The Italian architect Giacomo da Vignola (1507-1573) was the most important representative of Bramantesque classicism in the mid-16th century, and his treatise on the orders was one of the most influential textbooks ever published.

The real name of Giacomo da Vignola was Giacomo Barocchio or Barozzi. He was born on Oct. 1, 1507, in Vignola near Modena. He was trained in Bologna, the nearest important artistic center, as a painter and perspectivist. Sebastiano Serlio and Baldassare Peruzzi were the leading painter-perspectivists of the time, and both had turned from painting to architecture: both had great influence on Vignola, although his exact relationship with them is not clear. Peruzzi, who had been an assistant of Donato Bramante, helped to form Vignola's architectural style, and Serlio probably inspired him to write a treatise. Serlio probably met Vignola in 1541, when they were both in France, although they may have met earlier in...