Tommaso Napoli

Tommaso Maria Napoli ( * 1659 in Palermo, † 1725 ) was an architect, mathematician and Dominicans in Sicily.

Life and work

Napoli was the son of a silversmith in Palermo. At a young age ( 1676 ) he joined the Dominican Order in Palermo. During his novitiate he received his architectural education from architects and Dominican Father Andrea Cirrincione in palermiatischen convent of his order. His collaboration on the facade of the church of San Domenico in Palermo is occupied. He enjoyed additional training in Rome, where he joined the famous architect Carlo Fontana devoted his writing " Utriusque in Architecture Vompedium " (1688 ).

In the following years he made ​​numerous trips to Naples, Ragusa, Rome Ungarnund Vienna, where he worked for the imperial court.

From 1689 to 1700 he was (now Dubrovnik) as the official architect of the Republic of Ragusa, to direct the rebuilding of the destroyed by the earthquake of 1667 the city. He was there involved in the planning of the new building of the cathedral, and designed 1691/92, the chapel of the Duke's palace.

Around 1711 he was back in Palermo, where he worked first as a military architect of the city and later as a royal Sicilian architect. From his travels he brought, beside the Roman baroque style by Carlo Fontana, the understanding of the architecture of the Austrian Johann Bernhard Fischer von Erlach to Sicily.

From 1712 he built for Anna Maria del Bosco, Villa Valguarnera and 1714 for the Prince of Palagonia, Ferdinando Francesco Gravina Villa Palagonia, both in Bagheria. Because of her unusual sculptures jewelry Villa Palagonia is also called "Villa dei Monstri " (Villa of Monsters ).

In 1722 he created the design for palermiatische Piazza San Domenico with the Marian Column, which was completed in 1725 by amendment of Napoli's original plan by Giovanni Biagio Amico. Around the same time he provided designs for the procession terrace of the ( no longer existing ) nunnery " Sette Angeli " in Palermo.

Literature from Napoli

• Utriusque in Architecture Compendium in duos libros. Giovanni Battista Molo, Rome 1688.
• Breve ristretto dell'architettura militare e fortificazione offensiva e difensiva. Palermo 1723.

Literature on Napoli

• Salvatore Boscarino: Sicilia Barocca. Architetture e città 1610-1760. 3 edizione. Officina edizioni, Rome 1997.
• Eliana Calandra: Breve storia della architetture in Sicilia ( Biblioteca di Cultura Moderna Vol = 320, ZDB - ID 980413-4. ). Edizione Laterza, Bari 1938 ( Also as: Breve storia dell'architettura in Sicilia ( = Universale di Architettura Vol 13) Testo & Immagine, Turin 1997, ISBN 88-86498-16-0. . ).
• Maria Giuffrè: Baroque Sicily. Michael Imhof, Peter Berg, 2007, ISBN 978-3-86568-264-2.
• Tommaso Maria Napoli. In: Ulrich Thieme, Felix Becker et al: General lexicon of visual artists from antiquity to the present. Volume XXV, E. A. Seemann, Leipzig 1931, p 342
• Erik Neil: L' architetto Tommaso Maria Napoli O.P. ( 1659-1725 ). In: Alfonso Gambardella (eds.): Ferdinando Sanfelice. Napoli e l' Europe. ( Atti del Convegno Internazionale di Studi Intorno a Ferdinando Sanfelice. Napoli e l' Europe A Napoli e Caserta nei giorni 17-18-19 aprile 1997) ( = Studi sul settecento Napoletano Vol 1. ). Edizioni Scientifiche Italiane, Naples 2004, ISBN 88-495-1011- X, pp. 365-375.
• Erik H. Neil: Architects and Architecture in 17th & 18th century Palermo. In: Annali di Architettura. No. 7, 1995, ISSN 1124-7169, pp. 159-176.
• Angheli Zalapi: palaces in Sicily. Könemann, Cologne 2000, ISBN 3-8290-2117-8.