We describe the parameter spaces of some families of quadrilaterals, such as parallelograms, rectangles, rhombuses, cyclic quadrilaterals and trapezoids. For this purpose, we prove that the closed $n$-disc $\mathbb{D}^{n}$ is the unique topological $n$-manifold (with boundary) whose boundary and interior are homeomorphic to $\mathbb{S}^{n-1}$ and $\mathbb{R}^{n}$, respectively. Roughly speaking, our main result states that the natural compactifications of the parameter spaces of cyclic quadrilaterals and of trapezoids, modulo similarity, are both homeomorphic to $\mathbb{D}^{3}$.

The space of shapes of quadrilaterals can be identified with $\mathbb{CP}^{2}$. We deal with the subset of $\mathbb{CP}^{2}$ corresponding to convex quadrilaterals and the subset which corresponds to simple (that is, without self-intersections) quadrilaterals. We provide a complete description of the topological closures in $\mathbb{CP}^{2}$ of both spaces. Although the interior of each space is homeomorphic to a disjoint union $\mathbb{R}^{4}\sqcup \mathbb{R}^{4}$, their closures are topologically different. In particular, the boundary of the space corresponding to convex quadrilaterals is homeomorphic to a pair of three-dimensional spheres glued along a Möbius strip while the boundary of the space corresponding to simple quadrilaterals is more complicated.