An adjective used to describe the widely influential style of the 16thC Italian architect Andrea Palladio. Initially trained in stone-masonry, Palladio particularly drew upon the buildings of ancient Rome and the Classical Orders, studying and then re-interpreting them to create his own architectural style, which he formalized in a key text I Quattro Libri dell’Architettura, The Four Books of Architecture. Born in Padua, he worked almost exclusively in the Veneto region of Italy, including Venice.