The rediscovery of classical ideas and the emergence of the great artists, architects and theorists of late fithteenth and early sixteenth-century Italy led to the cultural peak characterised as the High Renaissance. This fifth volume in the Architecture in Context series begins with a definition of Mannerism in art and architecture, the seminal development from the High Renaissance and the Baroque, associated with such dominant figures as Raphael, Michelangelo, Vignola, Giulio Romano and Palladio. The political context within which Mannerism and its variants developed - from the Reformation to the outbreak of the Thirty Years' War, a period of devastating religious strife and territorial contention - is outlined before the major figures and achievements of Italian architecture in the period are dealt with in great depth and breadth. The focus then moves to France and architects and thinkers such as Pierre Lescot, Philibert de l'Orme, J.A. du Cerceau and Salomon de Brosse. These two major traditions - with the intercession of architects from the Netherlands who had ideas of their own - had a huge impact in central Europe, the ideas spreading across a vast area including modern-day Germany, Austria and Poland. As well as travel, the development of printing was a vital element in the rapid and detailed promulgation of architectural knowledge and fashion; the influence of publications issued by Hans Vredeman de Vries, Cornelis Floris and Wendel Dietterlin is traced and illustrated.

After a digression to the notably eclectic England of Elizabeth I and James I, where pioneers such a Robert Smythson were overshadowed by the towering figure of Inigo Jones, Refomations ends with a survey of architecture in the Iberian peninsula and the colonies of Spain and Portugal where the powerful influence of the Italian masters met a strong vernacular tradition. Profusely illustrated and with many specially drawn plans, this is a wide-ranging and detailed guide to the architecture of a period that continues to fascinate and engage us today.