Villa: Livre de poche, 68 pages, Frederic P. Miller, Agnes F. Vandome, OmniScriptum

Please note that the content of this book primarily consists of articles available from Wikipedia or other free sources online. A villa was originally an upper-class country house, though since its origins in Roman times the idea and function of a villa has evolved considerably. After the fall of the Republic, a villa became a small farming compound, which was increasingly fortified in Late Antiquity, sometimes donated for reconstructing as a monastery then gradually re-evolving through the Middle Ages into luxurious, upper-class country homes. In modern parlance it can refer to a specific type of detached suburban dwelling. A villa was originally a Roman country house built for the upper classes. According to Pliny the Elder, there were several kinds of villas: the villa urbana, which was a country seat that could easily be reached from Rome (or another city) for a night or two, and the villa rustica, the farm-house estate, permanently occupied by the servants who had charge generally of the estate, which would centre on the villa itself, perhaps only seasonally occupied. There was the domus, a city house for the middle class, and insulae, lower class apartment buildings.