Infinity and Perspective. Karsten Harries
images enlarge the architects' acquaintance with their heritage over and above their own experience. As Carpo asserts, "every architect. . . could now compose in an all'antica architectural style without having to specialize in antiquarian study, without ever even having seen an ancient monument" (51). With these models and the grammar of Serlio's canon of orders, any mediocre architect or builder could design examples of the new Renaissance style. Later in 1584 the Milanese artist Giovanni Lomazzo in his treatise, Trattato dell'arte delta pittura, complained that "Sebastiano Serlio has made more dog-catchers into architects than he has hairs to his beard" (117). A great master, the Vicenzan architect Andrea Palladio in 1570 published / quattro libri dell'architettura, a simplified but sophisticated version of Serlio's book, relying on woodcut illustrations with sparse text, which spread the classical style of architecture throughout Northern Europe. The Palladian version of classicism dominated much of Europe through at least the eighteenth century and into the nineteenth century in North America. The Carpo text is accompanied by an extraordinary body of references, comprising more than a third of the book, in which he amplifies and often clarifies the text, thus offering an extensive, learned commentary on the text. At times the footnotes offer a welcome reprise from the rather dense philosophical text.