Vincenzo Scamozzi
Vincenzo Scamozzi (2 September 1548 – 7 August 1616) was an Italian architect and writer who worked mainly around Vicenza and the Venetian area. He is best known for finishing several unfinished projects of Andrea Palladio after Palladio died in 1580, including the Teatro Olimpico in Vicenza.
He was born in Vicenza, the son of Gian Domenico Scamozzi, a surveyor and builder who taught him the basics of building. He learned from Sebastiano Serlio’s ideas. Scamozzi visited Rome in 1579–80 and moved to Venice in 1581. He traveled to the German Empire and France around 1599–1600 and kept a sketchbook about architecture.
Scamozzi wrote important architectural books. His Discorsi sopra l’antichità di Roma (1583) discussed Rome’s ruins. His major later work, L’idea dell’architettura universale (The Idea of a Universal Architecture), appeared in 1615 and included many of his own plans and elevations. He drew on Vitruvius through Daniele Barbaro’s commentary.
His writings helped spread neo-Palladian style, influencing architects like Inigo Jones, and Rudolf Wittkower called him an intellectual founder of neo-classicism.
In Venice he designed the Procuratie Nuove on the Piazza San Marco, built as a continuous palace front for the Procurators of San Marco. He adapted a rejected Palladian plan for the Doge’s Palace, and eleven bays were completed; Longhena later extended this work.
Scamozzi’s notable buildings include Palazzo Thiene Bonin Longare, Rocca Pisana, Villa Capra "La Rotonda," Villa Duodo, and Palazzo Loredan Vendramin Calergi. He died in Venice in 1616 at age 67.
This page was last edited on 3 February 2026, at 16:27 (CET).