Tiskani traktati o arhitekturi u Dubrovniku (I trattati d'architettura a stampa a Dubrovnik)

Printed Renaissance Treatises on Architecture in Dubrovnik Renaissance treatises on architecture played a decisive role in the structuring of ideas about the architecture of the Early Modern Age because their circulation made a strong impact on people’s notions about architects, and the art of building in the culture of the West, as well as in Dubrovnik. This article begins by referring to printed treatises still extant in Dubrovnik libraries, and by elaborating their relation to the architecture of their time. The existing volumes of Vitruvius’ Ten books on Architecture and About the Art of Building by Leon Battista Alberti point to the cultural level of their readers. Even more important were the books of Sebastiano Serli and Jacopo Barozzi da Vignola, whose influence can be seen on some buildings in Dubrovnik. However, this influence was marked by borrowings of these writers’ motifs, rather than on their proposed systems of orders and proportions. The fact that several rare editions of The Four Books of Architecture by Andrea Palladio survived in Dubrovnik, testifies to a permanent interest for treatises, although, probably owing to the strong symbolic ties of that architect with Venice, he had no direct influence on the architecture of the City. In Dubrovnik the treatises on architecture were cherished primarily as books and were expected to be a part of the general knowledge of the higher classes in Dubrovnik, while only Tommaso Maria Napoli can be singled out as a well-known author of treatises active in Dubrovnik at the beginning of the Modern Age, at the close of the 17th century.