Serlio's model of a church façade was a regularized version, cleaned up and made more classical, of the innovative method of providing a façade to a church with a high vaulted nave flanked by low side aisles, providing a classical face to a Gothic form, that was first seen in Alberti's Santa Maria Novella in Florence (c. 1458).

[1] Although Leon Battista Alberti produced the first book-length architectural treatise of the Renaissance (c. 1450, published in 1486),[2] it was unillustrated, written in Latin, and designed to appeal as much to learned humanists and potential patrons as to architects and builders.

The seventh book illustrates a range of common design problems ignored by past theorists, including how to remodel, or 'restore', Gothic façades following antique principles of symmetry and proportion.

Vasari and Cellini would give most of the credit for the book to Peruzzi, but more recent writers defend Serlio's part in the study and his good faith in completing the work of his companion.

[11] Significantly, the last few pages of the second book, "On Perspective", contain three theatrical scenes (comic, tragic, and satiric) and a stage plan and cross section which were highly influential in Renaissance theater.

[12] Serlio's volumes were highly influential in France, the Netherlands and England as a conveyor of the Italian Renaissance style, and quickly became available in a variety of languages.

[13] Coecke van Aelst's pupil the Dutch architect and engineer Hans Vredeman de Vries propagated Serlio's style and ornaments north of the Alps.

Later Serlio's book was in the libraries of Sir Christopher Wren and John Wood, the Elder the architect and entrepreneur who laid out Bath.

[14] Books III & IV were published in Spanish in 1552 in Toledo by Juan de Ayala with the same illustrations as the original Italian editions.