During the Italian Renaissance, popes, princes, dukes, and condottieri competed building palaces in which to house their rich collections, availing of the services of astute merchants and the finest artists. Only from the perspective of this obsessive rivalry can there be an explanation for Vespasiano Gonzaga’s decision to build the capital of his tiny state in a remote spot of the Lombardy countryside. Built as a città ideale, Sabbioneta was organized around the Palazzo Grande and the Teatro Olimpico of Vincenzo Scamozzi, and exhibited an important collection of ancient marbles. When the fogs come, the monumental plaza is like a mirage, the product of an ego out of proportion with a city that even now counts little more than 4,000 inhabitants....