Scamozzi and the books. Annali di architettura n. 27/2015

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Annali di architettura n. 27/2015
Journal of the Andrea Palladio International Center of Studies

Scamozzi e i libri [Scamozzi and the books]

Review by Giovanni Mazzaferro

I have already had occasion to speak earlier on this blog about Vincenzo Scamozzi and his Idea dell’Architettura Universale (Idea of a Universal Architecture). The work of the Vicenza-born architect, published in incomplete form in 1615 (when four of the planned ten books were missing) is traditionally considered the last of the great treatises of the Italian Renaissance, and probably the most difficult to interpret. Even the fortune which Scamozzi’s treatise encountered in the Netherlands can be justified by the overall revision of its contents, i.e. the elimination of the long theoretical parts (that Schlosser defined "almost unbearably lengthy"), to the benefit of the discussion of the architectural orders. And indeed, to date, the Idea of a Universal Architecture is the only main treatise of Italian architecture not yet having being published in a critical edition (although the facsimile edition, sponsored by the Andrea Palladio International Centre of Architectural Studies in 1997, with a preface by Franco Barbieri and a comment by Werner Oechslin, has the merit of making the text again available to the public).

The issue 27 of the journal Annali di architettura (which displays the year 2015 in the cover page, but was in fact released in 2016) is entirely devoted to Vincenzo Scamozzi (1548-1616). The journal includes a 16-page annex which is the catalogue of the exhibition Nella mente di Vincenzo Scamozzi. Un intellettuale architetto al tramonto del Rinascimento (In the Mind of Vincenzo Scamozzi. An Intellectual Architect at the Sunset of the Renaissance), held at the Palladio Museum of Vicenza between May 25 and November 20, 2016.

Many of the contributions in the journal are papers presented at the seminar ‘Scamozzi e i libri’ (Scamozzi and the Books), held in Vicenza on 12 and 13 June 2015. There is no doubt, in fact, that the most significant steps forward in research were made exactly on the front of the examination of Scamozzi’s library and of the margin notes he wrote in many of his volumes. Neither the surprises are over. It suffices to say that the latest discovery was made after the publication of the journal: it is a copy of the De architectura (On Architecture) of Vitruvius in the first Italian translation of Cesare Cesariano (1521), which belonged to Scamozzi. Guido Beltramini announced that he discovered it at the private library of a notary from Como with an article in the Italian daily Il Sole 24 Ore on August 7, 2016

Paolo Veronese, Portrait of Vincenzo Scamozzi, Denver Art Museum
Source: Wikimedia Commons

Scamozzi's library

The Scamozzi's library, in fact, was completely dispersed soon after his death. Although Vincenzo stipulated in his will that his volumes and papers be kept together, the debts incurred by him for the publication of his Idea of  a Universal Architecture were so high as to force his heirs to sell all books (among which, according to the words of Vincenzo, were also included some manuscripts of Leonardo and Francesco di Giorgio Martini). Katherine Isard is the American researcher who more than any other recently has engaged in an effort to rebuild Scamozzi’s library, from citations in his printed works [1]. Scamozzi had the good habit (for us) to mark the books in his possession, by placing a characteristic signature of ownership on the title page of the works. In this way, it was possible up to now to trace twenty works (in fact, twenty-one, taking account of the Vitruvius in the Cesariano version) belonging to him. But it would be unfair to overlook that, just over a decade ago, Lucia Collavo found a copy of the Giunti edition of Vasari's Lives (1568), which had been extensively annotated by Scamozzi, and published the margin notes included there. 

In any case, it is worth stressing that the new century has seen the publication of a series of essays on the annotations which Scamozzi made to his books. Below, I am trying to list the volumes in question, referring in a footnote to the modern editions:

• Giovanni Battista Bertani, Gli oscuri e difficili passi dell’opera ionica di Vitruvio (The dark and difficult passages of Vitruvius’ Ionic work) (1558); in fact the volume is (to date) lost, but Tommaso Temanza, who owned it, transcribed at the end of the eighteenth century the margin notes that appeared on a copy he owned [2];
• Giorgio Vasari, The Lives in the Giunti edition (1568) [3];
• Pietro Cataneo, L’Architettura (The Architecture) (1567) [4];
• Vitruvius, De Architectura (On Architecture) in the edition by Daniele Barbaro (1567) [5].

We should not forget, moreover, that the margin notes are only one aspect of Samozzi’s scholarship. It suffices to say that he analysed three editions of Vitruvius by Daniele Barbaro. In this regard, one must remember the recently discovered Latin edition of Vitruvius by Barbaro (1567) (available online at https://drupal.mpiwg-berlin.mpg.de/drupal-dev/digitalobject/MPIWG%3A4ZU9ZFZQ). In addition to some margin notes, Scamozzi added a Summary at the bottom, with excerpts from authors of antiquity. Ms Isard favours the hypothesis that the work (bearing the handwritten date 1578) was read in Rome, during the almost two years which Scamozzi spent there, and where, most likely, he studied with the Jesuits at the Roman College. The system of collection of the texts and presentation of the same, clearly targeted (such as footnotes) for a future use, closely resembles the teaching approach used by the Jesuits towards their students.

In the same way, it is worth noting Scamozzi’s relationship with the works of Sebastian Serlio. The complex plot of publications of Serlio’s treatise is well known (and we have also talked about in this blog). Here it must first of all remembered that Scamozzi curated (with his father Giandomenico) a "copious index" of the work (published for the first time in the edition with all the available volumes by Francesco de 'Franceschi in 1584), while further additions would be recorded in a new edition dated 1600. What is new is rather the discovery of a copy published in 1551 by Melchiorre Sessa, with the first five books available at that time, in which Serlio added margin notes to the Treatise. The specimen was discovered by Hubertus Günther, who wrote about it in Vincenzo Scamozzi comments on the architectural treatise of Sebastiano Serlio, in this issue of the Annals of Architecture.

Vincenzo Scamozzi's annotations to a sample of Sebastiano Serlio's editionn, Il primo [–quinto] libro d’architettura (Venice 1551). Monaco, Zentralinstitut für Kunstgeschichte.
Source http://www.palladiomuseum.org/exhibitions/scamozzi/press

Architecture as a science

Why to devote so much attention to Scamozzi’s readings? Why to give so much importance to his (undisputed) erudition? I think Franco Barbieri (which was the real rediscoverer of Scamozzi, and passed away in July last year) brilliantly illustrated its significance in his 'initial conversation' with Guido Beltramini, also included in the Annals. Until the middle of '900, Scamozzi was considered as a 'by-product' of Palladio; the reading of his works was carried out by flattening his production to the one of Palladio, forgetting that he was born forty years after Palladio; therefore, we are not confronted with the classical case of two natural competitors. Barbieri remembers that, at the beginning of his career, the conception of Scamozzi’s buildings in Vicenza "looked not-to-say anti-Palladian, but totally out of Palladian language" (p. 10). If this is true (and it applies in terms of the more functional orientation of Scamozzi’s palaces, even seen in their historical greater modularity, or ability to be modified, extended or absorbed), there arises the problem of understanding, first, the sources from which Scamozzi drew his know-how, in addition to the obvious presence of Palladio; second, in which way he studied them; and, third, with which critical consciousness he transposed his models.

Vincenzo Scamozzi, Courtyard of Palazzo Trissino al Corso, Vicenza. Photograph by Vaclav Sedy
Source: http://www.palladiomuseum.org/exhibitions/scamozzi/press

After all, the title of his main treatise, or the Idea of a Universal Architecture, contains two terms ('idea' and 'universality' of architecture) that are common to a lot of artistic literature from the middle of 1500 and the following century. Macarena Moralejo Ortega dwells on the meaning of 'Idea', and its derivation from the Idea del teatro (Idea of Theatre) by Giulio Camillo (1550), intended as a "model for all fabrics" in La nozione di idea nei testi a stampa dalla seconda metà del Cinquecento a metà Seicento: gli autori, i temi e il loro rapporto con L’Idea della Architettura Universale di Vincenzo Scamozzi (The notion of idea in printed texts from the second half of the Sixteenth century until the mid-Seventeenth century: authors, themes and their relationship with the Idea of a Universal Architecture by Vincenzo Scamozzi). It is a fascinating contribution, which is a highly recommended reading.

Vincenzo Scamozzi, Procuratie Nuove, Venice. Photograph by Vaclav Sedy
Source: http://www.palladiomuseum.org/exhibitions/scamozzi/press

The 'universality ' of architecture is to be linked with its being an instrument of knowledge, and therefore, in essence, a' science '. Werner Oechslin explains it in Scamozzi, “Vitruvio della nostra età”: il sapere dell’architetto e la “scientia” architettonica universale, “…perché lei sola abbellisse il Mondo tutto” (Scamozzi, the Vitruvius of our age: the knowledge of the architect and the universal architecture as a science, to make sure it would beautify everything in the world). On a closer inspection, there is nothing particularly new in talking about science in the late sixteenth and also to do so in relation to architecture. If we wanted to give a general assessment, we can say that almost all treatises defining art, especially at that time, end up defining painting, sculpture or architecture in terms of knowledge tools not only of a human, but also of a divine reality, or, if we prefer, in terms of 'science'. If anything, the difference is in the meaning of what is meant to be a 'science'. Thirty years after Scamozzi – to make an example - in Spain, Vicente Carducho theorizes that painting can not only interpret the visible reality (in itself deceptive), but also the ideal one, and only with the help the 'science'; and in Carducho’s view, of course, science is faith.

Vincenzo Scamozzi, Villa Pisani called la Rocca, Lonigo (Vicenza)
Source: http://www.wga.hu/html_m/s/scamozzi/pisani.html

Vincenzo Scamozzi, Internal view of the dome of Villa Pisani, Photograph by Vaclav Sedy
Source: http://www.palladiomuseum.org/exhibitions/scamozzi/press

In the specific case of Scamozzi, he declares in the preface of the Idea: "sciences are probing the causes of all divine and humane things, and demonstrate that only a probe life, and acting virtuously, can set up some state of happiness in this world "(p. 19). The problem, rather, is whether the science of architecture is based on the experience, or not. An experience-based architecture, focused on gaining independence from craftsmanship without denying it, but transforming it into 'wisdom' through the inventiveness was, after all, the science of Palladio. Scamozzi did not follow him and started from principles, moving if you want on a higher and more theoretical (and philosophical) level. In the thought of Scamozzi there is a clear dichotomy between the architect (i.e. those who conceive the project) and the material world of production (including master masons and all above layers): the architect is the designer, and, in theory, could simply limit himself to provide a design to the workers, not following at all the progress of the work. This is not to deny the experience; it means, first of all, to understand the principles, appreciating causes and effects, aims and most functional solutions, already when designing a building.

This leads to two phenomena: the architect exerts a liberal art par excellence and, by definition, is a man of axiomatic wisdom and culture. As we will see speaking of Scamozzi’s notations to Vasari's Lives, Brunelleschi is somehow the prototype, and the figure of Brunelleschi is indeed associated with a series of normative statements, that allow to better define the model architect. The second is the approach to sources. Scamozzi is (obviously) a Vitruvian, but a sensible one. The De Architectura of the Roman architect serves to him as a canon, but only up to a certain point. He confronts himself with it in a very systematic way, but the definition of the principles is a process that is, on the one hand, based on the reading of the texts, but also, on the other hand, on the study of ancient ruins. The margin notes, the summaries, and the drawings by Scamozzi testify to this tuning process and elaboration of architectural principles, and are particularly important for this reason.

Vincenzo Scamozzi, Taccuino di viaggio da Parigi a Venezia, 1600: pianta, prospetto principale e sezione della basilica di St. Denis. Vicenza, Pinacoteca Civica, Gabinetto dei disegni e delle stampe
Source: http://www.palladiomuseum.org/exhibitions/scamozzi/press

Vincenzo Scamozzi, Prospetto principale e sezione del duomo di Salisburgo, 1607.
Collection Canadian Centre for Architecture, Montreal.
Source: http://www.palladiomuseum.org/exhibitions/scamozzi/press

Index

Below, we are displaying the index of the contributions published in this issue of Annals of architecture:

• Guido Beltramini, Scamozzi 400 anni: una conversazione con Franco Barbieri (Scamozzi 400 years: a conversation with Franco Barbieri);
• Werner Oechslin, Scamozzi, “Vitruvio della nostra età”: il sapere dell’architetto e la “scientia” architettonica universale, “…perché lei sola abbellisse il Mondo tutto” (Scamozzi, the Vitruvius of our age: the knowledge of the architect and the universal architecture as a science, to make sure it would beautify everything in the world);
• Katherine Isard, Vincenzo Scamozzi in the World of Books;
• Hubertus Günther, Vincenzo Scamozzi comments on the architectural treatise of Sebastiano Serlio;
• Margaret Daly Davis, Vincenzo Scamozzi and the antichità di Roma: purposeful reading, systematic recording;
• Wolfgang Lippmann, La conoscenza dell’Antico di Vincenzo Scamozzi. Studi e approfondimenti alla luce di nuove ricerche su alcuni testi inediti e manoscritti perduti dell’architetto vicentino (The knowledge of the antique by Vincenzo Scamozzi. Studies and investigations in the light of new research on some unpublished texts and lost manuscripts of the architect from Vicenza);
• Deborah Howard, Scamozzi’s Discorsi sopra l’Antichità di Roma (1581, sic) and their possible connection with the Barbaro family;
• Konrad Ottenheym, Some obscured sources for Scamozzi’s system of the Five Orders;
• Mario Piana, San Nicola da Tolentino fra trattato e cantiere (St. Nicholas of Tolentino between treatise and construction);
• Massimo Bulgarelli, Il “levare per consiglio nostro”. Vincenzo Scamozzi e le cupole di Santa Giustina a Padova ne L’Idea della Architettura Universale (Lifting as a recommendation from us: Vincenzo Scamozzi and the domes of Santa Giustina in Padua in The Idea of a Universal Architecture);
• Paola Placentino, L’Idea della Architettura Universale e i progetti per i procuratori di San Marco de supra (The Idea of a Universal Architecture and the projects for the procurators of upper San Marco );
• Macarena Moralejo Ortega, La nozione di idea nei testi a stampa dalla seconda metà del Cinquecento a metà Seicento: gli autori, i temi e il loro rapporto con L’Idea della Architettura Universale di Vincenzo Scamozzi (The notion of idea in printed texts from the second half of the sixteenth century until the mid-seventeenth century: The authors, themes and their relationship with the Idea of a Universal Architecture by Vincenzo Scamozzi).
• Fernando Marías and José Riello, La fortuna de Vincenzo Scamozzi en España (Fortune of Vincenzo Scamozzi in Spain)

NOTES

[1] The results of the research are condensed in K. Isard Isard, The Practice of Theory in Vincenzo Scamozzi's Annotated Architecture Books, PhD dissertation, Columbia University, 2014, at the time (and we hope, not for long) still unpublished.

[2] In turn, these annotations were partially proposed by Wolfgang Lippmann and others within Vincenzo Scamozzi 1548-1616, catalogo della mostra tenutasi a Vicenza (Vincenzo Scamozzi from 1548 to 1616, The catalogue of the exhibition held in Vicenza), Palazzo Barbarano from September 7 to 11 January 2004).

[3] See Lucia Collavo, L’esemplare dell’edizione giuntina de Le Vite di Giorgio Vasari letto e annotato da Vincenzo Scamozzi (The specimen of the Giunti edition of Giorgio Vasari's Lives, as read and annotated by Vincenzo Scamozzi), in "Saggi e memorie di storia dell’arte”, N. 29, 2005; and always by Lucia Collavo, Di Vincenzo Scamozzi lettore e critico di Giorgio Vasari scrittore e architetto: dall’esperienza di analisi del postillato H.P.K (On Vincenzo Scamozzi as a reader and critic of Giorgio Vasari as writer and architect: the experience of analysis of the annotated H.P.K. manuscript), published in Arezzo e Vasari. Vite e Postille (Arezzo and Vasari. Lives and Margin Notes), Arezzo, 16-17 June 2005, conference proceedings, edited by Antonino Caleca).

[4] See Katherine Isard, Architectural Criticism in Late Sixteenth-Century Italy: Vincenzo Scamozzi’s Annotations to Pietro Cataneo’s L’Architettura in Annali di architettura, 25, 2013.

[5] See Branko Mitrović and Vittoria Senes, Vincenzo Scamozzi’s Annotations to Daniele Barbaro’s Commentary on Vitruvius’ De Architectura in Annali di architettura, 14, 2002.