Major Architectural Works

Vignola's main works include:
Villa Giulia for Pope Julius III, in Rome (1550-1553). Here Vignola was working with Ammanati, who designed the nymphaeum and other garden features under the general direction of Vasari, with guidance from the knowledgeable pope and Michelangelo. A medal of 1553 shows Vignola's main villa substantially as it was completed, save for a pair of cupolas.
Villa Farnese at Caprarola (1559–1573);
Villa Lante at Bagnaia (1566 onwards), including the gardens and their water features and casini;
Chiesa del Gesù, Rome, the mother church of the Jesuit order, which would become a source for Baroque church facades in the 17th century;
Basilica of Santa Maria degli Angeli, Assisi (with Galeazzo Alessi);
Church of Sant'Andrea in Via Flaminia, Rome, the first church to have an oval dome, which became a signature of the Baroque.

Vignola's celebrated Palazzo Farnese at Caprarola, about 40 miles north of Rome, had been completed for Cardinal Alessandro Farnese by about 1575. The Villa Farnese, also known as Villa Caprarola, should not be confused with the Palazzo Farnese and the Villa Farnesina, both in Rome.
The Villa Farnese is situated directly above the town of Caprarola and dominates its surroundings.

Other Architectural Works

The main courtyard of the Pontifical University of Saint Thomas Aquinas, Angelicum, formerly the convent of the Church of Santi Domenico e Sisto, is traditionally attributed to Vignola but completed after his death. Ten arches on the long sides and seven on the short are sustained by pilasters with Tuscan style ornamentation that rise from high plinths. A simple frieze with smooth triglyphs and metopes separates the lower from the upper levels.[2]

Unbuilt Works

Like many other architects, Vignola submitted his plans for completing the facade of San Petronio, Bologna. Designs by Vignola, in company with Baldassare Peruzzi, Giulio Romano, Andrea Palladio and others furnished material for an exhibition in 2001[3]

Written Works

His two published books helped formulate the canon of classical architectural style. The earliest, Regola delli cinque ordini d'architettura ["Canon of the five orders of architecture"] (first published in 1562, probably in Rome), presented Vignola's practical system for constructing columns in the five classical orders (Tuscan, Doric, Ionic, Corinthian and Composite) utilising proportions which Vignola derived from his own measurements of classical Roman monuments.[4] The clarity and ease of use of Vignola's treatise caused it to become in succeeding centuries the most published book in architectural history.[5]
Vignola's second treatise, the posthumously-published Due regole della prospettiva pratica ["Two rules of practical perspective"] (Bologna 1583), favours one-point perspective rather than two-point methods such as the bifocal construction. Vignola presented— without theoretical obscurities— practical applications which could be understood by a prospective patron.[6]

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