The Education of Bernardo Antonio Vittone between Architecture and Engineering

Abstract

Most critics by now agree that the engineer-architect of the Baroque and Late Baroque period was not an “intuitive” operator, only trained in practice, but a seriously prepared professional, able to express himself through predictive calculations and other forms of scientific-based knowledge. For this reason too, the architectural history of the Baroque cannot be separated from the history of science and from construction history. This should also apply to Vittone’s career. Recent investigations have revealed a double scholarly training of this Piedmontese engineer and architect. In addition to his training in an art Academy, the Accademia di San Luca, Vittone attended the University of Turin, where students were required to attend theoretical lessons, and also to take part in practical exercises. In one of these exercises, carried out in 1725 within the course in mathematics held by the Bolognese Ercole Corazzi, the printed booklet published in support of the exercise mentions, in the student list, «Bernardo Vittuni Torinese».