Francesco di Giorgio and the Formation of the Renaissance Architect Elizabeth Mays Merrill Evanston, Illinois B.A., Columbia College, Columbia University, New York, 2007 M.A., History of Art and Architecture, University of Virginia, 2010 A Dissertation presented to the Graduate Faculty of Art and Architectural History at the University of Virginia for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy McIntire Department of Art University of Virginia May, 2015 TABLE OF CONTENTS Acknowledgements ............................................................................................................ i Abstract .............................................................................................................................. ii Introduction ....................................................................................................................... 1 Francesco di Giorgio Martini (1439 – 1501): A chronology ....................................... 14 Chapter I: Critical Biography of Francesco di Giorgio, Architect of Siena.............. 19 Beginnings in Siena: 1439 – 1464................................................................................. 22 Early success, Siena: 1464 – 1475 ................................................................................ 28 Transfer to Urbino: 1475 – 1482 ................................................................................... 35 Political service: Siena, Urbino and Naples (1475 – 1482) .......................................... 39 “Purveyor” to the Court of Urbino: 1483 – 1487 .......................................................... 44 Communal Architect to Siena: 1488 – 1496 ................................................................. 51 Architect as diplomat: 1488 – 1496 .............................................................................. 55 Final years in Siena: 1497 – 1501 ................................................................................. 61 Chapter II: Technical Training & the Architect’s Education .................................... 70 The Spedale di Santa Maria & the Opera del Duomo ................................................... 74 Sienese engineering and the bottini ............................................................................... 80 Jacopo Mariano Taccola................................................................................................ 88 Siena’s “school” of architecture and the Codicetto Vaticano ....................................... 96 Technical training in the Trattato: Francesco di Giorgio’s theory of Disegno ........... 105 Chapter III: The Architect’s Travel ........................................................................... 117 Travel for antiquarian study: the Taccuino dei Viaggi ................................................ 122 Francesco di Giorgio as architect-consultant to Naples (1479 – 1491) ...................... 129 Francesco’s “indispensable” service to Naples and the wear of travel (1491 – 1497) 139 Architecture by “remote control” ................................................................................ 149 Travel in the Trattato .................................................................................................. 157 Chapter IV: The Architect as Politician & Entrepreneur ........................................ 165 Business in the bottega: Francesco di Giorgio’s production of cassoni ..................... 168 Contracting for the bottini ........................................................................................... 174 The Opusculum de’Architectura, self-promotion and indirect politicking ................. 181 The Fonte di Follonica and the Camera del Commune ............................................... 189 Francesco di Giorgio as bombardier ........................................................................... 199 Social and political valences of architecture in the Trattato ....................................... 210 Chapter V: Francesco di Giorgio’s Trattato as “Textbook” & Its Legacy the Development of the Architectural Profession............................................................. 220 The Genesis of the Trattato di Architettura ................................................................ 223 Alberti and the revision of the Trattato di Architettura .............................................. 231 Copy and dissemination .............................................................................................. 239 The Trattato di Architettura as textbook..................................................................... 248 The legacy of the Trattato di Architettura .................................................................. 257 Conclusion ..................................................................................................................... 271 Bibliography .................................................................................................................. 278 Appendix I: Figures ...................................................................................................... 308 List of Figures ............................................................................................................. 308 The Figures .................................................................................................................. 317 Appendix II: Maps ........................................................................................................ 423 Map I: Territory of Siena in the fifteenth-century....................................................... 423 Map II: Locations recorded in Francesco di Giorgio’s Taccuino dei Viaggi .............. 424 Map III: Locations in the Taccuino dei Viaggi in relation to the Roman roads .......... 425 Map IV: Neapolitan fortifications designed or modified by Francesco di Giorgio .... 426 Appendix III: Archival Documents ............................................................................. 427 i Acknowledgements In the course of researching and preparing this dissertation, I have accumulated debts to a considerable number of individuals and institutions. First let me thank my advisor Cammy Brothers, who has supported me in every aspect of my graduate studies and has pushed me to pursue ideas and experiences which otherwise I would not have. Paul Barolsky and David Summers have supported this project since its inception, and the critiques, comments and intellectual models they have provided have substantially shaped it in its final form. I wish also to thank Duane Oshiem, who generously helped to improve my translations and offered insightful feedback in the penultimate version of the dissertation. This dissertation also bears the imprint of fruitful discussions I have had with mentors, instructors and colleagues over the past four years, among others, Francesco Benelli, Richard Betts, Bruce Boucher, Horst Bredekamp, Arthur Iorio, Philippa Jackson, Wolfgang Lefèvre, Mauro Mussolin, Arnold Nesselrath, Per Rumberg, Anatole Tchikine, Jennifer Tonkovich, Marvin Trachtenberg, and Matteo Valleriani. Leslie Evans also deserves thanks for the much needed assistance she provided in developing the maps for the dissertation. Numerous archives, museum collections and libraries in the United States, Italy and Germany gave me access to materials which were essential to my project. I am particularly grateful to the librarians and staff at the Biblioteca Nazionale Centrale, Florence; the Gabinetto dei Disegni e delle Stampe degli Uffizi, Florence; the Biblioteca Comunale, Siena; the Biblioteca Marciana, Venice; the Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana, Rome; the Bayerische Staatsbibliothek, Munich; and the Kunstbibliothek - Staatliche Museen, Berlin. The research I have undertaken in these collections, and elsewhere, would not have been possible without the support of The Max-Planck Institute for the History of Science (Berlin), The Morgan Library & Drawing Institute (New York), the Thomas Jefferson Memorial Foundation (University of Virginia), Humboldt Universität (Berlin), Univeristy of Virginia Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, the Carl H. and Martha S. Lindner Center for Art History (Univeristy of Virginia), and the Renaissance Society of America. Finally, I am immensely grateful to my family, who have enthusiastically embraced my discovery of Francesco di Giorgio. Without them – their company on tours throughout Italy, their moral and financial support, and their insightful commentary on chapter drafts – this dissertation would be half of what it is. ii Abstract This dissertation examines the prodigious career of the Sienese architect Francesco di Giorgio Martini (1439 – 1501), and considers the modes of his practice within the broader framework of the emerging early-modern architectural profession. The role of the early-modern architect is a subject of longstanding historical interest, as during this period the character of the building designer remained substantially undefined. Yet, whereas scholars customarily highlight the heterogeneity displayed by Renaissance architects – who followed diverse courses of training and executed a wide range of building commissions – my study draws attention to the skills, design procedures and social networks these practitioners shared in common. Francesco di Giorgio, I argue, is exemplary of the early-modern architect due not only to the breadth of his practice – which extends beyond the modern definition of architecture and challenges our historical understanding of this