FROM SCAMOZZI TO ALEOTTI AND BEYOND: A "SCIENTISTIC" OR "TECHNOCRATIC" TURN IN EARLY MODERN ARCHITECTURE?
In late Cinquecento the wave of Vitruvian studies involved a second generation of scientists, following after Copernicanism: Palladio's friend Giacomo Contarini, senator and Provveditore of the Arsenale, inventor of a precision compass; experimental engineers as Scamozzi and Aleotti, the first modern translator of Heron of Alexandria. They all worked on architecture, stage building and defensive or castle-building. The lecture will address the question about the reciprocal relationship of these different interests.