Paolo Sanvito. How Much Vitruvianism

How much Vitruvianism is Left in Vincenzo Scamozzi’s
Architectural Theory?
Vitruvius as a Source of Early Modern Pragmatism
Paolo Sanvito
1. Scamozzi and the De Architectura: a Difficult Relationship

Reconsidering Scamozzi, as one of the numerous representatives of the wave of
Vitruvianism in the modern era, is a special challenge, as this architect has been
an extremely sensitive interpreter of Antiquity and a frequent visitor of ancient
excavation sites. Scamozzi, whose main theoretical work was printed 1615, is in
all respects the last exponent of a coherent tradition of theoreticians, which, as
ideal descent of the Latin author, produced its texts during approximately two
centuries, since the alleged rediscovery of the Saint Gall manuscript in 1415.
Scamozzi’s theoretical activity marks therefore a moment of speculative
uncertainty: as to whether the previous, so far valid model of the updated
Vitruvian theory may be kept or not; and at the same time Scamozzi is
tormented by serious doubts about the validity of the previously dominating
system in the arts and the sciences, which he inherited from the preceding
Venetian humanism. Therefore the question is legitimate: what was left then of
the spirit of the former humanism, including the Vitruvian wave? The
troublesome year 1600 and the ones just following after it are evidently a
moment of upheaval in politics and epistemology for Europe, as they are
characterised by the Galilean turn.
Scamozzi had, to begin with, notoriously ambivalent opinions about
Vitruvius: the Latin author is defined by him “way too confused and obscure”,
also because he is considered by him according to contemporary, i. e.
Cinquecento, standards; but at the same time Vitruvius is for him “prencipe
di questa facoltà”.1 Numerous passages in his massive treatise, the Idea, reproach
Vitruvius: he is also said to be disrupted, “lacerato”; and his lack of philology in
1 Scamozzi (1615), I, pages n.n., but actually 4.
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referring precedent sources is denounced on at least two occasions, both in Part I

and II.2
Scamozzi’s criticism was grounded and seriously motivated. First, according
to Cicognara, the earliest date for Scamozzi’s studies of Vitruvius’s work is 1574
– studies on Daniele Barbaro’s editions both Italian and Latin. In the Catalogo
ragionato dei libri d’arte e d’antichità posseduti dal Conte Cicognara it is explained
that Cicognara possessed the original copy of Barbaro’s translation on which
Scamozzi worked and of course wrote interesting annotations (Fig. 1).3 It was
notoriously Barbaro’s position about the relationship of interdependence
between the arts and the sciences, which clearly determined Scamozzi’s later
attitudes, allowing modern scholarship to even label him a “technocrat” – but
his statement on this issue was, as it has been sufficiently pointed out, extremely
biased.4 I will not go into details about this problem here: but just to mention
one example, he writes:
Donde nasce che alcune Arti hanno piu della scienza, & altre meno. & a conoscere
l’Arti piu degne, questa è la uia,[:] Quelle, nelle quali fa bisogno l’Arte del
numerare, la Geometria, & l’altre Mathematice, tutte hanno del grande.5
2 Scamozzi (1615), P. II, L. VI, Cap. XIV, 49: “Sarà molto facile a intendere nelle altre
[cose] quello autore, il quale è stato sempre riputato non meno oscuro, che difficile, e
lacerato”. In Cap. XVIII, 69 Scamozzi contradicts Vitruvius’s statements, “Non esser
vero, che Doro, figliuolo di Helleno […]”.
3 Cicognara (1821), Bd. I, 133, with the commentary: “Questo è 1’esemplare autografo
sul quale studiò per diversi anni Vincenzo Scamozzi, ed è tutto postillato di sua mano
con incredibile ricchezza di osservazioni critiche, e preziosissime: sonovi pagine intere
d’illustrazioni, e da questo prezioso manoscritto sarebbesi tratta una nuova e singolar
edizione, in cui si sarebbero viste in conflitto le opinioni degli uomini più dotti. Leggesi
infine: ‘Fine sia alla fatica fatta da me Vincenzo Scamozzi Vicentino nel leggere Vitruuio,
commentato da Monsig. Daniele Barbaro eletto Patriarca d’Aquileja, per la terza volta,
con l’havere notato tutte le cose notabili, ed io tutto ho trovato come nelle postille in
margine si vedrà per la prima lettera notato. E questo principiai li 4 aprile sino al dì
d’oggi li 2 Luglio 1574, il che posso dire la prima volta, che io il lessi, haverlo udito, la
seconda, la quale fu senza il Comento del Zoppino, haverlo goduto; e la terza che è
questa, averlo giudicato: nel che ho conosciuto quanto sia da seguirlo a chi vuole di tal
fatica haver meritevol frutto, e così ogni studio voglio in esso porre, trovando che egli ha
ragionato di tutte, o almeno le più difficili e bisognevoli parti dell’architettura e bisogni
dell’architetto, il che se molti conoscessero, non cosi facilmente si vanterebbero di essere
architetti, che appena sanno quello che gli appartiene. Vincenzo Scamozzi Vicentino.’
Questo esemplare appartenne all’architetto Selva, dopo la cui morte fu acquistato dal
Conte Rizzo Patarol, il quale veggendo che poteva con decoro illustrare questa nostra
serie di Vitruviane preziosità, ce ne fece con nobilissima munificenza il generosissimo
dono, sebbene sia egli fornito d’altre molte sontuosità in materia di libri i più ricercati”.
4 See below, footnote 11.
5 Scamozzi (1615), P. I, 5.

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How much Vitruvianism is Left in Vincenzo Scamozzi’s Architectural Theory? 159
Fig. 1. Vitruvius commentary (Venezia: Franciscus Franciscium Senensis/

Ioan. Crugher 1567), p. 184, with Scamozzi’s annotations
Besides, also the well known inscription on the engraving in Idea, on this same
page, which defines architecture as domina artium (accompanied also by
iudicium and genius), is based on Vitruvius’s or on Barbaro’s work, because the

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latter had strongly emphasised this aspect of Vitruvius’s discourse in his

editions. As Indra Mc Ewen could demonstrate, there was a large contribution
of cosmology in the structure of Vitruvius’s treatise since its conception, and
even in his thought in general.6 Architectura is “the art of the geometrical
footprint”, which “demonstrates everything the other arts achieve” (I, 1, 1).
“Corpo”, on its turn, in Scamozzi is an evident reminiscence from the use made
of the word corpus by Vitruvius.
Another principle which Scamozzi clearly inherits from Vitruvius is the
close tie between the task of architecture and that of urban planning, evident
even in the long quotes from the Latin author (“[…] et urbem condens
architectus”; from I, 3; and also III, 4, 5, 6): to this regard the hint to
Deinokrates is eloquent, Alexandria’s architect mentioned in the De architectura
who has the same task Scamozzi chose, the one of a city builder, in no less than
two cases, in Sabbioneta and Palmanova, sort of a modern Utopia. And such
theoretical principles often become rather unequivocal in Idea: “Non è dubbio
alcuno, che il trattar delle forme, et grandezze delle Città, e delle fortezze, è
materia, che assolutamente e propriamente aspetta all’architetto”; “poi il
deliberar la forma di tutto il corpo, come anco delle sue parti; e la divisione delle
strade, e piazze, e situazione de tempij”, etc.7
Some of Scamozzi’s scientific, or natural-empirical positions have been
recently defined by Alessandro Nova in his article on the theory of the winds as
“Galilean”, although without further explanation by the author. Such positions
should surely be considered as the cause of what has been called by Carmine
Jannaco “Scamozzi’s rationalism” in all his writings since 1584 – date of the
Serlio edition: the latter has in part its roots in Vitruvius himself, but in part
also in the contemporary tradition of scientific research. Already Werner
Oechslin occasionally referred to Plato’s quote in Scamozzi’s Idea, “cum ratione
scientiam esse”, which is prominently borrowed from the philosopher on the
very first page of his Prooemium: “Platone disse: Inquit autem opinionem veram,
cum ratione scientiam esse, sine ratione expertem scientiae. [marginal titulus:] De
scientia f. 113”.8 Interestingly enough, Scamozzi indicates here as his source a
(phantom) treatise De scientia, but the sentence actually stems from the
6 McEwen (2004), 226.

7 Scamozzi (1615), P. I, 152. See also again Mc Ewen (2004), 11, according to whom the
dedication to the emperor, and therefore to the Roman state, accounts to a concept of
governmental service “that scholars have recently viewed as key in understanding the
intent of De Architectura. The benefits to be conferred by the Herculean body [or:
Herculean skill of the architect] are […] those of civilisation itself, whose dissemination
was Rome’s self-appointed ‘Herculean’ task”: urbanising the known world with the
foundation of cities and the disposition of the road net.
8 Cf. Scamozzi (1615), P. I, L. I, 2, 5 – 6.

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Theaetetus, which he read in the old Ficinian translation:9 a clear evidence for at
least a partial Neoplatonic orientation. Another very eloquent statement is
found quite at the beginning of Part II of the treatise, where “ragionevolmente
l’Architettura”, as “effettrice di scientia prestantissima, ha da avere ordine”.10
From an administrative point of view, for what concerns the major research
centre at the time, the Studio of Padua, we should take into account that as early
as in 1528 a special Venetian Magistratura, the Riformatori dello Studio, had
been formally instituted by the central government. From this moment on a
rationalisation of teaching at the philosophical faculty was taking place,
coinciding with Daniele Barbaro’s generation, along with the education of a
whole new class of academics for the Venetian Republic and finally with the
foundation of a number of erudite academies and societies.
There are therefore very evident reasons why Scamozzi would refer to
Vitruvius in a very cautious and critical way, since the very beginning of his
career. Whether we agree or not with Nova’s11 label, according to which
Scamozzi “can be described as a technocrat”, it is evident, after a very first glance
at the treatise, that his imagination of the art of architectural designing and
planning is similar to that of our contemporary technical universities: it is
strictly mathematical and geometrical (Fig. 2), which cannot exactly be said
similarly about Vitruvius’s methods. The architectural drawing does not play
that relevant role in Vitruvius. For example, Burkhard Wesenberg judged, while
reviewing Heiner Knell’s Vitruvian book, that “Vitruv nicht als Bauforscher
schreibt, sondern, […] als Theoretiker, wie der Verf. aus der Verbindung von
korinthischer Säule und dorischem Gebälk ableitet”.12 And because of this
problematic feature of Vitruvius, Scamozzi primarily, and I would say
programmatically, differs from the Latin theoretician.
Scamozzi considered as more important the knowledge of the monuments
or, in the building practice, the systems according to which they are built (he
specifies that architecture is born “affine dell’universale utilità”, for the purpose
of the universal usefulness [p. 4]; Idea is therefore a book for practitioners of
building). This is also the cause of the extensive study travels he undertook.
9 This aspect is actually skipped in Oechslin’s analysis by simply reminding that Plato
himself refers to his own Theaetetus in Polit., 257a, 157c, 158a (Oechslin [1997],
XXXIII). But on the contrary, see Ficino, Marsilio, which he probably read in the recent
edition, Omnia d. Platonis opera tralatione Marsilij Ficini, Venetiis, Hiernymus Scotus,
1571, 95: “The.: Quod ab aliquo de scientia quondam audivi, oblitus eram, sed jam
reminiscor. Inquit autem opinionem veram, cum ratione scientiam esse, sine ratione expertem
scientiae”: the last sentence is by Ficino; and Scamozzi argues further: “è segno manifesto,
che ella sia scientia (come dice Platone)”, because etc.
10 On this statement see also Kruft (1991), 112.
11 Nova (2006), 83.
12 Wesenberg (1987), 737.

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Fig. 2. Grid for a ground plan, from Idea (http://dx.doi.org/10.3931/e-rara-7579)

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They all had scientific aims and, as first recognised in Marco Frascari’s essay on
the Teatro degli antichi or Olimpico in Sabbioneta, the Vicentine architect stayed
in Rome and Naples long enough to succeed in meeting very relevant
personalities in the sciences in this period: maybe Giordano Bruno, whom he
indirectly quotes in the theatre building itself and indirectly also in the Idea, but
surely some others, like the Linceo Giambattista della Porta. He might have had
exchanges with Bruno again in 1591, when the latter came back to Italy, invited
by Zuane (Giovanni) Mocenigo, the Provveditore later in 1594 for Palmanova
and Marc’Antonio Barbaro’s successor, who at the same time hosted Bruno and
was responsible also for his persecution in Venice.13 But at least a first precocious
trip to Rome and Naples in 1579 is confirmed by passages in Idea: “la prima
volta, che noi andassimo a Roma […]”;14 and: “Anno 1579. Si potrebbe ancor
dire delle esalationi in varij luoghi della Solfatara, e nei bagni presso a Napoli”.15
Also striking is the similarity of the wind rose diagram (of obvious origin in
Vitruvius, who considered it in at least two chapters, VI, 4 and VI, 5) in both
Scamozzi’s treatise or in Bruno’s mnemonic diagrams,16 and in the Sabbioneta
theatre (sic!), in the signs on the walls of the second row of seating steps. There
they are figural “seals” from Bruno’s volume on memory from the mnemo-
technical writings, Triginta sigilli, which had been already edited in London in
1583.17 A similarity in the technique of mnemonic diagrams is to be observed in
those reproduced in Idea, P. I, I, 40.
In the Discorso, the preface introducing Serlio’s reprinted Regole – allegedly
written by his father Gian Domenico (died in 1582) but presumably, instead, two
years later, in 1584, by himself, Scamozzi asserts the indispensable role of the
sciences, among which he counts, like later in the Idea, architecture. In the ancient
Greek theory, as far as we are informed by Vitruvius when he refers to Pytheos,
the architect and planner of Priene, every architect had not simply to be aware of
the other natural sciences: he even had to excel over all of them and their related
technicians (a city would then be defined, not only as product of architecture, but
as a Gesamtkunstwerk): “An architect should have that perfect knowledge of each
13 Frascari (1998), 256, however, does not recognise the identity of Mocenigo as the same
person dealing with Bruno and at the same time, as a Provveditore for military matters,
of course cooperating with Scamozzi. For Bruno’s concerns with the study and definition
of motion, which he shares with Scamozzi, see Knox (2005), 177: Bruno and Galileo,
like Copernicus, “used to demolish Aristotle’s ideas of simple bodies, simple motions and
natural place”, and Knox (2001). For an accurate investigation of the trends in Rome
and Naples around the foundation of the Lincei, see Freedberg (2002). On Galilei and
his relationship to the visual arts in Padua see Bredekamp (2007).
14 Scamozzi (1615), P. I, L. I, 65.
15 Scamozzi (1615), P. I, L. II, 140.
16 Frascari (1998), 256.
17 Bruno (1583), 248, 250. Yates (1966), fig. 14a/b; 182.

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art and science which is not even acquired by the professionals of any one in
particular”.18 In Scamozzi’s wording, again: “Allo eccellente architetto s’aspetta il
conoscere tutte le cose in universale, & in particolare”.19
Also, Scamozzi’s movement theories and metamorphic theories might be
related to the early modern rediscovery of Heraclitus, in whose thought the
importance of the world’s element fire, as an engine of all evolution and life
forms, is central. Heraclitus is mentioned by Vitruvius anyway, and mostly in
conjunction with his teacher Thales (this could be even considered a part of the
general archaistic revival of the 1st century, which also Pythagoreanism
witnesses; see on this Di Pasquale’s contribution in this same volume). The
circular movement as an origin of all further movements is central in the Pre-
Socratic philosophers as well, as in Anaximander who was very important for
settling the understanding of the rotating movement of star systems. Similarly,
the wind rose relates per se to cyclical movement. Borys observed in Scamozzi’s
theory a “constant effort to re-match information and carry knowledge
forward”,20 very much in the evolutionary sense once typical of the Ionic
philosophical school; such orientation is possible in a modern theoretician, and
even in the eyes of an early modern historian of philosophy. According to the
ancients the human species was able to accumulate knowledge imitating the
movement of skies, building machines which reflect the behaviour of nature,
and this imitation induced the birth of naturalistic-philosophical theories. The
use of techniques took down to the earth (as a metaphor) the circular movement
from the sky. The principles of lever, or of magnetism, were essentially drawn
from the observation of the cosmos and became thus indispensable part of the
history of civilisation. These are all the practical techniques or the forms of
knowledge (in the original wording: scientia) which are underscored by
Vitruvius to give high value to the work of the architects.
And Scamozzi’s acquaintance with the wisdom (and practical wisdom,
increasing the value of architectural endeavours) of several ancient epochs reveals
itself in all evidence when we read his Sommari (the Marciana Codex Marc. It IV,
128): “Dione Cassio, Flavio Vopisco, Aristide di Smirne [=Aristeides Koïntilia-
nos], Pompeo Trogo, Diodoro Siculo, Giulio Frontino, Giulio Polluce, Eutropio
Presbitero, Pausania, Cesare, Plinio Secundo, Appiano, Plutarchus De Musica”
(c. 147); c. 131: “Herodiano”, c. 132: “Sesto Aurelio Vittore” are the ancient
authors he quoted. Elio Lampridio on the contrary is not an ancient author, but a
Quattrocento humanist, author of a very reliable dictionary for rare words. The
18 Vitr. I, 1, 12. According to Hoepfner (1984), 16, “Mit dieser Vorstellung der Stadt als
Gesamtkunstwerk erst wird begreiflich, warum Pytheos vom Beruf des Architekten eine so
extrem hochgeschraubte Vorstellung hatte”.
19 Scamozzi (1615), P. I, 17.
20 Borys (1998), 64.

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Sommari clearly list also rather African/oriental sources: “Beroso Babiloneo;

Mirsilo Lesbio; Manethone Egittio; Macrobio” (c. 129r, especially for his “Ar-
monia dei cieli”).21
For Scamozzi the principles of the urban planning process are purely mental,
mathematical, exactly as it is postulated in the Discorso of 1584. This is indeed
not, or only under a special angle of perspective, a heritage from Vitruvius,
because it results from Scamozzi’s own intellectualism, more on the score of a
Giulio Camillo (whose works he had read; they were published in Venice in the
same years anyway. We will get back to Scamozzi’s knowledge of them, see infra,
par. 4) or of other philosophically oriented authors. As Frascari put it, “a design
for a future building is conceived as a mental image which is based on a
knowledge of the liberal arts stored artfully in the architect’s memory”.22 Such is
evidently Scamozzi’s contribution, which has been radically betrayed by many
later interpreters: his “universalizzazione dell’architettura” is fundamental in the
foundation of the discipline during the modern era, especially as a preliminary
to the birth of the numerous technologies supporting it.
Therefore it is evident that the Idea was strongly influenced by
mathematical concepts of drawing and planning of ancient Greek origin,
which had been transmitted to the Paduan and Venetian academic circles via the
interpretation of Euclid’s and Aristotle’s writings. In what measure though was
Scamozzi influenced by late Aristotelianism, Vitruvian or even early modern
neo-Pythagoreanism?
2. Architectural and Urban Planning according to

the Principles of the “Ancients”
Scamozzi’s epistemology of universal knowledge, science as the act of decipher-

ing a machine, the machina del mondo, goes surely directly back to the ancient
philosophical schools, and among those, because of its geometrical character, to
Pythagoreanism, which had been fundamental not only for the Vitruvian
architectural theory, and beforehand familiar to Lucretius.23 Pythagoreanism of
21 See Trüdinger (1918), 130: “Das Geschichtswerk des Pompeius Trogus hat eine Menge
geographisch-ethnographischer Schilderungen, eine Fülle von origines enthalten”, and it
considers the Mediterranean as well as a number of Scythian and Iranian populations.
22 Frascari (1998), 354. See also Oechslin (1997), XIV, recognising the Idea’s “valore
intrinseco, l’aver cioè riproposto, dopo Vitruvio e Alberti, un’esposizione dell’intero
orizzonte di sapere valendosi di tutti gli elementi che l’architettura mette a disposizione
della società”.
23 Lucretius (De rer. V 96) counts among the prominent users of the lemma machina
mundi: “Una dies dabit exitio, multosque per annos Sustentata ruet moles et machina
mundi”. See Forcellini (1965) (originally 1827 – 1831), III, 140; and Thesaurus linguae

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Fig. 3. Vicenza, Teatro Olimpico, stage (Photo: Stefan Weinzierl, Berlin)
latinae, VIII, Leipzig 1936 – 1956, col. 13. In Pliny (Hist. Nat., 15, 24) it is interestingly
the term used for Curio’s theatra. See also Stat., Theb. machina caeli (7, 812); Mart.
Cap., II, 201: caeli molem machinamque; Chalc., Platonis Timaei transl. p. 32 sectio c:

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course is not only to be found isolated in Roman culture, in that peripheral

province of Hellenism in the Mediterranean West, during the 1st cent. B.C.: its
persistence had wide deeper roots in the Cinquecento Italian and Venetian
scholarship. Further, we find in the Idea the following assertion: “Vitruvius,
Pliny and many others, however, gave four names to the four parts […] so that
each of them occupies a quarter of the circumference, of this machine we call
the world [Machina del Globo Mondiale]”:24 is this Pythagoreanism or
Platonism, or rather confidence in the power of the forces of mechanics and
physics? To this regard, also the chapter on winds is relevant. Here Scamozzi
surely also relied, while referring to “many other authors”, on Hippocrates’s and
Theophrastus’s De ventis, or De signis tempestatum 25 (available in a miscellany
edition in 1501; and even in their earlier edition: Venezia, Aldo Manuzio,
1497). In this work Theophrastus proves being nearly more of a physician than
a philosopher.26 But already Barbaro had made extensive use of Hippocrates in
preparation to his Vitruvius commentary of 1567; references to his theories, on
the health of cities, are at p. 54: “Della diuisione delle opere, che sono dentro le
mura, & della dispositione di quelle per ischifare i fiati nocivi dei venti”. From
Barbaro’s side the interest must have concentrated on Hippocrates’s work in
general, but especially on the treatise Peq· Aeqym, zdatym, Tºpym (first printed
in 1525).27 Scamozzi must have had multiple occasion to bump into either
“istam machinam […] fabricatus est deus” (= to tou kosmou soma). Palladio is among
the first modern architects to refer to the metaphor, in the Proemio to the Forth book.
24 Scamozzi (1615), P. I, L. II, Cap. XIV, 140. And P. I, 17.
25 Aristoteles (1501).
26 For Theophrastus’s On Winds in the Renaissance: Eorum quae hoc uolumine continentur
nomina & ordo. Aristotelis uita ex Laertio. Eiusdem uita per ioannem philoponum.
Theophrasti uita ex Laertio. Galeni de philosopho historia [.] Aristotelis de physico auditu,
libri octo. De coelo, libri quatuor. De generatione & corruptione, duo. Meteorologicorum,
quatuor. De mundo ad Alexandrum, unus. Philonis Iudaei de mundo, liber unus.
Theophrasti de igne, liber unus. Eiusdem de ventis liber unus [.] De signis aquarum &
uentorum, incerti auctoris. Theophrasti de lapidibus, liber unus, Venetiis: in domo Aldi
Manutii 1497. And in modern edition: transl. Victor Coutant and Val Eichenlaub,
London 1975.
27 First edition in Rome: ex ædibus Francisci Minitii Calui Nouocomensis, 1525; but in
Venice already known as early as in 1526 in the edition by Aldo Manuzio, then in Basle
1529 both in original Greek and Latin, translated by Janus Cornaro’s (= Simon
Haynpol, *1500 Zwickau – † 1558 Jena) corrected edition: Zppojq²tou J¾ou Peq·
!´qym, rd²tym, tºpym. Shortly later: in Venice ap. Erasmum, 1546; then in Paris,
Gorbin, 1557, […] liber olim mancus, nunc integer: qui Galeno, De habitationibus et
aquis, et temporibus et regionibus inscribitur: ab Adriano Alemano […] illustratus (with
commentary). Or again later in Lyon, apud Antonio Vincenti 1562 [only from page 83
onwards]. See on this treatise: Trüdinger (1918), 37 ff.; Wille (1967), 587.

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Aristotles’s work,28 or at least into one of his pupils’ beautiful editions in

Europe’s most learned and powerful editorial city, Venice.
This kind of mechanical interpretation of the world, mostly in engineering
terms, and of its driving forces is confirmed by Scamozzi’s own, and others’
contemporary scholarly analyses of his theatre in Sabbioneta, and could surely
apply to all of his theatre projects (Fig. 3). For example, for Ann M. Borys,
Scamozzi must have had a “geometric idea about the theatre, though none was
communicated by the project drawings he has produced”.29 We can develop
diagrams in order to understand the spatial structure of Scamozzi’s building: but
“none of the [geometric] diagrams demonstrate sufficient correspondence to the
plan”. This fact is in itself rather anti-Vitruvian, showing that the belief in the
geometrising classical theatre model by this time had become – at least for
Scamozzi – highly irrelevant and unreliable. Furthermore, “motion as a key
theme in Scamozzi’s thought is evident in the pervasive presence of the wind”
(again Borys30). These issues seem to have been closely intertwined in Scamozzi’s
working method, as the wind rose is drawn by him also at the bottom of the
project for the theatre (Drawing 191 A = fig. 8). Is it in this case just a reference
to the orientation of the building, of its relationship to the surrounding city, or
to the motion forces which seem to be involved, as we saw, in a theatre plan? I
deliberately skip here the subject of the investigation of sites chosen for the
foundation of settlements and cities, closely related to the science of anemology,
which Scamozzi had partially inherited from Vitruvius, and on which I had the
occasion to research in an earlier essay.31 Scamozzi also deals extensively with the
hygienic issue of the lots of land used for the construction of houses. His
cosmos is a sensitive, constantly metamorphic one and can be defined as in
eternal, continuous motion: we might notice as no casuality that Galileo’s De
motu, which on his turn seems to be strongly influenced by Bruno’s concepts,
was available as a manuscript since 1591,32 while Scamozzi resided in Veneto
(but also, at times, traveled southwards), though we have hardly any chance to
know whether he read it; the sources are too vague in this respect.33 The
nobleman Paolo Gualdo has been also, apparently, acting as a connection
28 For example: Aristoteles Stagirite Metheororum, lib. I – IV, Venetiis: Joannes & Gregorius
de Forlivio, 1491 (= Meteorologika).
29 Borys (1998), 195.
30 Borys (1998), 195.
31 See Sanvito (2012a).
32 Printed edition: Galilei (1960).
33 See Drake (1972) on the order of the sources of the script, where the author is able to
demonstrate (56) that Galileo was composing a large part of his notes, during at least a
decade since 1600 through 1610 when he departed, in Padua and again and again in
Venice, as the watermarks in a careful list of the single manuscript samples demonstrate;
and see again Drake (1975) on musical issues in Galileo.

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between Scamozzi and Galileo: he was closely related to both of them. Di

Pasquale furthermore proposed – as we have mentioned – to recognise, in the
interests in the ancient physical theories, a major reason for the appraisal of the
cyclic movement and at the same time of the circular form, in the longue durée
of Vitruvianism through the modern era.
In Scamozzi’s work there are also hermetic remembrances. He refers to the
writings by Hermes Trimegistos by explaining the theory of microcosmos and
macrocosmos (in Part I, 38). But what does he mean though, by using both
terms? His aims and references appear erratic and confused; in this case,
contrary to the Theaetetus quote, here he offers no bibliographic note.
His knowledge of ancient Roman architecture had substantially refined itself
since the times of the first Vitruvian editions of the sixteenth century. For
example his representations of the domus, of the insulae and the villa degli
Antichi (i. e. the “fabrica rurale degli Antichi”) (Fig. 4), even of the houses built
for Roman Senators, are so much more thorough and meticulous than anything
else before Scamozzi: which actually proves an intense exchange with the
archaeological erudition of his time.
3. Pragmatism versus Vitruvian Orthodoxy

Scamozzi, the son of a masons’ family from the Valtellina valley, is originally
educated as a pragmatist; after his father, he is the first family member who
enjoys a humanistic education. Therefore he tends to use the rules assessed by
the doctrines of Antiquity only in what they are useful for. His vision of the
world can certainly not coincide with the Vitruvian one, because he is not a
Pythagorean, but on the other hand he has a holistic approach to thought and
knowledge. His understanding of Antiquity is without limitation, a kind of
antiquity seen from a global perspective, in which even the ancient Iranian
urban culture is contemplated: he describes Raga, the settlement chronologically
preceding modern Teheran (today: Ray), a site just a couple of kilometres South
of the Iranian capital. He therefore draws from the rules of the ancient
civilisations the precepts for good planning, because they have been proved
undoubtedly efficient before him. But he uses also contemporary discoveries: he
never mentions Ligorio – a renowned Anti-Vitruvianist – in his Sommari
(1586), not even in the list of names (Tavola, at their beginning) of architects of
the universal history, or in the Discorso. However, he describes Villa d’Este in
Tivoli in the Idea. 34 There are no hypotheses about the sources from which
34 Scamozzi (1615), P. I, 261, 305, 328 – 329.

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Fig. 4. Ancient Roman suburban villa – Idea, Part I, 284

(http://dx.doi.org/10.3931/e-rara-7579)

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Scamozzi might have drawn his somewhat exotic material: maybe Caterino
Zeno’s travel diary from 1558?35
Pragmatism in this context is to be understood as an attitude towards the
sources, the forms of knowledge and the use that can be made of them. It has as
a consequence that also non-technical precepts come under the consideration of
architecture and his practitioners. Again, in the transposition of disciplines and
precepts from his different sources, Scamozzi – adopting a pragmatistic view –
selected those which make the realisation of architectural projects the most
sensible and efficient: in fact, the analysis of the exemplary theatre of
Sabbioneta is eloquent in its unscrupulous lack of regard towards Vitruvian
principles. Other scientific doctrines and another architectural theory than the
Ancient Roman one came into use there, and it was clearly a modern theory,
developed since Peruzzi, applied in many contemporary theatrical venues. What
Scamozzi looked for was a way of rationalising architecture and urban plans,
therefore he picked up rationalistic models and paradigms from Antiquity – or,
rather, from all the world’s antiquities. As Wolfram Hoepfner writes with regard
to the “Hippodamic” urban plan:
Heute erscheint es gesichert, dass Hippodamos von Milet im Bereich des Städtebaus
nicht nur eine Art Flächennutzung einführte und mit der Erfindung des
Typenhauses zur Demokratisierung beitrug, sondern auch Grundzüge der pytha-
goräischen Lehre in dieser Wissenschaft zur Anwendung brachte.36
This was the kind of doctrine for the urban plan which Scamozzi was trying to
revitalise.
Hoepfner stated that especially in the late Classical period Roman
architecture has been influenced by a strong rationalism, in which the Glie-
derbau (the conglomeration of elements in a building) slowly mutates into a grid
design, so called Rasterbau, “grid building” (see Fig. 5). An archaic example,
Maroneia, in Thrace, 7th cent., has as its design modulus the Doric feet (Fig. 6):
in fact, in the Late Classical era “architecture was characterized by an evident
35 De i commentarii del viaggio in Persia di M. Caterino Zeno il K. et delle guerre fatte

nell’imperio persiano, dal tempo di Ussuncassano in quà, libri due. Et dello scoprimento
dell’Isole Frislanda, Eslanda, Engrouelanda, Estotilanda, et Icaria, fatto sotto il Polo Artico,
da due fratelli Zeni, M. Nicolò il K. e M. Antonio. Libro uno. Con un disegno particolare di
tutte le dette parte di Tramontana da lor scoperta, Venetia, per Francesco Marcolini, 1558
(Biblioteca Marciana, Rari Ven. 636). It was dedicato to Daniele Barbaro by the
publisher Marcolini, “per la fratellanza in amore che ha Vostra Reverendissi. Signoria col
Magnifico M. Nicolò Zeno”. The “Proemio de l’autore ne i due libri de’ commentarii
del viaggio in Persia et delle guerre persiane di M. Caterino Zeno il Cavalliere” (fol. A v
r) is not signed.
36 Hoepfner (1984), 15.

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172 Paolo Sanvito
Fig. 5. Basilica in Ruscino, today Roussillon, 1st cent. B.C. Ground plan
(Archive Dr. Andreas Post)
rationalism”.37 But also during the Hellenistic period the exemplarity of the grid
planning system was preserved and further developed (“blieb dieser Trend zu
37 Hoepfner (1984), 15: “in spätklassischer Zeit, war die Architektur von einem deutlichen
Rationalismus geprägt, bei dem sich der Gliederbau zum Rasterbau entwickelte”.

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Fig. 6. Maroneia, Thrace. Residential insula in Doric cubits. Drawing by Georg Karadedos
einer Rasterarchitektur erhalten”). Hellenism and Roman Classicism were

exactly the periods which Scamozzi mostly drew his models from (Fig. 7); and
the mentions of the use of proportion and modules in De Architectura – which
gives evidences from the Augustan period – are numerous.
Vitruvius himself explains this same idea of rationalisation very explicitly:
“Nulla architecto maior cura esse debet, nisi uti proportionibus ratae partis
habeant aedificia rationum exactiones”.38 According to Cornelius Steckner,39
38 Vitr. VI, 2, 1.
39 Steckner (1982), especially 268: “Atomistische Wirkungsästhetik”, 269, i. e. under
Epicurean influence.

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Fig. 7. Tropaeum Traiani (Archive Dr. Andreas Post)
“Vitruv stellt den Städtebau in der Form eines geschlossenen Systems dar, in
dessen Zentrum die physikalische Harmonie des Menschen steht”: it means a
harmony reached through knowledge on a physical-material basis. There is no
evidence that Scamozzi might even have studied de visu larger ruined cities when
travelling southwards, such as the ruins of Ostia (well known in the
Renaissance) or – even less likely – such Greek ruins as those of Cumae
(Kyme) and Elea (or Velia) in Lucania, although the “vetusta città Velia” is
already quoted by Pietro Summonte in his famous Epistola of 1524 to

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Marcantonio Michiel in Venice.40 But at least one thing is evident: with his
attention for the shapes of ancient buildings and settlements, he shows that he
was looking for models of this kind. Finally, it must of course remain
controversial, whether he ever made it to these sites and especially whether he
had the chance to take sketches or plans from them. In this sense, if our
suspicion of a partially deliberate assimilation of the planning methods and
attitudes of the ancients in Scamozzi is justified, he must have been in so far
anti-Vitruvian, as he goes widely beyond what the to-date knowledge of
Vitruvius’s geometric systems was at his time, using even much more rigorous
geometrical grids and systems than we might suppose in the Latin author.
Other important aspects, of course, are simultaneously present in Scamozzi’s
theoretical system as well. Partly because of the long-lasting understating
attitude of scholarship towards Scamozzi’s architectural-theoretical relevance
(see e. g. the case of his sepulchre in S. Lorenzo, Vicenza, and the related
comment by Milizia)41 it has not been aknowledged yet that this architect, with
his scientific and acribic observations of ancient buildings, has widely
anticipated the birth of modern archaeology. M. A. Borys had already intuited
it in her judgement: Scamozzi “conceives his temporal relationship to antiquity
more certainly” than his “predecessors”.42 Furthermore, he had a peculiar
interest in the commensurability of urban planning with the purposes of the
good government (see, in Idea, the important chapter: “Il trattar delle forme
delle città”).43 And this interest is very much to be understood in a Vitruvian
sense. Panofsky indeed offered with his theory of the “principle of disjunction of
meaning and form”44 a universal instrument for categorising and above all
understanding this category of changes during the age of humanism. According
to the architectural standard, just as also happens in the case of the literary
standard, an important insight evidently emerges from the reading of the
Vitruvianists’ writings: it was specifically in the moment of deepest recognition
and understanding for the multiple significations of the original Greek-Roman
material, that it became obsolete, no more urgently interpreted as normative,
but just as a source for “contemporary form”.
40 Repr. ed. by F. Nicolini (1925), 174.

41 Milizia (1768), 311.
42 Borys (1998), 59.
43 Scamozzi (1615), P. I, Cap. XXVII, 152.
44 Panofsky (1965), 106: “Wherever a sculptor or painter borrows a figure or a group from
classical poetry, mythology or history, he almost invariably presents it in a non-classical,
viz. contemporary form”.

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4. The Theatre of Sabbioneta, an Example of the Application

of Pragmatic Principles
Soon at the end of the 1580s, after having been appointed as stage technician,
or in February 1585 even more, after having been elected as the soprastante 45 for
the Teatro Olimpico by the local Accademia Olimpica in Vicenza, Scamozzi
quickly developed as an expert of stage and theatre construction, letting himself
be involved in further important stage plans in Italy. Some of them are well
documented in drawings or prints,46 but have been ephemeral, which is among
the reasons why we cannot consider them in their position with regard to
Vitruvius. These projects, and the Sabbioneta example, can only confirm that a
high commitment in the stage arts was not only coming up in Venice, but also
in the Mantuan state (fig. 8). In Mantua governed over a period of 25 years
(1587 – 1612) a great theatre maecenas and a generous patron of Claudio
Monteverdi and Torquato Tasso: duke Vincenzo Gonzaga, who was simulta-
neously a member of the academy in Vicenza.47 Another Mantuan Gonzaga,
Ferrante, had earlier been author of a Pastorale drama, as Angelo Ingegneri (stage
director in Vicenza) reports in his treatise on the stage,48 and had been already a
member of the Vicenza academy since 1584 as well.
It should not be forgotten that Mantua already possessed a widely admired
“Teatro di Corte”, enclosed in the Duke’s citadel buildings since 1549 (its
architect has been Giulio Romano’s pupil Giambattista Bertani). In Mantua,
however, only spare memories of these buildings are now preserved, which lets
the pivotal importance of Sabbioneta increase in our eyes.
In Vicenza as well, in the Archive of the Accademia Olimpica some
technical investigations on the stage are reported, on the side of its own patrons:
we find in this manuscript an Elenco di lettere, orazioni e suppliche lette in teatro,
and among others a letter by Marcantonio Pasi “Ingegnere del Duca di Ferrara”,
45 While Silla Palladio, one of Andrea’s sons, is re-elected at the same date the “governatore
delle robe” of the theatre.
46 See in general Benini Clementi (1984); Barbieri (1952), 126. For a reproduction of an
ephemeral stage, see Breiner (1994), 1050. As Maino (2010) reports, he “per l’entrata
della dogaressa Morosina Morosini Grimani nel 1597”, realised a Portico Argonautico,
(reproduced in an engraving by Giacomo Franco, Venice, Museo Correr) “un teatro del
mondo, un edificio galleggiante che, secondo la consuetudine del tempo, s’ispira alla
simbologia del macrocosmo anche per la sua forma rotonda; quindi oltre a rendere
omaggio ai Grimani, la macchina scamozziana rappresenta il globo col cielo stellato”, cf.
for this particular case and also for other teatri del mondo Padoan Urban (1966), 142 –
144.
47 On his activity as a patron and especially on the court theatre: Faccioli (1962), 574.
48 Ingegneri (1598), 28.

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Fig. 8. Vincenzo Scamozzi, Sabbioneta, Theatre: section and ground plan drawing
(the dedication to Vespasiano has been excised from the picture),
Uffizi, Gabinetto dei disegni e delle stampe, n. 191 A
“eccellente d’invenzioni per illuminare”, and also another letter by Scamozzi,

addressed as the “inventore delle prospettive”.49
There is strong evidence for the Serlian ascendence of Scamozzi’s early
theatrical concepts and structures, which has been already pointed out by
Mazzoni in 1984; these concepts appeared corrected according to the more
updated Barbaro treatise on perspective, which he released in double – Italian
and Latin – version to be printed in 1569.50 Of course it has been recognised
that the Sabbionetan case relies on much more than only Serlianism: but surely
the latter is rather a proof for a detachment from the Vitruvian theatre model.
A comparison of Sabbioneta with the stages for the Bacchides designed in
1531 by Serlio’s teacher Peruzzi in Rome (fig. 9) could be very useful. This
Plautus show was a specific commission for the Cesarini-Colonna wedding:
Antonio da Sangallo the Younger, in the same year, provided a sketch of the
stages, Florence Uffizi UA845r, and Peruzzi provided the technical plans in the
49 Libro segnato M; b. 2, fasc. 11, Accademia Olimpica I. 1555 – 1687, c. 99v.

50 The Latin version, in a manuscript ready for printing in Venice National Library, is the
Cod. Lat. VIII, 41 (=3069), Scenographia Pictoribus et Sculptoribus perutilis, and could
not be printed (Barbaro dies one year later).

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178 Paolo Sanvito
Fig. 9. Baldassarre Peruzzi, Stages for the Bacchides, designed in 1531 in Rome.
Uffizi, Gabinetto dei disegni e delle stampe, n. 268
Drawings 268 and 269 (now in the same collection). Peruzzi’s stages, built
according to his most updated technique, date back to even earlier: for example,
his celebrated Calandria (1514).51
“Serlian models” of theatres were evidently, for a long period, a dominant
feature, even through the same years of the example in Sabbioneta: like
Baldassarre Lanci’s (et al.) Serlian stage set for Giovan Battista Cini’s La vedova
in 1569, in Florence.52
For the mentioned reasons the stage in Sabbioneta might be considered
somewhat a rehearsal of philology or (Serlian) academicism in its shape; besides,
however, it betrays Scamozzi’s preference for projects using regular geometric
forms (which are per se a Leitmotiv in architectural history): we recognise an
“emphasis on the ‘universal’ efficacy of regular forms”.53 Scamozzi’s system is
one “that should yield a comprehension of a universal architecture” – as the title
Idea suggests – “by establishing the relationship between the universal natural
51 Poggi (2005), 444: “si deduce che la prospettiva solida fosse già stata utilizzata dal
Peruzzi nel 1514”.
52 On him see the contribution by Maltese (1980).
53 Frascari (1998), 258.

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order perceived by the mind (Platonic Ideas) and the qualities particular to
buildings”.54 This “post-Serlian” character of course made the architect superate
the Vitruvian theatre rules, in order to elaborate a plan which is very functional
to the needs of contemporary musical performances at the local court (i. e.: its
acoustics would be different from that of ancient Roman theatres; and on the
other hand it is also very efficient from a perspectival and stage technical point
of view). For several reasons Sabbioneta dismatches the plans and descriptions
contained in Vitruvian editions (original drawings from Vitruvius of course are
missing) of an ideal “Theatre of the Latins” (considered superior to the Greek
one). It even ignores any imagination of an “ancient Roman theatre”. Some of
these reasons could be systematically listed as follows.
1. Scamozzi introduced a sloping floor in the cavea, as it was already well
recognisable in the plan from 1588 (Uffizi, section plan drawing, fig. 8); it is
now destroyed and replaced by an average flat floor.55
2. He placed the throne of the patron of the theatre, Vespasiano Gonzaga, in
the loggia, and not in the orchestra or in the lower part of the cavea, as in the
Vitruvian/post-Vitruvian tradition. In the Latin theatre the privileged seats were
rather close to the stage. Vicenza academician Niccolò Rossi wrote in those same
years about the position of senators and honoratiores in the Roman theatre
tradition: in fact, in the orchestra, as Suetonio nella vita di Nerone reports,
“sedevano i senatori, forse nel tempo degli Imperatori, che prima loro era
assignato un luogho ne i quatordeci primi ordini, che erano piu presso alla
scena, per diverse leggi le quali rammemora”, etc.56
3. He eliminated the scenae frons (a decision contrary to the Palladian
tradition as well) and replaced it by a deep (in its shape completely anti-
Vitruvian) perspectival street relying on Barbaro’s treatise La pratica della
perspettiva (1569). Scamozzi is a self-confessed follower of him in his works,
including the Trattato della prospettiva, which is lost but quoted in the Indice al
Serlio (1584), the complete edition of Serlio’s work with a long critical index.
Here, for example, we find the lemma Linea visiva, whose definition reads:
“Dilatandosi per più numero di canali, si viene a crescere, et fa parere la cosa
maggiore; vedi la Prospettiva dello Scamozzi, Alhageno, Vitellione et il
dottissimo Barbaro”.57
A glance at the fresco decoration of the Corridor grande or Galleria degli
Antichi in the Palazzo del Giardino, painted by Giovanni and Alessandro Alberti
54 Frascari (1998), 252.

55 Mazzoni (1985), 73. About the destruction in 1805: Guaita (in Mazzoni [1985]) 105.
56 Rossi (1590), 37v.
57 Mazzoni (1985), 27, interestingly noticed that in the 1600 reprint of the same treatise
the word “dottissimo” has been erased, but not because of an “atteggiamento polemico”.
Indice al Serlio, = Scamozzi (1584), V (the first pages bear Roman numerals).

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180 Paolo Sanvito
Fig. 10. Sabbioneta: Corridor grande or Galleria degli Antichi, (Palazzo del Giardino)
frescoes by Giovanni and Alessandro Alberti, 1587 (Photo: Stefan Weinzierl, Berlin)
might reveal how important precision and skill in perspectival painting were
among the interests specifically of the Gonzaga di Sabbioneta: they are a
veritable exercise of exemplary illusionistic views of the city (fig. 10). Their date
is around 1587, thus exactly overlapping the dates of Scamozzi’s first contacts
with the Gonzaga.58
4. He reformulated the orthodox Vitruvian versurae completely, replacing
them by two painted illusionistic triumphal arches, in order to give space to the
celebration ceremony of the patron, who was expected to enter, according to the
ceremonial, by stepping over the threshold of one of the painted triumphal
arches. Vespasiano’s ceremonial entrance was the right side portal of the building.
And (5.) he located in a very innovative way a specific “orchestral space” at
the rear of the theatre, something which had never existed in earlier
reconstructions of the “Latin theatre” of Vitruvian imprinting. Vitruvius
would have normally put here the porticus post scaenam.
Already in the wonderful stage construction in Vicenza (1584 – 1585),
Scamozzi had demonstrated that he could conceive a radically new stage form,
which had in fact not even existed (with the same features) in Serlio’s or Peruzzi’s
58 Especially Kruft has pointed out to the symptomatic importance of these frescoes, in
(1989), 53.

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Fig. 11. Axonometric projection. Sabbioneta, Theatre
concepts: Vicenza’s stage exceeds in depth all earlier examples we know. From
recent scholarship we learn that the performance project of the first theatrical
season had planned an instrumental ouverture, a fifteen members tragic choir
and a large ensemble of actors. Similar conditions might have been valid in
Sabbioneta for Pastorali dramas as well (though they usually had, as the term
says, a non-tragic, peaceful ambiance); or maybe just a reduced number of
singers. Pastoral dramas were also considered as referring to a “tragicomic”
genre; their most successful example had been staged in neighboring Ferrara in

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1581, Tasso’s Aminta. 59 The documentary material is in fact problematic as far

as the position of the musical orchestra is concerned. Scamozzi, as usual, very
carefully indicated in his presentation drawing the Musici (as we read in the
legend written by himself in the spot of this room) in the elevated space on the
second floor of the backstage. Even a door connected the central platform to the
room in the far back right corner (fig. 11, axonometric projection); but in
conclusion a clear statement about the diverse use of spaces on this first floor
proves irrelevant: if the musicians are supposed to receive those spaces, it cannot
be meant only a central part of them, the neighboring one must have been
involved in their use. But what we have in the Uffizi is a section elevation plan,
therefore not showing precisely whether this space is meant to be at the farthest
right corner of the backstage first floor, or in its centre. The space for the
Comici, similarly indicated below, finds itself on the ground floor as we can
recognise from the drawing, and in this case it is uncontroversially evident that
this is located at the farthest right-hand corner, because the central spot of the
backstage is here occupied by a section of the slopy stage floor itself. Now the
relevant question concerning the musical practice in this, as well as in many
other early modern classicising theatre examples is: whether the musicians only
paused in these (upper central – upper right) spaces, or they also performed for
the dramatic action below them. The functional relevance of these numerous
supplementary rooms is highlighted by Scamozzi himself, in his description
reported by Temanza.60
The upper central platform, (fig. 12, in a picture shot during restoration
works) still extant today, might suggest that they did use it as a performing
location. But a comparison with the other one of Scamozzi’s stages could be
helpful to answer the question, on which spot the music was performed.
Scamozzi had just completed in March 1585 the Vicenza wooden and
plaster stage61 and, as I was able to demonstrate in a specific monograph in
2012, there he had agreed to locate the musichi (sic) at the farthest spot in the
building, but outside of the theatre. The theatre of Sabbioneta instead offers,
maybe for the first time in the history of theatre architecture, a large elevated
space (fig. 11: view of the axonometric projection) behind the stage, which is
especially visible today after the distruction of the original wooden and
59 See on this genre, which “declined in popularity in Italy towards the middle of the 17th
century”, Geoffrey Chew, Pastorale, in: http://www.oxfordmusiconline.com.562199527.
article/grove/music/40091?q=Pastoral&search=quick&source=omo_gmo&pos=1&_
start=1#firsthit, consulted: 1. 1. 2015.
60 Temanza (1778), 434: the theatre is built “oltre alcune stanze da un lato, e dall’altro,
accomodate a vari usi”.
61 See on this subject most recently: Sanvito (2012b); and Sanvito/Weinzierl (2013), result
of the common researches on the Akustik historischer Aufführungsräume für Musik und
Theater, a project of the Humboldt Universität and the Technische Universität Berlin.

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Fig. 12. Sabbioneta, view of the backstage during the restoration campaign, 1957 – 59
(Photo: Stefan Weinzierl, Berlin)
displaceable scenes which we recognise in the project (here on fig. 8). Several
original reports from the Vicenza theatre commission notes demonstrate that a
certain distance of the chamber orchestra from the stage and from the audience
would get particular appreciation and the explicit support of the makers and
artists themselves: not only Scamozzi helped, in this respect, the Academicians’

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184 Paolo Sanvito
commission deliberating about the form of the Olimpico, as the drawing D.52
(1599) from the Museo Civico di Vicenza proves, but also the stage director
Ingegneri’s, or the lighting engineer Marcantonio Pasi’s statements, or other
commentators’ of the opening performance confirm. In 1599, the neighboring
space called “Salla della m.[agnifi]ca Comunità”, elsewhere also named
camerone,62 where Scamozzi since 1608 will be constructing his Odeo
(accomplished in 1609), seems to have been in 1585 even closer to the stage
than after 1609, though this might depend on an imprecision of the drawing.63
But Ingegneri for example wrote about the wide range of recitation manners in
the Vicenza performance as follows:
Basterà che i detti Chori sieno cantati semplicissimamente, e tanto, che paiano solo
differenti dal parlare ordinario. Ma dove i Chori varranno per intermedi, o dove
non sarà altra musica, si devranno cantare con arte maggiore: et non sia per aventura
male à proposito il dar loro alcuna compagnia d’istromenti posti dalla parte di
dentro della Scena, con riguardo però che tutti insieme facciano un corpo solo di
musica [italics mine], et non paiano due chori, overo uno simigli l’Echo dell’altro.
Et circa al situare la musica dal detto lato di dentro, sarà da haver grandemente
occhio ch’ella giaccia in luogo donde ugualmente risuoni à tutto ’l Theatro, in cui
non sia una parte, che l’oda meglio dell’altra. Et in somma, che il diletto sia
giustamente compartito così à gli orecchi, come à gli occhi degli Spettatori.
We have to keep in mind that Ingegneri’s treatise bases on the Vicenza
experience, but refers to a wide range of possible solutions for similar
performances. In the Edipo there has been no double choir: the single choir
might therefore also have sung alone; and if it had to sing with instruments,
then in their presence.
That special “interior” space, from which the music shall be able to easily
reach the ears of the entire audience, was apparently the “Salla”, later
transformed into Odeo, which is also – like the Musici in Sabbioneta – at a
slightly higher level than the stage. A separation of the instrumental from the
vocal performance is thus clearly objectionable and then refused, interpreting
this as a reciprocal disturbance for the performers themselves and the listeners
(“insieme facciano un corpo solo di musica, et non paiano [to the spectators]
due chori”). It did not ever happen, apparently, that the instrumental orchestra
had to perform alone, and then that its position should be the interior spot; it is
always the same spot where the fifteen members choir stands – and this might
have moved to the stage space from the salla, or viceversa: see what Dolfin
(“concerto di stromenti da fiato e di voci”), Pigafetta (music “concertata di voci
e di instrumenti”) and Ingegneri (“musica di stromenti e di voci, dolce il più che
si possa”) say. In any case, all the sources agree on the fact that the choir was
62 A.O., busta 4, fasc. 70, …Da l’anno 1600 in poi, c. 32r ff.
63 See: Sanvito (2012b), fig. 22.

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accompanied, even at the beginning of the show, by instruments.64 An option of

having part of the music performance in Scamozzi’s stage, or worse, behind it, is
therefore not possible (also for reasons of lacking space; only the maximum
height of the backstage central perspective is in Vicenza ca. 5,5 metres, but its
width is only as narrow as 1,5 metres; outside the prospettiva, the spare room is
just about the same width).65 Also, the sketches by Ingegneri now in the
Ambrosiana Library clearly show that the left versura perspective, leading to the
locho per li musichi, was accessible by an entrance which is broad enough; this
entrance might also have been hidden by a documented curtain (gelosia)
according to Mazzoni, but there is no ultimate evidence whether this happened
during the Edipo show.66
Recent acoustical measurements by Weinzierl have confirmed in some way
the high level of Scamozzi’s technical skillfulness: in an article in print, the
Audiocommunication team at the TU Berlin is able to record that “with
reverberation times of 3,3 s[econds] (Vicenza), 2,4 s (Sabbioneta) and 2,9 s
(Parma) for the unoccupied room, the theatres of the Renaissance period are
considerably more reverberant than any baroque opera houses”, whereas the
time is 1,7 s in Sabbioneta in the “occupied condition” (really close to modern
parameters).67
As early as 1588 – 90 the disparity between Scamozzi’s formal and technical
models and those by Palladio begins to impose itself in any case, and with
evidence: there is no wonder thus, if in a letter “al signor Federico Cattaneo li
14 gennaio 1589”, the Mantuans stated: “We have appointed Mr Scamozzi
[Scamocchia; sic!], who does not descend to be defined a pupil of Palladio’s and
asserts that he is more capable than him” (the letter, by a courtier, is not signed
alas). Scamozzi is also, as we in part saw, much more concerned with the
rationalisation of urban architecture, than his Paduan predecessor had been.68
Incidentally, Borys’s recent proposal, considering the theatre interior as a direct
reference to the city shape of Sabbioneta does not only seem audacious though,
64 Giacomo Dolfin, in Lettera di Dolfin a Battista Guarini…, 4. 3. 1585: “un concerto di

stromenti da fiato e di voci che si udiva di dentro suave molto e dilettevole”. Filippo
Pigafetta: “dalla prospettiva di dentro s’udì una musica da lontano concertata di voci e
d’instrumenti”. In fact the door connecting the stage to the “Salla” is one of the seven
Scamozzian perspectives. Besides I agree with Mazzoni (1998), 130 and his precision in
indicating the reasons for the necessity of a common performing space for all the
musicians.
65 A recent personal communication by Weinzierl inform me that he made measurements
behind the stage, with (logically) no sensible results.
66 Mazzoni (1998), 131.
67 I thank my colleagues fom the TU Berlin for letting me participate to a part of the script.
68 ASMn, Busta 1521. See Mazzoni (1985), 79: “Si è trovato il Scamocchia, il quale non si
degna d’esser chiamato alevo del Paladia, ma dice, che ha cose molto migliori di esso
Paladia”.

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186 Paolo Sanvito
but also based on fragile concrete evidence: according to her, “His whole
interior, not just the stage scenery, is a miniature ideal city where the essential
urban image of Sabbioneta was realised”. In a diagram, she points out to the
correspondence between the two spaces and volumes, on one hand the theatre,
on the other the main Piazza Ducale. Planimetries and volumes of both
however, basically differing from each other, cannot resemble each other to this
point; besides, no autographic statement unfortunately proves that any
correspondence between the two spaces was deliberate on Scamozzi’s (or
anyone else’s at the court) side.69 Much more relevant in the perspectival sphere
is another fact: no doubt, that the perfectly rectangular Piazza Ducale could be
seen as a perspective (and many squares are rectangular!), but the theatre
interior has to necessarily be seen according to a specific perspectival order, whose
roots in Serlio’s and Barbaro’s treatises have been sufficiently highlighted by the
mentioned monograph by Mazzoni.70 Scamozzi makes this necessary order
extremely transparent by even drawing (in the mentioned Uffizi presentation
drawing, upper half, fig. 8) the axis of the vanishing point in the theatre space,
letting it start from the standpoint of the duke (Vespasiano) in the middle of the
auditorium, then constitute the symmetrical axis of the building, and finally
terminate directly in the centre of the first floor space for the Musici. More than
a perspectivist-cosmographer à la Egnatio Danti, Scamozzi therefore emerges
from most investigations as the best architect-stage designer of his time.71
69 Borys (2014), 167. Further explanation might still be needed with regard to the title of
this last paragraph, which defines “Vespasiano Gonzaga’s Theatre a Chorography” (157).
Notwithstanding the suggestive relevance of Borys’s idea of “chorographic architecture”,
there is apparently no need to consider the Olimpico a chorography (unless otherwise
proved); and Scamozzi does not seem to use the term at all, not only in this context –
also in Temanza’s or other quotes. Besides, his own words about the theatre are very
scarce, especially in the entire Idea, thus not supporting Borys’s hypotheses.
Unfortunately Borys’s book came out during the last proof correction of the present
conference proceedings, which did not allow a thorough consideration of its arguments
in my contribution.
70 Mazzoni (1985), esp. the chapter Il trattato di Scamozzi tra Serlio, Barbaro, Danti, 25 ff.
71 J. W. von Goethe, as early as in a letter of 1795, is a paramount example for the rare far-
sighted intellectuals of modern times who have seen the depth of Scamozzi’s contribution
at large. According to him, the Idea is characterised by “eine Fülle, ein Umfang, eine
Nüchternheit, eine Methode, die höchst erfreulich sind. Seine Kenntnisse natürlicher
Gegenstände so richtig und rein, als es zu seiner Zeit nur möglich war. […] Ich möchte
aber auch beynah sagen: die Baukunst ist der einzige Gegenstand, über welchen man ein
solches Buch schreiben kann; denn nirgend ist das erste Bedürfniß und der höchste
Zweck so nah verbunden: des Menschen Wohnung ist sein halbes Leben, der Ort, wo er
sich niederläßt, die Luft, die er einathmet, bestimmen seine Existenz, unzählige
Materialien, die uns die Natur anbietet, müssen zusammen gebracht werden, wenn ein
Gebäude von einiger Bedeutung aufgeführt werden soll”. Here Goethe recognised also
how important the philosophical, or spiritual aspects of this art per se are, since he sees

Authenticated
5. Conclusive notes on the function of the theatre

in Sabbioneta – and its decline
We read in De Dondi’s Estratti that the theatrical genre which was performed in
the Sabbionetan Olimpico in its short time of activity was nothing than the
pastorale drama.72 The building was opened for the Carneval celebration in
1590, stayed open for the duration of fifteen days, with pastorale performances,
which were considered as related to the “comic” genre, and also with dances. A
fix ensemble, named I confidenti, was appointed by Vespasiano on March, 18th,
1590, with the obligation of being resident in the theatre for an obligatory
period of 60 days a year.73 For all these reasons, as Zorzi wrote, Sabbioneta can
be defined a democratic experiment “unico nel suo genere”,74 but therefore it is,
to a large extent, unconventional as well. We will have to come back to such
“unconventional” aspects of Scamozzi’s aesthetics, because they have not been
sufficiently pointed out by scholarship. As far as his social origin is concerned,
he stemmed from a rather middle class family of masons and stone cutters, and
this might be among the reasons why he was able to achieve a sort of technical
conversion of architecture at the end of the century – which would have hardly
taken place without his courageous, unconventional intervention in Sabbioneta
– as well as earlier in Vicenza.75 I suppose that Scamozzi’s late move towards
technology and slight anti-academic orientation interestingly run parallel to a
major development taking place in the Italian scholarly world as well: the
increasing anti-Aristotelianism in Padua – and in other relevant centres of
learning.76
Finally, a problematic architectural feature, which of course prescinds from the

Vitruvian models as well, is the unfortunate theatre ceiling: according to
them related to the essence of life, not only to creativity (Letter to Heinrich Meyer,
Dec. 30th, 1795; I thank Prof. Franco Barbieri for calling my attention to it).
72 De Dondi (1857), 359.
73 Mazzoni (1985), 89.
74 Zorzi (1977), 172: “L’idea della sala e quella del cortile, il peristilio e la cavea classica, il
palcoscenico aperto e la sintesi delle tre scene (tragica, comica e di paesaggio) si fondono
in un organismo perfettamente equilibrato e unico […]”.
75 See for an analysis of Scamozzi’s unconventional positions: Puppi (1967), 325.
Sabbioneta is perhaps the first place in the world in which the art of the stage receives an
official recognition by a state and is regularly payed by the central treasury.
76 See on the anti-Aristotelian polemics also: Bolzoni (1980), 102, with regard to Francesco
Patrizi in Ferrara and Padua – and its relationship to Naples. At the end of the 16th
century, “l’antiaristotelismo costituisce terreno comune di impegno, e favorisce l’incontro
con il pensiero di Telesio”; she verifies a “rapporto positivo con quella componente della
cultura meridionale contemporanea che era orientata in direzione antiaristotelica e
naturalistica e che […] avrebbe preso posizione in senso nettamente antimanierista”.

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188 Paolo Sanvito
Mazzoni, Scamozzi should have planned a vaulted ceiling, though there is no

historical document supporting this hypothesis. Urgent refurbishment works (to
avoid a complete collapse of the roof ) are reported in 1802, which lead to the
present coffered ceiling.77 Whether Mazzoni’s proposal of an original wooden
barrel vault, or the more widely accepted theory of a (more or less) faithfully
reconstructed coffered ceiling is valid, in both cases we would be in presence of a
largely wooden roof construction, whose acoustical properties can be considered
as generally appreciated in the late Renaissance – after having been presented by
Vitruvius as “acoustically proficient”.
After Frascari’s unique and inspiring contribution on the theatre of
Sabbioneta, a last question imposes itself urgently: are there deliberate
astronomical meanings in the theatre design, hinting to the perfection of the
work and the magnificence of the patrons, in this case, or even in similar ones?
Frascari does not seem to be aware of the interpretation of several archaeologists
such as Bruno Poulle’s: the theatre as a reflection of the zodiaque and not only
as a device or “machina” respecting acoustical needs.78 However, already Frances
Yates had formerly precognised the astrological point of view in her early studies
on Camillo Delminio, especially where she referred to earlier ancient theatra, on
which Camillo relied: “Through its basis in symbolic geometry, geometrical
form symbolising the cosmos and man’s relationship to it, the ancient theatre
was a theatre of the world”.79 In fact, as already Loredana Olivato80 reported,
there is clear evidence of a wide posthumous success of Camillo’s works among
humanists of later generations, either in Venice or in the nearest major capitals
(Ferrara): his Idea del theatro was publicly read and commented in at least one
council of the Olympic Academy in 1569, i. e. after Scamozzi had begun
77 ASMn, Prefettura alto Po, b. 8, petition to the Commissario di governo aiming to “andare
al riparo della ruina minacciata dal pericoloso tetto di detto Teatro”.
78 Poulle (2000), 42: “nous hazarderons une explication extérieure au domaine de la simple
acoustique”; and “Vitruve lui-même, à plusieurs reprises, nous suggère une interpretation
astronomique”, with reference to I, I, 16 and V, VI, 1; here, the phenomenon of
overtones is seen as a parallel to the reciprocal attraction of celestial bodies; see especially
50.
79 Yates (1981), 43.
80 Olivato (1979), 248; and Idem (1971). Another evidence for the interest into Camillo’s
work among patrons and academicians of the Italian theatres of this period is found in
the Prefazione di L. Dolce in Giulio Camillo, Tutte le opere, Venezia, Giolito de Ferrari
1552: “essendo dal Signor Marchese del Vasto (come io intesi dal Mutio) imposto
all’eccellentissimo M. Giulio Camillo, che volesse per via di scrittura dargli alcun saggio
di quel suo tanto maraviglioso Theatro, del quale era sparsa la fama per tutta Italia; egli
nel spatio di otto mattine […] dette il seguente trattato da lui chiamato Idea” (quoted in
Mazzoni [1985], 35). Alfonso d’Avalos, who was also a patron of Titian’s, was indeed
later involved in Vespasiano’s Sabbionetan enterprise, as we read on 3. 5. 1590 about “una
commedia in onore” of himself, who was visiting on purpose, “ad udire una comedia
nella scena di detta Sabbioneta” (De Dondi [1857], 361 – 362).

Authenticated
frequenting it, which testifies to a solid knowledge of the Friulian author

particularly in the Terraferma. Its echo apparently travelled westwards and
reached the Duchy of Mantua.

Authenticated
190 Paolo Sanvito
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How much Vitruvianism is Left in Vincenzo Scamozzi’s

1. Scamozzi and the De Architectura: a Difficult Relationship

1 Scamozzi (1615), I, pages n.n., but actually 4.

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referring precedent sources is denounced on at least two occasions, both in Part I

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Fig. 1. Vitruvius commentary (Venezia: Franciscus Franciscium Senensis/

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latter had strongly emphasised this aspect of Vitruvius’s discourse in his

6 McEwen (2004), 226.

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Fig. 2. Grid for a ground plan, from Idea (http://dx.doi.org/10.3931/e-rara-7579)

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Sommari clearly list also rather African/oriental sources: “Beroso Babiloneo;

2. Architectural and Urban Planning according to

Scamozzi’s epistemology of universal knowledge, science as the act of decipher-

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Fig. 3. Vicenza, Teatro Olimpico, stage (Photo: Stefan Weinzierl, Berlin)

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course is not only to be found isolated in Roman culture, in that peripheral

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Aristotles’s work,28 or at least into one of his pupils’ beautiful editions in

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between Scamozzi and Galileo: he was closely related to both of them. Di

3. Pragmatism versus Vitruvian Orthodoxy

34 Scamozzi (1615), P. I, 261, 305, 328 – 329.

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Fig. 4. Ancient Roman suburban villa – Idea, Part I, 284

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35 De i commentarii del viaggio in Persia di M. Caterino Zeno il K. et delle guerre fatte

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einer Rasterarchitektur erhalten”). Hellenism and Roman Classicism were

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Fig. 7. Tropaeum Traiani (Archive Dr. Andreas Post)

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40 Repr. ed. by F. Nicolini (1925), 174.

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4. The Theatre of Sabbioneta, an Example of the Application

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“eccellente d’invenzioni per illuminare”, and also another letter by Scamozzi,

49 Libro segnato M; b. 2, fasc. 11, Accademia Olimpica I. 1555 – 1687, c. 99v.

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54 Frascari (1998), 252.

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Fig. 11. Axonometric projection. Sabbioneta, Theatre

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1581, Tasso’s Aminta. 59 The documentary material is in fact problematic as far

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accompanied, even at the beginning of the show, by instruments.64 An option of

64 Giacomo Dolfin, in Lettera di Dolfin a Battista Guarini…, 4. 3. 1585: “un concerto di

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5. Conclusive notes on the function of the theatre

Finally, a problematic architectural feature, which of course prescinds from the

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