Jacomo Franchini e i taccuini della Biblioteca Comunale di Siena

The drawings in a collection previously attributed to Giacomo Franchini, kept in the Civic Library of Siena, document the importance the architect gave to the principal instruments of divulgation and through which, from the middle of 17th century, the architectural image of Rome had been diffused. Among the principal types of documentation and updating for architects who had no opportunity to study the architecture of Rome, first hand Franchini also included the Giovanni Battista Falda and Pietro Ferrerio engravings of the most important buildings of the period, the Andrea Pozzo treatise on architecture, and The Study of Civil Architecture printed in the early years of 18th century. This selection shows that Franchini and, in general, the architects from Siena, preferred the architectural models proposed in Rome, which, much more than Florentine architecture, was considered as a source for solutions to be proposed in the local context.