Drawings of Francesco di Giorgio Martini inspired by ancient texts and monuments

This article surveys drawings by Francesco di Giorgio Martini found in two manuscripts and derived from ancient models. Attempts are made to identify many ancient monuments drawn by the author, although this is not always easy because Francesco di Giorgio endows the studied ruins with large integrations due to his imagination. His corpus of drawn ancient monuments is one of the largest of the XV century and focuses especially architectures of Rome and of other ancient centres of central Italy. These data lead to an assessment of the peculiar approach of our author to antiquity.

The aim of this essay is to forward few suggestions concerning the inspiration by ancient models which characterizes several drawings in the manuscripts Ashburnham 361 of the Laurentian Medicean Library of Florence and Saluzzian 148 in the National Library of Turin: both manuscripts bear the text of the Treatises of civic and military architecture by Francesco di Giorgio Martini and are dated in the 1480s.