Online Encyclopedia

Search over 40,000 articles from the original, classic Encyclopedia Britannica, 11th Edition.

VILLA

Online Encyclopedia
Originally appearing in Volume V28, Page 67 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
» Make a correction to this article.
» Add information or comments to this article.
Spread the word: del.icio.us del.icio.us it!

VILLA , the Latin word (diminutive of vicus, a See also:

village) for a See also:country-See also:house. This See also:term, which in See also:England is usually given to a small country-house detached or semi-detached in the vicinity of a large See also:town, is being gradually superseded by such expressions as " country " or " suburban house," " See also:bungalow," &c., but in See also:Italy it is still retained as in See also:Roman times and means a summer See also:residence, sometimes being of See also:great extent. References to the villa are constantly made by Roman writers. See also:Cicero is said to have possessed no less than seven villas, the See also:oldest of which was near Arpinum, which he inherited. See also:Pliny the younger had three or four, of which the example near Laurentium is the best known from his descriptions. There is too wide a divergence in the various conjectural restorations to make them of much value, but the remains of the villa of See also:Hadrian at See also:Tivoli, which covered an See also:area over seven See also:miles See also:long and in which reproductions were made of all the most celebrated buildings he had seen during his travels, those in See also:Greece seeming to have had the most attraction for him, and the villas of the 16th See also:century on similar sites, such as the Villa d'See also:Este near Tivoli, enable one to See also:form some See also:idea of the exceptional beauty of the positions selected and of the splendour of the structures which enriched them. According to Pliny, there were two kinds of villas, the villa See also:urbana, which was a country seat, and the villa rustica, the See also:farm-house, occupied by the servants who had See also:charge generally of the See also:estate. The Villa Boscoreale near See also:Pompeii, which was excavated in 1893–94, was an example of the villa rustica, in which the See also:principal See also:room was the See also:kitchen, with the bakery and stables beyond and room for the See also:wine presses, oil presses, See also:hand See also:mill, &c. The villas near See also:Rome were all built on hilly sites, so that the laying out of the ground in terraces formed a very important See also:element in their See also:design, and this forms the See also:chief attraction of the See also:Italian villas of the 16th century, among which the following are the best known: the Villa Madama, the design of which, attributed to See also:Raphael, was carried out by Giulio Romano in 152o; the Villa See also:Medici (1540); the Villa See also:Albani, near the Porta See also:Salaria; the See also:Borghese; the See also:Doria Pamphili (165o); the Villa di Papa Giulio (1550), designed by Vignola; the Aldobrandini (1592); the Falconieri and the Montdragon Villas at See also:Frascati, and the Villa d'Este near Tivoli, in which the terraces and staircases are of great importance. In the proximity of other towns in Italy there are numerous villas, of which the example best known is that of the Villa Rotunda or Capra near See also:Vicenza, which was copied by See also:Lord See also:Burlington in his house at See also:Chiswick. The Italian villas of the 16th and 17th century, like those of Roman times, included not only the country residence, but the whole of the other buildings on the estate, such as See also:bridges, casinos, pavilions, small temples, rectangular or circular, which were utilized as summer-houses, and these seem to have had a certain See also:influence in England, which may See also:account for the numerous examples in the large parks in England of similar erections, as also the laying out of terraces, grottos and formal gardens. In See also:France the same influence was See also:felt, and at See also:Fontainebleau, See also:Versailles, See also:Meudon and other royal palaces, the celebrated Le Notre transformed the parks surrounding them and introduced the cascades, which in Italy are so important a feature, as at St See also:Cloud near See also:Paris.

(R. P.

End of Article: VILLA

Additional information and Comments

There are no comments yet for this article.
» Add information or comments to this article.
Please link directly to this article:
Highlight the code below, right click, and select "copy." Then paste it into your website, email, or other HTML.
Site content, images, and layout Copyright © 2006 - Net Industries, worldwide.
Do not copy, download, transfer, or otherwise replicate the site content in whole or in part.

Links to articles and home page are always encouraged.

[back]
VILL 		[next]
VILLA DEL PILAR

Site © 2006 - Net Industries