Guarino Guarini

Il saggio tratta fondamentalmente di due questioni strettamente correlate: 1) il passaggio tra la dimensione plastica e quella figurativa nell'analisi semiotica dell'architettura considerata come forma di “rappresentazione”; 2) il fenomeno dello “esotismo” inteso come fase del processo di sussunzione di forme provenienti da culture altre entro una data sfera culturale. Il caso dell'antropomorfismo nell'architettura di Guarino Guarini – anche per il confronto con la letteratura autografa dell'autore – offre un caso assolutamente esemplare della distinzione tra le tecniche di deformazione plastica e quelle di invenzione figurativa, fornendo del tema una evidenza didattica.

L'abbé de Rute fut un lecteur attentif de la polémique du Pastor Fido qui opposa l'auteur de cette tragicomédie pastorale, Guarini, à Jason Denores. Fernández de Córdoba reprend dans la Didascalia multiplex et dans l'Examen différents arguments soutenus par Guarini pour défendre la tragicomédie, et les adapte à la défense des genres nouveaux qui sont en train d'émerger en Espagne : la Comedia Nueva espagnole et la poésie des Solitudes. Il puise aussi dans les Verati un modèle formel pour ses propres textes polémiques.

Outlining the patterns of ʽcontact situation' between Byzantine refugee savants and Italian scholars, which had a deep impact on the origins of Italian humanism, creates a core of the book. Teachers and students, translators, philosophers and theologians, grammarians, copyists, editors, collectors, book-hunters – all of them played their own part in the revival of the Greek studies in the Renaissance Italy. Work brings the description of the transmission of ancient Greek heritage in the Renaissance and tries to delineate the extent of Byzantine (and post-Byzantine with consideration to Greek enclave in Italy until 1534) culture legacy within Italian humanism. The great impulse given to the Greek studies was caused, beside the influx of Greek scholars in Italy and voyages of Italian scholars to European Greek East, by the broadening knowledge of classical languages, the foundation of libraries both public and private, and invention of the printing. All these important aspects of this cultural transmission are discussed in the present book. Ancient Greek literature, philosophy, science, as well as a system of religious ideas, brought (post)-Byzantine intellectuals into close contact with Italian Renaissance scholars. They transmitted as well a large body of Eastern theological learning. Rich heritage of Hellenic learning together with specific, important elements of medieval contributions was bequeathed to the Westerners of early modern era. Inspiring relationship of the mingled ideas showed in relatively short span of time its fruitfulness not just for period of Renaissance, but for the whole next centuries up to our time.

Guarino Guarini's plan for the Church of the Somascan Order in Messina is one of open issues in the historiographical literature dedicated to the famous architect from Modena. The fact that it was never realised and its features which are widely considered to be too "mature" for the beginnings of his career in Messina (presumably in the period between 1657 and 1662) have fuelled substantial doubts about its chronology and hence about its actual place in the time line of Guarini’s design experience especially with regard to the development of his unique ribbed domes. This article aims to answer these open questions, including through novel arguments based on the analysis of the unit of measurement adopted, on the technical, construction and geometrical criteria that can be inferred from prints dedicated to the Church (published in 1686 and in 1737) and on the clients, and attributes this plan to the period of Guarini’s stay in Paris (documented between October 1662 and October 1666). A logical sequence has thus been traced out in Guarini’s design experience through which Guarini was able to develop the extraordinary invention of his diaphanous domes with interlacing arches which can be seen in the series of plans for the churches of Sainte-Anne-la-Royale in Paris, of the Somascan Order in Messina and of San Lorenzo in Turin. The first decade of activity of the architect from Modena, roughly spanning from his first documented plan for the dome of the Church of San Vincenzo in Modena (1653) to his plan for the church in Paris (1662-63), therefore plays a crucial role in his training and is explored in this study by covering his experiences, the places where he stayed and the architectural works that the young architect was able to observe. Rather than reaffirming or exploring once again the role played by the great Roman masters which has already been the subject of enormous historiographical efforts, this study wishes to focus on the spaces of freedom that he managed to carve out for himself. Starting from critical paths that have already been trodden, this endeavour to underscore not so much what Guarini saw but rather what captured his interest influencing his design choices should not forget his reluctance to adopt the selective filters imposed by the prevailing culture of his time and his unwavering autonomy in his own personal research by re-elaborating available traditions. The spotlight is therefore focussed on the three main interests that clearly emerge from Guarini’s works and writings, namely complex geometric solutions that are able to experimentally outperform conventional solutions available in tradition, columnar architecture in which order is understood in its dual role of structural element and means to organise space, and the most fascinating aspects of Gothic architecture in terms of building wisdom and daring structural solutions.

La pedagogia umanistica e rinascimentale propone un rinnovamento che non rimane limitato al puro ambito educativo, ma si apre a più ampi e suggestivi orizzonti antropologici, politici, artistici. L’ambiente ideale dove sperimentare nuovi modelli pedagogici si rivela, già a partire dalla seconda metà del Trecento, la corte. Umanisti e maestri come Giovanni Conversini da Ravenna, Pier Paolo Vergerio, Vittorino da Feltre e Guarino Veronese realizzano le loro più importanti esperienze educative nelle corti padane di Padova, Mantova e Ferrara. Per tutti risulta decisiva la lezione di Francesco Petrarca, artefice del “sogno dell’Umanesimo.” Il volume ripercorre la vitalità della pedagogia umanistica italiana ispirata dal modello petrarchesco e capace di superare i confini spazio-temporali, da un lato aprendosi all’Europa e dall’altro imponendosi quale fenomeno culturale di “lunga durata”, come dimostrato da autori quali Erasmo da Rotterdam, Michel de Montaigne, John Locke e Jean-Jacques Rousseau.
«Un viaggio davvero affascinante»  scrive Fabio Finotti nella sua Prefazione «verso la scoperta rinascimentale che la prima fondamentale opera d’arte è la persona».

Build history in Turin.

Abstract
This essay is about the historical development of the capital city of Turin in Piedmont and the most important court architects like Ascanio Vitozzi, Carlo di Castellamonte, Maurizio Valperga, Amedeo di Castellamonte, Guarino Guarini and Filippo Juvarra.

In: Renaissance and Humanism from the Central-East European Point of View: Methodological Approaches. Ed. Grażyna Urban-Godziek. Kraków: Jagiellonian University Press, 2014, pp.59-74. - English translation of Chapter 5 of Iter Romano-Italicum Polonorum . . ., Kraków: Universitas, 1999, pp.100-117.