This English text of Serlio was made from a Dutch translation of Serlio's original Italian - it is a translation of a translation! The work also includes woodcuts borrowed from (amongst others) Albrecht Durer and never used by Serlio. All those interested in what Serlio really wrote and drew should consult the modern translation with original woodcuts published by Yale UP in 1996.

This translation is in anacronistic old English, published in gothic script which is difficult to read. It has many ommissions from Serlio's original text, and quite a few ideosyncratic additions. It has no commentary, index or introduction. Whilst it is of importance for historians of the early modern period in England, students of Serlio who want to read him translated accurately should buy the recently published (1996) excellent English translation published by Yale University Press.

When I first saw this added added to our library, I was very interested. But upon inspection,I discovered that Young has completely ignored the scholarly work on the chronology established by the Alfred Dürr studies on watermarks and Georg Dadlesen on caligraphy. The book is useless, for a reliable good English translations, those of Z. Philip Ambrose are avaiable on line.