Human figure (also known as the Vitruvian Man) with arms and legs outstretched, positioned within a square and circle representing the centre of 'cosmic geometry'

SOURCE: Vitruvius. De Architectura (Como, 1521), ed. Cesare Cesariano, Liber primus, p. XV verso NOTES: This 1521 edition of Cesare Cesariano's translation and commentary on Vitruvius's treatise entitled 'De Architectura' (Ten Books on Architecture) is the first edition of the treatise not in Latin. Vitruvius's original, unillustrated treatise was written during the first century BC. The woodcut illustrations in this edition, most probably drawn by Cesariano, are largely based on the cuts in the 1511 edition of Vitruvius edited by Giovanni Giocondo.

SOURCE: Andrea Palladio. I Quattro libri dell'architettura (Venice, 1570), book II, p. 19 NOTES: This image is from Lord Burlington's own copy of I Quattro libri (Venice, 1570) now in the RIBA Library. Construction of the villa began in 1567 and the building was habitable by 1569 but remained unfinished until 1605.