Fra Giovanni Giocondo

Fra Giovanni Giocondo , c.1435-1515, Italian architect, engineer, and antiquary. A Franciscan friar, he was accomplished in philosophy, archaeology, and classical literature but is best known for his architectural and engineering works. He designed a drainage system for the lagoons of Venice, built the fortifications of Treviso, and is universally credited with the design of the Palazzo del Consiglio (1476) at Verona, an elegant, arcaded monument of the early Renaissance. He accompanied Charles VIII to France in 1495 as court architect.

Giocondo, Fra Giovanni (1433–1515). Verona-born architect and engineer, he made his name with an early woodcut-illustrated edition of Vitruvius' Ten Books of Architecture (1511). He succeeded Maiano as supervising architect at Poggioreale, Naples, completing it in 1485, and from 1495 to 1505 he worked for the Kings of France, designing the Pont Notre Dame over the Seine (c.1499–1512—destroyed). On his return to Italy he designed the fortifications at Treviso (1509–11) with rounded (rather than canted) gun-platform bastions. He worked with da Sangallo and Raphael on St Peter's, Rome, from 1514.

Bibliography

Croix (1972);
V. Fontana (1988);
Heydenreich (1996);
Vagnetti (ed.) (1978)