For French Renaissance architecture no single building occupies a more important position than that of the Chateau du Louvre. This fact long has been recognized and the Louvre has become the example of French architecture of this period in all surveys of architecture. Little attention, however, has been paid to the role of the Louvre in the history of Renaissance architecture generally or to its place in the yet to be written history of the palace type. However, before these latter objectives may be attained a clarification of the problems involved in the actual construction of the Louvre during its initial phases in the Renaissance is necessary.
