villa

villa.
1. Antique Roman country-house or farmstead of three basic types:villa rustica: house in the country with spacious accommodation for the owner and his family, and quarters for staff and workers, stores, and animals (the latter called villa fructuaria). It was really a grand farmhouse with refinements;villa suburbana: house near a town, lacking service buildings (e.g. Palladio's Villa Capra, Vicenza (c.1566–70));villa urbana: essentially a retreat, with spacious rooms, access to agreeable gardens, fine views over the landscape and the sea (if possible), galleries, and parts suitable for summer and winter use. Pliny's villas were paradigms of this type, which contained all the conveniences, and more, of a town or city mansion.

2. Renaissance country-house that was almost a cultural centre, where the like-minded could enjoy civilized life in beautiful surroundings, with fine gardens, works of art, and pleasant views. Palladio's designs for villas were important exemplars for C18, and led to the creation of some grand country-houses, e.g. Kent's Holkham Hall, Norfolk, and Paine and Adam's Kedleston Hall, Derbyshire.

3. Detached C19 house set in its own grounds on the fringes of a town, often with outbuildings and wings.

4. Small detached house in a modest garden in the suburbs in the late C19 and C20.

Bibliography

Ackerman (1967, 1990);
D. Arnold (1996);
Boëthius & and Ward-Perkins (1970);
D. Coffin (1979);
Mansuelli (1958);
D. S. Robertson (1945);
Ruffinière du Prey (1994)