Palazzo Casati, Caccia, Natta in Novara: Observations Based on New Archival Evidence

Abstract

The paper introduces new archival documents concerning the Palazzo del Governo in Novara, attributed to Pellegrino Tibaldi, and not ignored by the literature. The newly discovered documents clarify the first building phase of the palace, identify Cesare Casati count of Conturbia as the patron, 1571 as the date when the building was started, the suppliers of bricks and carved stones, Giovanni Antonio Piotti as the designer and contractor. The palace had already been investigated in its changes after 18th century, whilst the analysis of unpublished descriptions allows to better understand the original structure, verified on the geometrical survey. The paper contains several reflections on the use of printed sources and on the kind of professionalism in a time, when the distinction between builders and architects was not yet perfectly carried out. The contribution comes to be added to other studies, which better defined Tibaldi’s catalogue, giving back to Piotti a number of buildings, such as Palazzo Gallio in Gravedona, the Villa Pliniana in Torno, the church of S. Croce in Riva S. Vitale; furthermore, the paper opens some new hypotheses on the strategies of patronage and architectural production in Lombardy in the age of Philip II.