The remarkable career of the architect Andrea Palladio (1508-1580) is largely due to an extraordinary moment of prosperity in the Veneto mainland, both in the city and in the countryside: a boom due in large measure to a little-studied revolution in manufacturing. This book brings to light for the first time the architecture of these early industries, especially the production of textiles (wool, silk), mining and metalworking, paper manufacture, ceramics, sawmilling and leather-tanning. The huge surge in patent applications to the Venetian Senate in the period highlights the parallel technological improvements in both efficiency and quality. Former proto-industrial buildings across the Veneto, studied at first-hand, reveal the efficiency of hydraulic power and smooth-running mechanical processes. Water-power, a clean, renewable energy source, and structures made of natural, traditional materials, have much to teach today’s civilisation. AUTHOR: Deborah Howard directed the research project and is the primary author and editor of the book. She is Professor Emerita of Architectural History in the University of Cambridge, and a Fellow of St John’s College, Cambridge. Her main specialisation is the art and architecture of Venice and the Veneto. Her books include Jacopo Sansovino (1975), The Architectural History of Venice (1980, 2002), Venice and the East (2000), Sound and Space in Renaissance Venice (with L. Moretti, 2010), Venice Disputed (2011), and The Sacred Home in Renaissance Italy (with A. Brundin and M. Laven, 2018). She is a board member of the CISA Andrea Palladio in Vicenza and a Fellow of the British Academy. SELLING POINTS: . An in-depth study of a neglected aspect of architectural interest . Only few pre-industrial manufacturing buildings survive to this day: here they are photographed, often for the first time

. Of great interest to economic historians

175 colour illustrations