs of Renaissance Italy began to appear in England. This was primarily due to Sebastiano Serlio's popular book L'Architettura, a practical guide for builders, in which for the first time the five orders of classical architecture were codified. The eventual domination of the classical style in architecture is based largely on the impression that Italian buildings, ancient and Renaissance, made on travelers. Once home, the traveler was able to imitate the classical style from examples supplied in the numerous treatises on architecture and building. These treatises were, for the most part, based on the five most influential of the early writers, Vitruvius, Serlio, Vignola, Palladio, and Scamozzi. 

Inigo Jones, a 17th-century surveyor to kings James I and Charles I, was a scholar who studied Palladio's buildings, along with the ruins of ancient Rome. Jones was the first English architect to employ Palladio's laws of harmonic proportion, adapting the classical style to an increasingly educated and sophisticated English taste. Fashion changed, however, with the English Civil War. Classicism was briefly eclipsed by the Baroque style of architecture as typified in the work of Christopher Wren. In 1728 James Gibbs, Wren's student, in his A Book of Architecture, spread the traditional style of church building with the portico and steeple to the English colonies. Trinity Church in Newport is an example of Wren's Baroque style. 

At the beginning of the 18th century, Lord Burlington sponsored a number of publications based on Palladian models: Vitruvius Britannicus (1715) by Colen Campbell; The Designs of Inigo Jones (1727) by William Kent; and several editions of Palladio's Four Books of Architecture, including one by Isaac Ware (1738). As the Palladian fashion spread, additional architectural treatises and builders' guides became accessible to American colonists. The builders' guides were largely practical workbooks instructing readers in the use of classical orders and proportions. 

The Redwood Library building was the first pure example of English Palladianism in the Colonies. By 1764 the Library counted some ten treatises on architecture and building among the approximately 1,500 books and pamphlets filling the shelves. Examples include Bissett's The Theory and Construction of Fortification (1751), Gauger's Fires Improved (1715), Ralph's A Critical Review of the Publick Buildings (1734), The Builder's Dictionary (1734), Smith's Carpenter's Companion (now missing from the collection), Salmon's Palladio Londinensis (1748), Horneck's Remarks on Modern Fortification (1738), Palladio's The Four Books of Architecture (Ware's edition of 1738), Oakley's The Magazine of Architecture (1730), and Choorn's The New Method of Fortification (1705). There were also works on archaeology and antiquities, e.g., Potter's Archæologica Græca (1722), Tooke's Pantheon (1726), Montesquieu's Reflections on the Causes of the Grandeur and Declension of the Romans (1734), and Kennett's Romæ Antiquæ Notitia (1737). 

The Library's architect, Peter Harrison, who himself had amassed a sizable library, including many architectural treatises, subsequently designed the Brick Market and Touro Synagogue in Newport, for which he drew heavily from architectural treatises in his library. The work of Harrison would remain as isolated examples of true Palladianism in the American Colonies. America was to become a young republic before Thomas Jefferson and others revived the style of Palladio. 

The Redwood Library houses a small, choice collection of architectural treatises. The majority of volumes were a gift from Guy F. Cary in 1981. The collection continues to grow. Gifts were recently received from Mrs. Robert H. Charles (Richards' translation of Palladio's First Book of Architecture, 1721) and Professor James Baker in memory of his brother, the Reverend Gerald Anthony Baker (Vitruvius' De Architectura, 1567). 

This exhibition allows the visitor to appraise the collection of early architectural treatises in an exceptional environment. The gaps are apparentthere are, for example, no copies of Scamozzi in the Library's catalog, and the exhibited copy of the Vitruvius Britannicus is on loanbut the treasures here stand out. What better way to appreciate the first purely classical structure in America than to study its origins through the treatises that made it possible. 

BRIDENBAUGH, Carl. Peter Harrison, First American Architect. (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1949.)  

DOWNING, Antoinette F., and Vincent J. Scully. The Architectural Heritage of Newport Rhode Island. 2nd edition, revised. (New York: Clarkson N. Potter, 1967.)  

FOWLER, Laurence Hall, and Elizabeth Baer. The Fowler Collection of the Johns Hopkins University Catalogue. (Baltimore: Evergreen House Foundation, 1961.)  

HARRIS, Eileen. British Architectural Books and Writers, 1556-1785. (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1990.)  

KIMBALL, Fiske. "The Colonial Amateurs and Their Models: Peter Harrison," in Architecture. Vol. LIII, no. 6 (June 1926), p. 155-160.  

PARK, Helen. A List of Architectural Books Available in America Before the Revolution. (Los Angeles: Hennessey & Ingalls, Inc., 1973.)