Palladio himself introduces us to the Villa Rotonda in I Quattro Libri dell'Architettura ("The Four Books on Architecture"). The villa appears to be the conclusion of a long process of thought and the definition of an idea. Indeed many art historians and experts of Palladio's production see this villa as the synthesis of all his constructions. The new and in some ways rule-breaking model went beyond all the refernces to antiquity and the Rotonda was to become one of the most imitated buildings in the history of architecture.