Abstract

The Sienese tradition of technical design is perhaps most emblematically represented in the treatises of Francesco di Giorgio Martini, illustrated compendia that were widely popular and frequently reproduced in the early modern period. The number of manuscripts featuring drawings associated with Francesco di Giorgio numbers in the hundreds. But in underscoring Francesco’s connection with this rich body of material, scholars have often overlooked the inherent value of the manuscripts as copy volumes: technical design manuals that guided practitioners in a course of autodidactic education. What is more, by insisting that such manuscripts are part of Francesco’s legacy, scholars have never fully considered the alternative: what if this distinctive corpus of designs did not directly derive from Francesco di Giorgio? At stake here is not only a revisionist history of the celebrated Sienese architect, but also an enriched understanding of early modern architectural training. Two anonymous manuscript model books—London, British Library Add. MS 34113 and Dresden, Sächsische Landes bibliothek MS Ob. 13—provide the basis for a critical enquiry into this very question. Careful study of the manuscripts’ contents, both graphic and textual, reveals an extraordinary number of parallels: between the volumes themselves, and with the ‘signature’ compilations of Francesco di Giorgio. The disclosed material does not recast Francesco as a mere copyist. Rather, it shows him as an engaged member of a vibrant artistic community: one in which information of all kinds was openly exchanged, and copying was the established means by which designers trained and assembled a repertoire of practical models.