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Francesco Paciotti, European geopolitics, and military architecture

2010; Wiley; Volume: 25; Issue: 3 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1111/j.1477-4658.2010.00692.x

1477-4658

Ian Verstegen,

Historical Influence and Diplomacy

Francesco Paciotti (1520–90) was one of the most famous military architects of the sixteenth century, building citadels in Turin and Antwerp and consulting all over Europe. Much of his success has not been properly connected to his descent from an illegitimate son of Giovanni della Rovere (d. 1501) and subsequent attainment of patrician status of the Paciotti clan in their native Urbino. The fact that Paciotti could be taken into confidence by allied European leaders – King Philip II of Spain, Duke Emmanuel Philibert of Savoy, Popes Pius V and Gregory XIII – was afforded by his ambassador‐like status for the Duke of Urbino, Guidobaldo II della Rovere (1514–74). This new understanding of Paciotti's success allows us to discover an order among his works. Far from those of a neutral journeyman, Paciotti's projects all align diplomatically to Urbino‐friendly jobs. The new understanding also, however, raises many new issues of the loftiness of the pursuit of military rather than civil architecture, of the secretive (and therefore largely unpublished) nature of noble‐ambassadorial intellectual products, and the weight that should be given to the resulting historical record of texts and prints produced by anxious entrepreneurial authors and artists.