RICERCA ITALIANA     

The Architect’s Library(XVth-XXth Century)

Università IUAV di Venezia

Abstract

The research-projects proposed by the various groups are intended to deal with the themes of the transmission of architectural knowledge and the literary sources available to architects in the period from the 16th to the 20th centuries in different chronological and geographical settings which we regard as particularly important. The themes studied will be, on the one hand, the books written by architects, beginning with the founding text for modern architecture, the De re aedificatoria by Leon Battista Alberti, a work with an extreme wealth of allusions, references and quotations to ancient and mediaeval literature, passing on to the after-life of Vitruvius in Lombardy at the beginning of the Cinquecento and on to L’Architettura di Pellegrino Pellegrini and that summa of architecture and history, the Tempio Vaticano by Carlo Fontana, the Principi di architettura civile by Francesco Milizia. Another method in which to study the subject is to sample the documents relative to the holdings of the libraries assembled together by patrons, or by individuals and institutions in contact with architects. Starting from this second method of research, another line of investigation to be pursued is that on the repertories of architectural forms and their circulation in various periods, the collections of sketch-books, the use engravings (both loose and gathered), the diffusion and the after-life of printed treatises (Alberti, Vignola, Palladio) up to the books and journals on >>>

Principal Investigator

Giovanna CURCIO Università IUAV di VENEZIA

Research Objectives

The research starts off from studies conducted in the last twenty years by scholars such as Manfredo Tafuri, Joseph Connors, Anthony Vidler, Joseph Rykwert, Jorg Garms and Christof Thoenes. The aim of the research is to start a systematic investigation into the cultural level of architects in the period between the 15th century and the 20th century in the context of a larger investigation into the connections between Progetto and Storia and more generally, between Progetto and Scienza (humanistic or otherwise)
The object of the investigation is the books of the architects, meaning both books composed by architects as well as those used by them. The questions to be answered within the various geographical and geographic area are these; architects' thinking on the relations between their own work and the processes of transformation of society, of political, religious and political thought and of technical procedures; the ways in which architects have been able to provide themselves with the means to answer the problems posed for them by the contemporary world; the self –representation of their cultural milieu and the duties of the architect; the dialectic between ‘authority' and experiment in the formation of an architectural culture; the ways in which teaching about architecture was transmitted.
With respect to the latter problem, we intend to evaluate the impact of the different types of media. It is particular with respect to the diffusion of images, and >>>

Timescale

24 months

National and international background

Leon Battista Alberti and De re aedificatoria
There is already a large number of contributions to the study of Alberti’s sources, including a Conference dedicated to that theme held in Arezzo last year.
With regards to the De re aedificatoria, there are translations in various languages with commentaries, as well as specific studies, for example on the mediaeval sources, on his relationship to Vitruvius, or on single concepts. There is no doubt, however, that the most interesting results concern his many literary works have been produced by literary or cultural historians. It is particularly in the work of Anthony Grafton, Roberti Cardini and Rinaldo Rinaldi that the subject of Alberti’s sources is being investigated with respect to the meaning that the use of a particular model has for Alberti’s work. This a question not only of identifying what texts were in Alberti’s study, but also of examining his use of them and the way in which he adapted, modified and combined them, as well as understanding what motivated this complicated strategy with respect to his texts.

Milano 1400-1500
The renewed researches on Lombard architecture in the 15th to the 18th centuries that have been carried out for a number of years now has had the result that one can recognise the central position of Lombardy at some of the crucial moments in the history of architecture when Milan was a cross-roads for cultural exchange and a place where >>>