The first Italian volume devoted to an unfamiliar yet fascinating architectural feature of the finest palaces in Europe.
[Wooden Flooring in Europe] Excellent photographic documentation and refined graphic design give this book great visual impact. The author deals with an architectural feature that has been studied very little in Italy: the wooden flooring that embellishes the palaces of Central and Northern Europe, from Piedmont to Russia. The period under examination extends from the Middle Ages to the present. Today, in fact, modern techniques combined with the discerning tastes of great architects make it possible to create various types of superlative floor decoration. The book is divided into four large sections, each devoted to a particular type of flooring: wooden boards, especially the oldest preserved in Europe; decorative panels, first used in Versailles and later in many seventeenth- and eighteenth-century palaces; inlay, inspired by the outstanding Italian intarsias; and geometric flooring, introduced in the eighteenth century and widely-used in bourgeois homes throughout Europe. The illustrations, some of which were especially commissioned, reproduce the finest examples of the art of flooring in striking detail. There is also a section covering the more technical aspects, such as the various types of veneering and their diffusion, laying and installation techniques, restoration and conservation.