Includes bibliographical references (p. 140-143) and index.

Foundlings' Hospital, Florence, begun 1419 Filippo Brunelleschi -- Palazzo Medici, Florence, begun 1445 Michelozzo di Bartolomeo -- Santo Spirito, Florence, 1446-1482 Filippo Brunelleschi -- Palazzo Rucellai, Florence, c. 1450 Leon Battista Alberti -- Santa Maria Novella, Florence, begun c. 1458 Leon Battista Alberti -- Pienza, begun 1459 Pope Pius ii. Piccolomini/Bernardo Rossellino -- Palazzo Ducale, Urbino, after 1465 Luciano Laurana -- Sant'Andrea, Mantua, planned from 1470 Leon Battista Alberti -- The Kremlin, Moscow, begun 1475 Aristotele Fioravanti/Alovisio Novi -- Santa Maria Presso San Satiro, Milan, 1478-1523, Donato Bramante -- Santa Maria Dei Miracoli, Venice, 1481-1489 Pietro Lombardo -- Palazzo Della Cancelleria, Rome, 1489-1496 -- Palazzo Strozzi, Florence, 1489-1534 Giuliano da Maiano/Il Cronaca -- Vladislav Hall, Hradcany, Prague, 1493-1502 Benedikt Ried -- The Tempietto, San Pietro in Montorio, Rome, 1500 Donato Bramante -- Hieronymite Monastery of Belem, Lisbon, begun 1502, Diogo Boytac/Joao de Castilho -- The Wawel, Cracow, 1504-1548 Francesco Fiorentino -- The Bakocz Chapel, Esztergom Cathedral, begun 1506 -- Palais de Sayoy, Mechelen, 1507-1527 -- Santa Maria Della Consolazione, Todi, 1508 -- Heidelberg Castle, Heidelberg, 1508-1632 -- Villa Farnesina, Rome, 1509-1511 Baldassare Peruzzi -- The Fugger Chapel, St. Anna's, Augsburg, 1509-1512 Jakob Fugger / Albrecht Durer (?) -- Palazzo Farnese, Rome, begun 1514, Antonio da Sangallo / Michelangelo Buonarroti -- Hampton Court, Richmond upon Thames, begun 1514, Cardinal Thomas Wolsey/Henry VIII -- Chateau of Blois, Loire Valley Francois 1 Wing, begun 1515 -- The Sigismund Chapel, Cracow Cathedral, 1517-1533, Bartolomeo Berrecci -- Chateau of Chambord, Loire Valley, begun 1514 -- Biblioteca Laurenziana, Florence, 1524-1571 Michelangelo Buonarroti -- Palazzo Del Te, Mantua, 1526-1534 Giulio Romano -- Palace of Charles V, Granada, 1527-1568 Pedro Machuca -- Chateau of Fontainebleau, France, begun 1528 Gilles Le Breton -- Granada Cathedral, Andalucia, 1529-1589 Diego de Siloe -- Piazza San Marco, Venice, begun 1529 Jacopo Sansovino -- Saint-Eustache, Paris, begun 1532 -- Hartenfels Palace, Torgau, begun 1533 Konrad Krebs -- The Old Registry, Bruges, 1534-1537 Jan Wallot/Christiaan Sixdeniers -- Landshut Residence, Germany, begun after 1536 Giulio Romano (attrib.) -- The Capitol, Rome, begun 1537 Michelangelo Buonarroti -- The Belvedere, Hradcany, Prague, 1538-1563 Paolo della Stella/Bonifaz Wolmut -- Chateau of Ancy-Le-Franc, France, begun c. 1541 Sebastiano Serlio -- The Louvre, Paris, begun 1546 Pierre Lescot -- Chateau of Anet, Dreux, 1548-1552 Philibert de l'Orme -- Poznan Town Hall, Poland, 1552-1560 Giovanni Battista Quadro -- Villa Hvezda, near Prague, 1555-1558, Ferdinand 11/Hans Tirol -- Leipzig Town Hall, Germany, 1556/57 Hieronymus Lotter/Paul Speck -- Burghley House, Northamptonshire, 1556-1587 William Cecil -- St Peter's, Rome, from c. 1551 Michelangelo Buonarroti -- Palazzo Farnese, Caprarola, 1559-1573 Giacomo Vignola -- The Uffizi, Florence, begun 1559 Giorgio Vasari -- Palazzo Pitti, Florence, 1560-1578 Bartolomeo Ammannati -- Antwerp Town Hall, Belgium, 1561-1565 Cornelis Floris -- El Escorial, Spain, 1561-1581 Juan Bautista de Toledo/Juan de Herrera -- The Villa Rotonda, Vicenza, 1566-1570 Andrea Palladio -- Cologne Town Hall Loggia, Germany, 1567-1571 Cornelis Floris/Wilhelm Vernukken -- Il Gesu, Rome, 1568-1584 Giacomo Vignola/Giacomo della Porta -- The Hall of Antiquities, Munich, begun 1569 Jacopo Strada -- Il Redentore, Venice, 1577-1592 Andrea Palladio -- Jesuit Church of St Michael, Munich, 1583-1597 Friedrich Sustris/Wendel Dietrich -- Juleum, Helmstedt, 1592-1597 Paul Francke -- The Great Armoury, Gdansk, 1593-1612 -- Augsburg Town Hall, Germany, 1614-1620 Elias Holl -- The Banqueting House, Whitehall, 1619-1622 Inigo Jones.

The Renaissance was aesthetically one of the most demanding and fascinating periods in the history of architecture. It developed out of Filippo Brunelleschi's Foundllings' Hospital in Florence and subsequently evolved into a pan-European phenomenon, the end of this period being marked by works by Carlo Maderno, Inigo Jones and Elias Holl. The style is based on rationality and clarity, the harmony of proportions and a balanced relationship between the individual and the whole. Influenced by Classical models, there was a growing awareness in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries that something new could be created, something new that could be compared to the art of the ancient world.

As opposed to other works on Renaissance architecture, this publication does not focus solely on Italy with its buildings and urban areas in central and northern Italy and the palace architecture of Mantua and Urbino. The inclusion of the 'Italian architectural model' in the buildings of other European countries is also treated in depth. Readers can relish in a delightfully varied and often surprising panorama of Renaissance architecture reaching out from Italy to Germany, France, England, Spain, Portugal, Belgium, Poland, the Czech Republic, Hungary and Russia. This volume captures the rediscovery of harmony in architecture throughout Europe by focusing on the most impressive buildings and describing this development in exquisite photographs, numerous drawings and explanatory texts, placing the buildings in their appropriate architectural, cultural and historical setting. Interesting details about patrons, a building's specific requirements, its function and the impression it was intended to make are also discussed.