"Three folio volumes and a final double folio (all dating from 1798 to 1838) are compressed here into a quarto with fine-grained detail intact. The volume is intended for historians, architects, and others involved in, or who enjoy, traditional design. The plans and elevations facilitate same-scale comparisons, and some oblique views offer insight. The book covers large and small post-antique palaces and churches in Rome and elsewhere in Italy, in France, and a few in Germany, Russia, and Spain. Percier and Fontaine are most noted as Napoleon's architects, and they created many precisely engraved interiors and furnishings for him and others of the era. Few survive today, so these original renderings are welcome. Also welcome are the complete original layouts of villas and urban complexes that have subsequently been mauled or truncated. Included are several colored plates, the original publications' information about the buildings, and a useful introduction by Barry Bergdoll (Columbia Univ.

). The book joins the canonic three-volume Edifices de Rome moderne, by Percier's student Paul Letarouilly (1840; published in English translation by Princeton Architectural Press in 1984), which has more post-antique Roman buildings and more extensive details. Summing Up: Highly recommended. Upper-division undergraduates through faculty and professionals." - Choice-- -.