Andrea Palladio (1508–1580) is one of the key figures of the Italian Renaissance—a master builder, theorist, and connoisseur of ancient architecture. From his beginnings as an ordinary stonecutter to becoming an architect, he combined solid craft skills with high cultural aspirations of Northern Italian admirers of classical antiquity, into whose circle humanists G. Trissino and D. Barbaro introduced him. His most famous works include the Villa Almerico Capra “La Rotonda” in Vicenza, the Palladian Basilica, the Teatro Olimpico, and the church of San Giorgio Maggiore in Venice. Thanks to his students and followers, his creative principles and experience had a cardinal impact on the destinies of world architecture. Palladianism is a particular direction of European classicism of the following centuries, based on the treatise “Four Books on Architecture,” first published in Venice in 1570. After numerous reprints and translations into foreign languages, this classical work has preserved its significance to this day—not only as a literary document of the sixteenth century, but also as a model of high architectural culture.