xliv

INTRODUCTION.

that he very loon after transserred himself to the
adtual service of his royal patron, who survived this
acquisition but seven years. Many works he cer-
tainly conduced sor that monarch, at the Louvre,
Fontainebleau, the Tournelles and elsewhere, (be-
sides private services) of which we have no descrip-
tion, nor even catalogue. His intervals of leisure
he employed in the prosecution of his Treatise on
Architecture. The third book os this work appear-
ed a year after the fourth, and was dedicated to
Francis I. In the service of that monarch he pub-
lished his first and second books; the former con-
taining the elements os Geometry, the latter those
of Perspe&ive, necessary to an Architect. These
we re followed by the fifth, (dedicated to the Queen
os Navarre2) the sixth and seventh,*
The war with the Emperour, which recommen-
ced in 1542, could not but give some check to the
works Francis I. had projefted sor the employment
of Serlio ; and, though that terminated by the peace
of Crespi in 1544, the short remainder of this mo-
narch’s life, {bill involved in a war with England
ended but in 1546, and perplexed with the intrigues
of his court and the contests with his protestant sub-
jefts, mu st have rendered his good will to the arts
less effective than zealous. Consormably to this
conjecture, it is recorded that Serlio retired to
a Niece of Francis I. and mother of Henry IV. of France.
*■ The complete editions of Serlio’s Architecture are those of
Francesco Sanese, in Venetian, 1566, 4to. and 1588, folio.
' Lyons