Francesco di Giorgio Martini is one of the few fifteenth century Sienese artists who became known outside his native city. Working at the courts of Urbino, Naples and Milan, he was a typical Renaissance but his major achievements were in military and civil architecture, complemented by the composition of a theoretical treatise. The collection of essays does not offer a comprehensive study of the artist’s architectural œuvre, but rather emphasizes the partial nature of the scholarly endeavor so far undertaken. The essays discuss Francesco’s theory, his drawings from the antique, the individual characteristics of his practice, and the reception of his work. They share a common idea: invention, which emerges as a valid theoretical framework, possibly the only one capable of encompassing Francesco di Giorgio’s versatile accomplishments.

Berthold Hub is assistant professor at the Department of Art History, University of Vienna (Austria). Angeliki Pollali is professor of Art History at DEREE – The American College of Greece, Athens (Greece).

Contents: Panayotis Ioannou: «Per ispasso e per piacere» La di Francesco di Giorgio dal Vasari – Eric Wolf: Reevaluating Francesco di Giorgio on the Form and Nomenclature of Columns – Angeliki Pollali: Human Analogy in : The of Modern Architecture – Richard J. Betts: Francesco di Giorgio’s Reconstruction of the Temple of Minerva in the Forum of Nerva – Sarah Edwards: : The Spiral Ramps of Francesco di Giorgio. An Architectural Re-Invention – Roberta Martinis: Un’architettura con un cielo in mezzo: Francesco di Giorgio nel Palazzo Milanese di Federico da Montefeltro – Rosanna di Battista/Luisa Molari/Pier Gabriele Molari: The First Launching of a Mine: Francesco di Giorgio and the Capture of Castel Nuovo – Louis Cellauro: Francesco di Giorgio and the Renaissance Tradition of the Illustrated Architectural Treatise.