Everything about Giovanni Giocondo totally explained
Fra Giovanni Giocondo (c.
1433 –
1515) was an
Italian architect,
antiquary,
archaeologist, and
classical scholar.
Biography
Giovanni Giocondo was born at
Verona.
He joined the
Dominican Order at the age of eighteen and was one of the many of that order who became pioneers of the
Renaissance. Afterwards, however, he entered the
Franciscan Order. Giocondo began his career as a teacher of
Latin and
Greek in
Verona where
Julius Caesar Scaliger was one of his pupils. The young priest, a learned archaeologist and a superb draughtsman, visited
Rome, sketched its ancient buildings, wrote the story of its great monuments, and completed and explained many defaced inscriptions. He stimulated the revival of classical learning by making collections of ancient manuscripts, one of which, completed in 1492, he presented to
Lorenzo de' Medici. Giocondo soon returned to his native town where he built bridges and planned fortifications for
Treviso, acting as architect engineer, and even head-builder during the construction.
Works
The most beautiful building in Verona and one of the most perfect in all Europe, the
Palazzo del Consiglio, famous for the decorations of its
loggia, was designed by Giocondo at the request of
Maximilian I, Holy Roman Emperor.
Thomas de Quincey attributes also the church of
Santa Maria della Scala to him.
Venice then summoned him with other celebrated architects
France by
Louis XII, and made royal architect. There he built two
bridges of remarkable beauty, the
Pont Notre-Dame and the
Petit Pont in
Paris, and designed the palace of the
Chambre des Comptes, the Golden Room of the Parliament, and the
Chateau of Gaillon (
Normandy), one portal of which has been removed to Paris, and stood for years in the courtyard of the
École des Beaux-Arts to serve as a model for students of architecture, and was returned in 1977.
Vitruvius
Between 1506 and 1508 he returned to Italy, wrote four dissertations on the waters and waterways of
Venice and constructed the splendid
Fondaco dei Tedeschi (1508), decorated by
Titian and
Giorgione. In 1511 he edited a new edition of
De Architectura of the classical Roman writer
Vitruvius, a book that had a major influence on the development of
Renaissance architecture. When in 1513 the
Rialto and its environs were burned, Giocondo was one who presented plans for a new bridge and surrounding structures, but he left Venice for Rome when the designs of a rival were chosen by the republic for which he'd done such monumental work. The
Vatican welcomed him in 1514 and on
Donato Bramante's death he superintended (with
Raphael and son Gallo) the erection of
St. Peter's Basilica; it was Fra Giocondo who improved and strengthened the foundations of the great
basilica and the piers inadequately supporting its dome.
Pliny the Younger
In France Giocondo discovered a manuscript of
Pliny the Younger, containing his correspondence with
Trajan. He published this in
Paris dedicating the work to Louis XII.
Two Italian editions of Pliny's
Epistles were published by Giocondo, one printed in
Bologna (1498) and one from the press of
Aldus Manutius (1508). He edited
Julius Caesar's
Commentaries and made the first design (drawing) of Caesar's bridge across the
Rhine. He was among the first to produce a correct edition of
Vitruvius's treatise on architecture, printed at Venice in 1511, illustrated with figures and dedicated to
Pope Julius II; and published the works of
Julius Obsequens,
Aurelius Victor, and
Cato's
De re rustica. In addition to his classical and mathematical knowledge he was a master of
scholastic theology. He was also the author of a much-quoted inspirational letter,
A Letter to the Most Illustrious the Contessina Allagia degli Aldobrandeschi, Written Christmas Eve Anno Domini 1513. His last work was, probably, the rebuilding of the bridge of
Verona (1521), for in a letter to
Giuliano de' Medici, in 1513, Giocondo then called himself "an old man".
Further Information
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