Domenica Sutera

The paper analyses the debate in Sicily on the construction
of the monumental colonnaded porticoes that characterise
the facades of public edifices built on the island from the
post- Unification period to the Fascist regime. The pronao
of the Massimo Theatre in Palermo (from 1875) marks the
climax of a cultural movement, which, for almost a century,
was to associate the neo-Greek style with public buildings
and the material of choice of Sicily’s church building tradition
in a deterministic manner. Calcarenite was used to build the
peristyles of the temples of the archaic and classical age,
with imposing, tapered and grooved columns consisting of
overlapping sections. In the Fascist period, and in the age of
reinforced concrete buildings, the construction of the Court
House in Messina (from 1923) became a topic of discussion
in the debate at national level. The subsequent use of local
materials, some of which of more recent extraction and
processing, together with reinforced concrete, contributed
to distorting the “archaeological” style of the initial projects
sponsored by local authorities, towards modern and abstract
compositions, as in the case of the construction of the Post
Office Building in Palermo (from 1933), or towards compromise
solutions, as in the case of the Court House in Catania
(from 1937). The solutions investigated in any case required
engineering and technological advances to allow the buildings
to achieve a new monumental scale.

This article presents four engravings that bear witness to the most significant stages of the celebrations organised in Catania
for the funeral of the Prince of Biscari, Ignazio Paternò Castello, on 2 September 1786. This graphic corpus constitutes the last
opportunity to celebrate the prince’s memory and prominence based on the models established by European courts, but at the
same time it reveals more recondite aspects of the research into phenomena of emulation in architecture and self-representation
that have not emerged to date from studies on the aristocrat from Catania and that reflect above all the way of life of a cultured
personality driven by great ambitions. The aim of the research is to show that, with the probable support of his architect
Francesco Battaglia and the engravers Antonio Zacco and Luigi Mayer, the prince selected a number of international engrav-
ings as sources for the funeral arrangements that the present study reveals, some of these were likely to be found in his private
library, while the same mechanism had been adopted earlier for the design of the orchestra hall and courtyards of the museum
of antiquities at his famous residence at the Catania Marina.

Colonnaded Churches and Metal Tie-Rods (Palermo, 16th-17th century)


The churches with aisles of arches and columns are an archetype of Sicilian architecture. From the Middle Ages to the 18th century, the preference for this plan resulted in experiments, evolutions and tests concerned with the science of building in a land exposed to the danger of earthquakes. Contrary to the recommendations dispensed and disseminated by the most authoritative treatises, the cases presented illustrate how metal tie-rods were used at construction sites in Palermo during the Modern Age when building these constructions. These elements were able to counter the thrust generated by the arches and vaults or
caused by earthquakes on slender and isolated vertical structures like columns. The documents found concerning the construction of some colonnaded churches started in the 16thcentury, a time when this type of construction witnessed a revival and renewal, provide insights into a technology that was often utilized in the construction phase, while the case of the Church of San Giuseppe dei Teatini (1619) is emblematic of a structure of arches and columns integrated with a grid of iron tie-rods.

Imposing tower façades with belfries in the last order were built in Sicily from the Middle Ages to the Late Baroque. Until the sixteenth century this model, inspired to Northern Europe, also had a parallelepiped forepart leaning against the façade, also working as a containment for the pressure imparted by the inner longitudinal arches on the front (amplified in case of earthquakes). The lacking static efficiency of these early structures is demonstrated by the collapses during the strong earthquakes that affected the island in the modern age. Despite numerous destructions, the memory of some prototypes survived in Sicilian constructive memory through the elaboration, during the late Baroque, of tower façades with an updated morphology. The hybridization with Guarini’s pyramid scheme, and its related articulations, could in fact offer the tower system advantages in terms of structural strength, thanks to a better balanced redistribution of masses and weights.

The Church of San Giuseppe dei Teatini in Palermo, whose construction began in 1619, is a singular structure in the context of 17th and 18th century international architecture. The unconventional formation of the vaulted basilica comprises a series of colossal monolithic columns both in the aisles and at the crossing where the dome is supported on 10m tall columns. The origin of this unique structure had several strands. The construction of the church was made possible by the discovery of a dense limestone called Billiemi at the end of the 16th century in the area around Palermo. It has aesthetic and structural qualities similar to those of marble enabling it to be used to make robust monoliths. This sparked a revolution in the design of columnar basilicas in Sicily, which reached its peak in the Church of San Giuseppe dei Teatini. The visual impression is that of a skeletal structure supported entirely by slender columns. The construction was also made possible thanks to the application of the advanced techniques for lifting monoliths, which Domenico Fontana had devised for moving the Egyptian obelisk to St Peter’s Square in the Vatican in Rome, in 1586. Word of the church and its construction soon spread throughout Europe and was hailed by Giacinto Fortunio in 1655 as a “miracle of architecture”. Drawing on a contemporary unpublished chronicle of the project, this paper presents the first in-depth historical analysis of the construction of this remarkable building which concerns the crucial role of the Billiemi limestone columns.

The placing of the Valera bell, which had been remelted
in 1679, finally required a refurbishing of the bell tower of
the cathedral of Zaragoza. The projects prepared by different
local masters were presented by the Chapter to
Francisco de Herrera, Charles II ‘s architect, who rejected
them one after the other, until the canons decided to send
the one made by Gaspar Serrano to the Academy of San
Lucas in Rome, where it was left to Carlos Rainaldi, Carlo
Fontana and Giovan Battista Contini to judge. The latter
had just been named “Principe” in that institution, and
Carlos Rainaldi and Carlo Fontana were, at that time, the
“stimatori di architettura”. After rejecting it, they elaborated
a new project –in fact, a correction following the codes
of the late classical baroque– which was sent to Zaragoza,
where it received general assent and was practically immediately
undertaken. A huge amount of documentation related
to the process is kept in the Archives of the Seo of
Zaragoza, as well as part of the plans corpus, from Gaspar
Serrano’s project to the copies made by Giovan Battista
Contini. All this documentation provides evidence for an
utterly interesting debate between an architecture considered
as “local”, (though actually open to exogenous models,
only very different from those proposed by the Academy),
and the late classical baroque from the Roman school,
which would be spread all around the European continent
thanks to the above mentioned institution.

La collocazione della campana Valera, rifusa nel 1679, comportò la necessità di costruire un nuovo e più solido campanile per la cattedrale di Saragozza. Dal 1680, infatti, si avvicendarono nella città aragonese diversi artefici che presentarono al Capitolo svariati progetti da sottoporre al giudizio di Francisco de Herrera el Mozo, architetto di Carlo II. La prima pietra della torre fu posta il 4 luglio 1681 su direzione dei maestri locali Jaime Borbón, Francisco López e Gaspar Serrano. L’atteggiamento ostile mostrato da Francisco de Herrera nella valutazione di nuovi progetti costrinsero i canonici a rivolgersi ai più importanti architetti attivi in quel momento a Roma, fulcro del mondo cattolico e indiscussa capitale culturale europea. La scelta ricadde, infatti, sui protagonisti della prestigiosa Accademia di San Luca: Giovan Battista Contini, da poco eletto “Principe”, e gli “stimatori di architettura” in carica, Carlo Rainaldi e Carlo Fontana. I tre periti, scartato il disegno presentato da Gaspar Serrano nel 1683 elaborarono un nuovo progetto che fu inviato a Saragozza, approvato con successo e messo immediatamente in esecuzione. Presso l’Archivio della cattedrale si conserva parte del corpus dei disegni, dal progetto di Serrano alle copie realizzate da Giovan Battista Contini, testimonianza del dibattito tra un nuovo linguaggio da esportare in tutta Europa, il classicismo tardo barocco di scuola romana, e un’architettura considerata “locale”, in realtà espressione di un diverso internazionalismo.

“A NEW I DEA OF D OME”: SACRED AND SECULAR THEATRES IN
BAROQUE-ERA EUROPE BETWEEN HISTORY AND DIGITAL REPRESENTATION
A remarkable and diverse series of ceiling structures emerged
between the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries in several
European cities, aiming to offer a theatrical approach to architectural
space. this development unfolded amidst the
widespread use of frescoed ceilings or hemispherical domes
supported by drums and pendentives inspired by Roman
models. Designing and building systems consisting of multiple
domes, open with oculi, superimposed or surmounted by
lanterns, adorned with frescoes or galleries, and featuring
light and music chambers required expertise in optics, perspective,
acoustics, and, in some cases, even stereotomy.
these skills were necessary to transform spaces in both religious
and civil architecture into fascinating and mysterious
sacred and secular “theatres”. Prominent figures in the history
of Baroque architecture engaged in this effort, including
François Mansart, Louis Le Vau, Pieter Post, Guarino Guarini,
Gian Lorenzo Bernini, Andrea Pozzo, Filippo Juvarra, and Giovanni
Amico. they aimed to fulfill the expectations of generous
and authoritative patrons such as kings, princes, and the
most powerful and widespread religious order of the time: the
Jesuits. A cross-cutting yet vertically comprehensive history
of the application of these unique structures in architecture
and the ways in which certain variations met with success has not been outlined thus far. the analysis and comparison of
different solutions implemented or only conceptualised (at
least those known) and the historiographies of the various territories
involved in this international debate aim to significant
gaps in the state of the art. throughout the investigated
chronological period, numerous famous and lesser-known examples
of these structures can be found throughout Europe
and the Mediterranean, discovered in diverse contexts, including
major capitals as well as so-called “peripheral” centers.
While substantial contributions came from France and
Italy, where the initial experiments and the production of documented
series took place, other deserving lands and countries
were also engaged in this narrative due to the originality
of their achievements. Examples include the Netherlands and
the “remote” and “Mediterranean” Sicily, where a unique series
was constructed. however, it lacks historical iconography,
thorough investigations, and comparisons. historical research
in this field has relied on archival sources and the identification
of models disseminated through engravings that reached
the island. the analytical study of these solutions, designed
to be perceived from below and in perspective while maintaining
enigmatic morphologies and lighting sources to evoke surprise,
has made extensive use of advanced surveying
techniques and digital modeling. this was particularly relevant
in cases where the domes were inaccessible or in a general
state of abandonment.

A STONE FOR ARCHITECTURE AND CITIES
THE USE OF GRIGIO DI BILLIEMI IN MODERN AND CONTEMPORARY SICILY

The centuries-old history narrated in this book uses Billiemi stone as a unique leitmotiv in tracing the continuity, hiatuses and distinctive features of architecture in Sicily between the modern period and the contemporary age. Another equally important objective is to investigate the process by which the history of the use of a building material became a social and economic epic through a system of new construction practices, rules and customs.
As a construction material, Billiemi stone was second only to calcarenite and was widely employed in urban civil and religious monumental architecture for its physical and aesthetic characteristics that were similar to those of marble. Billiemi stone is characterized by its grey colour with black, yellow, brown, red, and white streaks. Darker shades are obtained by polishing, while if used for exteriors the stone facades, thus revealing a light grey colour. Billiemi stone was extracted from the homonymous quarries, as well as from those of Sant’Elia and Bellolampo (mountains rising north-west of Palermo). The opening of these quarries roughly dates back to the last decade of the sixteenth century when the early works made with grigio di Billiemi stone appeared in Palermo. Billiemi stone was a novelty compared to other imported materials, such as spolia or Carrara marble. Indeed, the economic benefits of an internal market and faster transport, as well as the expressive potential provided by the unique colour, which was fashionable for those times, are among the factors that led to a construction frenzy. This stone was discovered as part of an effort to find a cheap, competitive local building material that could contribute significantly to the construction of monumental architecture by public authorities between the sixteenth and seventeenth century to modernise the city of Palermo. The first documented use of grigio di Billiemi however dates from 1600. The stone was used for the construction of a unique central-plan religious edifice commissioned by the Spanish viceroy, namely the church of Santa Lucia al Borgo. From then on the use of Billiemi stone in sacred and civil architecture, both public and private, spread like wildfire. During this period of history spanning several centuries, the progressive and almost exclusive use of Billiemi stone in architectural projects in Palermo was determined not only by the economic advantages derived from its easy accessibility and working. Its success depended greatly on the aesthetic and structural opportunities it offered. At this time, the history of the use of Billiemi stone encountered that of the column as a structural support that established its primacy in the history of Sicilian architecture.
The revival of this tradition in the modern period was ensured by the intensive exploitation of the open-air quarries on Mount Billiemi that supplied strong monoliths, almost free of competition—with few exceptions—around Sicily. Between the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, the substantial production of compact blocks of stone allowed making countless columns to build the aisles of basilicas and the cloisters of the convents of religious orders, as well as the porticos, portals, and stables of noble palaces. The use of Billiemi stone monoliths brought about the birth and development of innovative projects that also allowed achieving an unprecedented monumental scale in Sicilian architecture and, consequently, in the city of Palermo. Some works, like the church of Sant’Ignazio all’Olivella, set dimensional and structural limits for the columns, while others tried to overcome them. In this landscape, the construction and handling of the gigantic supports of the dome-covered groined vault in the church of San Giuseppe dei Teatini (1629) marked an extraordinary milestone in the history of the use of Billiemi stone and in columnar architecture in Sicily in the modern period, as well as one of the highest peaks reached in the development of building techniques at the construction site. A number of other minor events all contributed to this broader chapter of history, fuelling the phenomenon in the centuries that followed. These included the spread of quarries, the economic activities that developed as a result of the growth of an internal market and of exports in and outside of Sicily, the saga of the master masons and the rhetoric centred on the strength and resistance of this material. In 1752 ninety columns of Billiemi stone were exported to build the ground-floor arcade of the Royal Palace in Caserta. The nineteenth century was characterised by industrial production aimed at expanding trade to foreign markets and by the birth of a field of historiography centred on the study of the mechanical and physical characteristics of local stone. In the early twentieth century the transition from the use of these monolithic blocks for structural purposes to that as slabs for walls and floors for decorative purposes marked the works of Ernesto Basile and later of those of one of his pupils, Salvatore Caronia Roberti, who was also the author of an essay on the varieties of compact limestone extracted in the Palermo area, including grigio di Billiemi, which was considered among the autarchic materials of Italian architecture. The intensive use of slabs in a wide variety of sizes, typical of monumental architecture under fascism, ultimately provided further proof of the versatility of this stone in adapting to changes in architecture and marked a period of success even in contemporary times, both in Palermo and Messina. In Messina, Billiemi stone became a major resource during the long reconstruction after the earthquake of 1908, and in particular in the construction of the Town Hall designed by Antonio Zanca and the Court House designed by Marcello Piacentini. The portico of the Post Office building in Palermo, designed by Angiolo Mazzoni, with its huge columns with reinforced concrete core and coating with massive slabs of Billiemi stone, was yet another milestone following the long tradition of columnar architecture, which was inherent in this twentieth-century edifice.

The eighteenth-century Sicily offers numerous cases of church façades which have been destroyed, are incomplete or projects that have never been realized. Earthquakes, limited financial resources, changes in language and taste - by developers or designers - are among the probable causes of the disappearance, a lack of implementation and completion of architecture canceled, partially built or never even started. The buildings analyzed in this volume – The Santuario della Madonna della Consolazione in Termini Imerese, The Duomo of Salaparuta, The church of Sant’Antonio di Padova in Buscemi – not well known or studied, deserve for the quality of outcomes, structures of significant level in the context of Sicilian eighteenth century production. In the Santuario della Madonna della Consolazione in Termini Imerese, in the province of Palermo, a watercolor drawing was recently discovered relating to a sophisticated solution of the façade straight between two towers, different from the present, apart from the mixed-line stairway entrance to the religious building. It is an unrealized project that shows close ties with the façade of the church of Sant’Ignazio all'Olivella in Palermo, among the most advanced sites of the capital and also in western Sicily, but that in some respects betrays affinity with some religious buildings of eighteenth-century Naples. The bell tower façade of the duomo of Salaparuta, in the province of Trapani, collapsed due to the earthquake of 1968 in the Belice Valley. Aside from a few photographs taken before the disaster, this façade, which stands as the only alternative to the type of tower built in western Sicily compared to the many, impressive and also the most popular solutions built after the earthquake of 1693 in Val di Noto, is virtually reconstructed through the numerous stone fragment survivors. Of the project for the façade of the church of Sant’Antonio di Padova in Buscemi, in the province of Siracusa, only the first order characterized by a bold sinusoidal shape was built without regard to the previous Sicilian construction sites and in the context of the intense Sicilian eighteenth-century phase of reconstruction in eastern Sicily. This would mean to ideally complete the artifact from what was built and from only an archived document. Deepening knowledge, understanding genesis, value, role and meaning, that is, reconstruct the original identity of these buildings through historical research and the help of redesign (carried out in this occasion by the architect Mirco Cannella – who currently holds a research grant as part of the Cosmed, Europian Research Council (ERC) Advanced Investigator Grant 2011 -) is a challenge that could even lead to a different view, to a virtual rebirth.

La storia urbana e architettonica di Piazza Armerina ruota da sempre intorno alla fabbrica della chiesa madre. Dal XIV al XIX secolo l’edificio religioso è protagonista di importanti operazioni di trasformazione e di aggiornamento determinando un progressivo rinnovamento della città. La chiesa madre trecentesca, infatti, situata sul colle Mira, al centro e nel punto più alto della cittadina, sarà più volte ricostruita: nel corso del Cinquecento, quando verrà ampliata e dotata di una torre campanaria, fino alla totale riconfigurazione sei-settecentesca innescata dal testamento del barone Marco Trigona (1598) e attuata, dopo una lunga consulta di progetto, dall’architetto “romano” Orazio Torriani. La chiesa madre preesistente, la complessa e intricata vicenda “ideativa”, il ruolo dei molteplici protagonisti coinvolti (architetti, maestri, committenti, cittadini di Piazza), la soluzione definitiva, il successivo cantiere, al confine tra innovazione e tradizione, sono analizzati dall’autrice attraverso l’ausilio di una ricca serie di documenti inediti. L’obiettivo è anche quello di rilevare i diversi ambiti di indagine emersi durante la ricerca che hanno aperto inaspettate questioni e connessioni, conferendo alla città di Piazza Armerina un significativo ruolo nel dibattito architettonico della Sicilia di età moderna.

In the course of the 18th century, church facades with
curvilinear shapes were designed and built in Sicily.
Convex and concave shapes, positioned in the central
portion of the facade, made these structures similar to
apses. Choices of an esthetic nature initially triggered
emulation of models that spread in the second half of
the 17th century in Sicily based on engravings reproducing
the inflexed facades created by the masters of
Roman Baroque. So far, interest in these models appeared
to be the most relevant interpretation in explaining
the design trends of the major architects
operating in the 18th century in Sicily. However, it
seems plausible to surmise that the preference for the
curved facades derived, in some specific cases, from a
reflection focused on the strength of these structures
especially if subjected to the action of earthquakes,
which were violent and frequent in the island from the
Middle Ages and throughout the Modern period. The
aim of this study is to demonstrate the static efficiency
of facades with a curvilinear shape, which was probably
recognized by designers as being among the factors that
contributed to determining the stability of buildings.
We will seek to understand whether behind the esthetic
and formal reasons there was also a debate focused
on the structural advantages offered by this type
of façade, thus influencing the design of the reconstruction
projects. In this context, Giovanni Amico, Giovanbattista
Vaccarini, and Rosario Gagliardi imposed
facades with a concave-convex pattern on Sicilian construction
sites in the 18th century, an interest that was
shared by the three Sicilian architects, as demonstrated
by archival sources. Obviously, Sicilian architects of the
early 18th century were well aware of the extraordinary
fact that some apses (like the Norman apses of the
Cathedral in Catania) had survived unscathed more or
less catastrophic earthquakes that hit Sicily in the Modern
period (1542, 1693 and 1726). The observation of
these structures still standing against a backdrop of rubble
in the aftermath of the earthquake had an impact
on those who were to design new monumental and
lasting edifices in an area at risk of earthquakes. The
documents discovered and the constructions realized
in Sicily prove that the assumption, never actually codified,
according to which the architectural form was
able to cooperate actively in seismic safety was a part
of the body of building knowledge shared by generations
of architects and masters of the Modern period
who worked throughout the island. Some eyewitnesses
of earthquakes realized that history had an essential
“functional” role and that the surviving works were an
invaluable heritage, related to both the technical and
formal aspects of the constructions, to be recovered
and optimized for anti-seismic purposes in future
works. Sicilian architects and master builders of the 18th
century knew the concept of the so-called "crossbow"
effect, which is namely the rotary force exerted on facades by the multiplication of the thrusts of internal
longitudinal arches, amplified during earthquakes, making
them overturn and collapse, as shown by the famous
document that rejected the plan for the new
facade of the Cathedral of Modica (1761). Likewise this
effect however was of interest for the apses built on
the opposite side of the facades. They were structures
that, as mentioned, were sometimes left unscathed
thanks to their particular curvilinear geometry. Many
Sicilian apse-shaped facades of the 18th century were
built on pre-existing edifices that had been hit by an
earthquake to a greater or lesser extent, concealing
the link between the earthquake and the design of
these structures with regard to the consideration of
what had survived in general, to its building quality and
materials. The research conducted by Rosario Gagliardi
and his followers in the field of inflexed facades is the
clearest evidence of the hypotheses hitherto made
through the development of plans, which, based on the
engraved models already known to historiography,
probably leverage the formal peculiarities as further
anti-seismic resources.

La facciata campanile è un archetipo dell’architettura religiosa siciliana. Dal Medioevo al Tardobarocco sono state costruite nell’Isola imponenti facciate torre con cella campanaria nell’ultimo ordine. Fino al XVI secolo questa tipologia, di matrice nord-europea, contemplava un avancorpo parallelepipedo addossato al prospetto, avente anche funzione di contrafforte a contenimento delle spinte impresse sulla facciata dalle arcate longitudinali interne, amplificate in caso di terremoto. La scarsa efficienza statica di queste prime strutture, verticalizzanti e monoblocco, è dimostrata dai crolli in occasione dei forti sismi che hanno colpito la Sicilia in età moderna. Nonostante le distruzioni, il ricordo di alcuni “prototipi” è sopravvissuto nella memoria costruttiva siciliana nell’elaborazione, in epoca tardobarocca, di facciate torre aggiornate nella morfologia, forse anche in virtù di valutazioni connesse alla resistenza ai terremoti. L’ibridazione con lo schema piramidale guariniano, con le relative articolazioni (sezioni curvilinee, telai di colonne libere, volute di raccordo), oltre a manifestare rinnovate relazioni con l’architettura centro-europea, potrebbe infatti, mediante una ridistribuzione più equilibrata delle masse e dei pesi, offrire al sistema della torre caratteri vantaggiosi in termini di resistenza strutturale. Il presente contributo intende ripercorrere la vicenda attraverso l’analisi di esempi significativi, individuando l’origine di questa tipologia e verificando le ragioni di determinate “ottimizzazioni” sia di natura estetica sia in termini di risposta strutturale, che ne giustificano la persistenza nella storia dell’architettura siciliana.

This paper proposes some reflections on the settlement strategies pursued by the Dominicans in Palermo between the founding of the first conventual settlements, from the 13th century to the transformations of the 17th and 18th centuries as a result of expansion and renovation projects imposed by the Counter-Reformation. The research analyzes for the first time the dialogue between the architecture promoted by the Dominicans and the becoming of the city over the centuries through the continuous and articulated design traces and construction relating to different locations pertaining to enforcement, male (San Domenico and Santa Cita) and female (Santa Caterina and Santa Maria della Pietà), planted in the city center or at least in strategic places adjacent to the changing historical locations at civil, religious and municipal levels. The resulting monumental reconfiguration, by means of the building of different contiguous cloisters and grandiloquent churches, ended up renovating an entire portion of the city. The changed orientation of Dominican ecclesiastical facades – already documented in a project phase – and the different location of the main views in relation to the changing urban configurations, testifies of a mutual dialogue between the Order’s architecture and the developing of the city over the centuries

With this study I intend to analyze the match between the language of the Roman Baroque, of academic type and stereotomy, through the work accomplished by Romano Carapecchia in Malta in the early eighteenth century. Some projects show how the architect has tried to adapt to the local context, permeated by a strong tradition of building in stone, compositional themes (sinusoidal patterns, concave convex structures) belonging to the "international" baroque language of Carlo Fontana, Francesco Borromini and Andrea Pozzo. The new curvilinear façades, for example, translate into stone that which previously was realized in Rome through the use of materials alien to the Maltese building site and therefore to stereotomy, such as bricks and travertine coatings, within a research that unites other protagonists operating in the first half of the eighteenth century in various centers in Southern Europe, such as Sicily and Spain. Through some later works, particularly the oval archway of St. Barbara church in Valletta, the expertise acquired by Carapecchia in stone cutting is also evident through the elaboration of certain structures, complex and daring from a static and executive point of view. Drawings of geometric constructions for spiral staircases and processes to achieve vaults of stone blocks inserted in the well-known “Architectural Compendium” … published in Rome in the eighties and nineties of the seventeenth century, that is during the period of apprenticeship completed by the architect at the famous studio directed by Carlo Fontana, declare actually that certain solutions already belonged to the versatile repertoire of Carapecchia. Judging by the projects and works undertaken subsequently in Malta, such as towers, town gates and portals included in the defensive circuit of the main centers of the island, an initial interest seems to find ample opportunities of study and experimentation through updating acquired through contemporary treaties and in the long tradition of local building. Fruitful collaborations with Maltese carvers together with further suggestions arising from the stay on the island, during the modern era, of specialists in the field of stereotomy such as French military engineers (MedericoBlondel, Charles Francois de Mondion), may have played a more than secondary role in the pursuit of skills shown by the architect in the construction in stone.

Il Libro de catafalchi, tabernacoli con varij disegni di Porte,
fenestre et altri ornamenti di Architettura…, published by the
famous Roman printing house “alla Pace” of Giovanni Giacomo De Rossi, is a collection that summarizes the contributions of various authors and engravers and was elaborated between 1667 and 1691. Eight engravings depicting new models for doors, windows and ornamental motifs, which were related to the drawings kept at the Kunstbibliothek in Berlin, have recently been attributed to the well-known painter of Viterbo, Tarquinio Ligustri, through the comparison of an engraving kept in the Biblioteca Estense in Modena, autographed by Ligustri and published in 1596. These eight unbound engravings were widely diffused and found considerable success in Sicilian architecture between the 17th and 18th centuries.

The Libro de catafalchi, tabernacoli con varij disegni di Porte, Fenestre et altri Ornamenti di Architettura published by the Roman Giovanni Giacomo De Rossi’s printing house “Alla Pace”, is a collection that summarizes the contributions of various authors and engravers elaborated in the chronological period between the first half of the 16th century and the second half of the 17th. Analyzing these engravings is possible to date the volume between 1667 and 1691. A significant matter concerns the identification of the author of eight engravings depicting new models for doors, windows and ornamental motifs which have been related to some drawings kept in the Kunstbibliothek in Berlin already attributed to the sculptor and architect Ludovico Scalza. The comparison with an engraving kept in the Biblioteca Estense in Modena and signed by Tarquinio Ligustri has made it possible to attribute to the well known painter from Viterbo both the engravings of the Roman volume and the drawings of Berlin, which would indicate the existence of a larger editorial project subsequently unrealized.

La chiesa di Sant’Anna a Piazza Armerina (dal 1745), di pertinenza delle monache Agostiniane, presenta un singolare prospetto curvilineo realizzato con una cortina di mattoni a vista. L’accentuata conformazione ondulata delle superfici murarie non trova precedenti nei cantieri siciliani, mentre l’uso del laterizio anziché della pietra rafforza ulteriormente l’unicità di questa struttura. Risulta ad oggi sconosciuto l’autore del progetto della chiesa, ma nonostante le lacune documentarie relative alla vicenda ideativa e costruttiva, gli esigui dati pervenuti, la lettura della fabbrica e altri indizi consentono di avviare alcune riflessioni che consentono di attribuire l’ideazione dell’opera all’architetto Rosario Gagliardi. La chiesa di Sant’Anna a Piazza Armerina rientrerebbe infatti nell’ambito degli studi condotti dall’architetto netino sui temi delle volte leggere di copertura, delle facciate estroflesse e a torre belvedere, quest’ultime destinate alle chiese degli ordini femminili annesse a monasteri.

"The earthquake of 1542 in Val di Noto was a catastrophe whose scale is still
indecipherable and has not been investigated with regard to the damages suffered by
monuments of both big cities and small towns in south-oriental Sicily, and especially to
the following repercussions. This earthquake can be considered an acceleration factor in
changing processes, capable of directing the taste and the language in architecture. The
cases of Catania and Siracusa are the most representative through the gradual
restructuring of the main squares with targeted interventions on the façades of the
power‘s buildings. Even in small towns affected by the earthquake, as Piazza (Piazza
Armerina) and Caltagirone, reconstruction encourages experimentations and the spread of
new languages, often referring to Sebastiano Serlio’s modern code, and attracts artists
from the biggest Sicilian cities.
The reaction to the earthquake of 1542 also seems to interweave the defense programs by
the Spanish government to counter the threat of enemy raids on the island. The
reinforcement of walls and bulwarks, the creation of new founded cities, as Carlentini,
the reconstruction of many castles and fortresses in Val di Noto, take place under the
direction of military engineers already working in the island throughout the sixteenth
century, and configure additional research topics that are still little investigated."

Il saggio analizza, attraverso fonti sia edite che inedite, le vicende progettuali e di cantiere relative alla ricostruzione seicentesca della chiesa di San Domenico a Palermo, individuando le ragioni progettuali, i protagonisti coinvolti e contestualizzando la fabbrica nel panorama architettonico siciliano del Seicento.