Scamozzi

Vincenzo Scamozzi
Portrait of Vincenzo Scamozzi by Paolo Veronese
Born	(1548-09-02)September 2, 1548 Vicenza, Italy
Died	August 7, 1616(1616-08-07) (aged 67) Venice, Italy
Nationality	Italian
Occupation	Architect
Buildings	Palazzo Thiene Bonin Longare, Rocca Pisana, Villa Capra "La Rotonda", Villa Duodo, Palazzo Loredan Vendramin Calergi

Vincenzo Scamozzi (2 September 1548 – 7 August 1616) was an Italian architect and a writer on architecture, active mainly in Vicenza and Republic of Venice area in the second half of the 16th century. He was perhaps the most important figure there between Andrea Palladio, whose unfinished projects he inherited at Palladio's death in 1580, and Baldassarre Longhena, Scamozzi's only pupil.

The great public project of Palladio's that Scamozzi inherited early in the process of construction was the Teatro Olimpico at Vicenza, which Palladio had designed in the last months of his life.

Scamozzi was born in Vicenza. His father was the surveyor and building contractor Gian Domenico Scamozzi; he was Scamozzi's first teacher, imbuing him with the principles of Sebastiano Serlio, laid out in Serlio's book. Vincenzo visited Rome in 1579–1580, and then moved to Venice in 1581. In 1600, he visited France and left a sketchbook record of his impressions of French architecture, which first saw the light of day in 1959. Scamozzi is famous for having inherited several unfinished projects from Andrea Palladio at the time of Palladio's death in 1580 and for bringing them to their completed form.

Scamozzi's influence spread far beyond his Italian commissions through his two-volume treatise, L’Idea dell’Architettura Universale ("The Idea of a Universal Architecture"), which is one of the last works of the Renaissance dealing with the theory of architecture. It was originally published with woodcut illustrations at Venice in 1615. Scamozzi depended for sections of his treatment of Vitruvius on Daniele Barbaro's commentary, published in 1556 with illustrations by Palladio; he also discussed issues of building practice. At that time, such treatises were becoming a vehicle for self-promotion. Scamozzi was aware of the potential value of publicity distributed through the established channels of the book trade and he included many of his own plans and elevations, as built, as they should have been built, and as idealized projects.