I libri dei conti delle Logge della Basilica palladiana. Un'analisi preliminare.

The new classic stone logge of the Gothic Palazzo della Ragione (i.e. the Basilica) in Vicenza were built on the project of Andrea Palladio from 1549 to 1614. It was a very expensive work, financed out of the city budget and subject to the control of the Council of One Hundred which elected the Provveditori who had responsability for the day to day management of the project. The Provveditori were members of the oligarchy of the city and their account books document the whole building operation for the first 20 years; until 1570, when all the work was put in the hands of a single contractor. The 22 surviving account books have been fully transcribed and each item of expenditure have been ordered in chronological order to follow the progress of the building. The essay contains some reflections and the first results from this study, especially concerning the division and the coordination of labour, the costs of stones, other materials and craftsmen, the strategies to reduce expenditure, the terminology used for classical orders. For example some seemingly erroneous terms used for Doric order elements probably indicate a change made by Palladio to his project.