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An Italian Architect in London: The Case of Alessandro Galilei (1691–1737)

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 April 2016

Extract

‘I will carry with me the best architect in Europe.’ With these bold words Robert, first Viscount Molesworth, announced to his wife his arrival in Ireland in the company of the young Italian architect and engineer Alessandro Galilei in May 1717. Lord Molesworth could not know that, twenty years later, Galilei would be indeed one of the best-known architects in Europe, after having built in Rome, to the order of Pope Clement XII Corsini (1730–40), the facade of San Giovanni in Laterano (St John Lateran), the Cappella Corsini in the same church and the facade of San Giovanni dei Fiorentini.

Galilei was born on 25 August 1691, in Florence, the eldest son of the notary Giuseppe Maria Galilei and his wife Margherita Merlini. The Galilei family could trace their lineage to the Buonaiuti, who in the fourteenth century twice held the post of ‘Gonfaloniere della Giustizia’, then the most important position in the city government. They took the surname Galilei from the last Gonfaloniere in their family, the master of philosophy and medicine, Galileo (early fifteenth century). Even into the sixteenth century, members of the family belonged to the town council. The most famous bearer of the name was without doubt Galileo Galilei (1564–1641), from whom Alessandro was not directly descended but to whom he was remotely related. Although Alessandro’s father, Giuseppe, who in 1707 and 1711 was Proconsul of Notaries, counted himself as one of the nobili, the standing of the old patrician families had been considerably reduced under the Medici Grand Dukes because they did not actually hold a landed title. Financial decline seems also to have damaged the prestige of Alessandro’s branch of the family.

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Research Article
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Copyright © Society of Architectural Historians of Great Britain 2008

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References

Notes

1 Lord Molesworth to Lady Molesworth, 18 May 1717 (Molesworth Papers, file 13; formerly at Lough Rynn, Ireland, Clement Collection, but present whereabouts unknown); transcribed by author in 1972. Nothing is known of Galilei’s possible sojourn in Ireland in 1717, but he is documented as being there in 1718.

2 Kieven, Elisabeth, ‘Alessandro Galilei’, The Dictionary of Art, 12 (New York and London, 1996), pp. 69 Google Scholar; Kieven, Elisabeth, ‘Alessandro Galilei’, Allgemeines Künstlerlexikon, 47 (Munich and Leipzig, 2005), pp. 47678 Google Scholar. On Galilei in England, see Toesca, Ilaria, ‘Alessandro Galilei in Inghilterra’, English Miscellany, 3 (1952), pp. 189220 Google Scholar; Downes, Kerry, English Baroque Architecture (London, 1966), pp. 4649 Google Scholar; Kieven, Elisabeth, ‘Galilei in England’, Country Life, 25 January 1973, pp. 21012 Google Scholar; Kieven, Elisabeth, ‘The Gascoigne Monument by Alessandro Galilei’, Leeds Arts Calendar, 77 (1975), pp. 1323 Google Scholar; McParland, Edward, ‘Sir Thomas Hewett and the New Junta for Architecture’, in The Role of the Amateur Architect, ed. Worsley, Giles (London, 1994), pp. 2126 Google Scholar; Worsley, Giles, Classical Architecture in Britain. The Heroic Age (New Haven and London, 1995)Google Scholar; McParland, Edward, Public Architecture in Ireland 1680–1760 (New Haven and London, 2001)Google Scholar; on Galilei in Italy, see Kieven, Elisabeth, ‘Rome in 1732. Galilei – Salvi – Fuga’, Light on the Eternal City: Observations and Discoveries in the Art and Architecture of Rome, ed. Hager, Hellmut and Munshower, Susan Scott (University Park, PA, 1987), pp. 25575 Google Scholar (Papers in Art History from the Pennsylvania State University; 2); Kieven, Elisabeth, ‘La cultura architettonica’, Storia dell’ architettura italiana. Il Settecento, ed. Curcio, Giovanna and Kieven, Elisabeth, 3 vols (Milan, 2000), 1, pp. xxixlxi Google Scholar; Arciszewska, Barbara, ‘Despairing of Success: Giacomo Leoni and Alessandro Galilei in Eighteenth-Century London’, Rocznik historii sztuki, 30 (2005), pp. 13545.Google Scholar

4 Florence, Archivio di Stato, Carte Galilei, filza 1: Genealogia di Casa Galilei; Mecatti, Giuseppe Maria, Storia Genealogica della Nobiltà, e cittadinanza di Firenze (Bologna, 1754)Google Scholar. Galilei’s mother came from a family of renowned goldsmiths and medallists, her father had been master of the Grand Ducal mint in Florence.

5 The portrait by the Floretine painter Giuseppe Berti, signed and dated 1735, was sold in New York at Sotheby Park Bernet (sale 4136, lot 97, 7 June 1978) and was bought for Castletown near Dublin ( Guiness, Desmond, ‘Castletown, Co. Kildare’, Apollo, 115 (1982), 239, pp. 9297 Google Scholar). It is mentioned in the inventory of Galilei’s Florentine house made after his death in 1737. Berti painted also a portrait of Galilei’s English wife, Henrietta Martin, which is now lost.

6 Milizia, Francesco, Memorie degli architetti antichi e moderni, 2 vols (Bassano, 1785), 2, pp. 24950.Google Scholar

7 Toesca, ‘Galilei’.

8 For a summary of the Lateran competition, see Golzio, Vincenzo, ‘La facciata di San Giovanni in Laterano e l’architettura del Settecento’, Miscellanea Bibliothecae Hertzianae (Munich, 1961), pp. 45063 Google Scholar; Schiavo, Armando, La Fontana di Trevi e le altre opere di Nicola Salvi (Rome, 1956)Google Scholar; Kieven, Elisabeth, ‘Il ruolo del disegno: il concorso per la facciata di San Giovanni in Laterano’, In urbe architectus. Modelli, disegni, misure. La professione dell’ architetto Roma 1680–1750, ed. Contardi, Bruno and Curcio, Giovanna (Rome, 1991), pp. 78123.Google Scholar

9 The reports of the jury members, in this case the painter Sebastiano Conca, preserved in the Biblioteca Corsiniana in Rome, were first published by Cerroti, Francesco, Lettere e memorie autografe ed inedite di artisti tratte dai manoscritti della Corsiniana (Rome, 1860), pp. 2224.Google Scholar

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11 Cerroti, Lettere e memorie; Prandi, Adriano, ‘Niccolò Ricciolini romano e le polemiche settecentesche sull’architettura’, Roma, 21 (1944), 1, pp. 1820 Google Scholar; Prandi, Adriano, ‘Antonio Derizet e il concorso per la facciata di San Giovanni in Laterano’, Roma, 22 (1944), 2, pp. 2331.Google Scholar

12 Toesca, Ilaria, ‘Un parere di Alessandro Galilei’, Paragone, 4 (1959), 39, pp. 5355.Google Scholar

13 Elisabeth Kieven, ‘La “vera e buona architettura”. Un contributo italiano alla formazione del neoclassicismo’, L’Europa e l’arte italiana (Akten des Internationalen Kongresses zum hundertjáhrigen Jubiláum des Kunsthistorischen Institutes in Florenz, Florence 22.-27 September 1997), ed. Max Seidel (Venice, 2000), pp. 471–77.

14 On Castletown, see Maurice Craig, Knight of Glin and John Cornforth, ‘Castletown I-III’, Country Life, 145, 27 March 1969, pp. 722–26, and 145, 3 April 1969, pp. 798–802; on Kimbolton, see Downes, Baroque Architecture, 82; Arthur Oswald, ‘Kimbolton Castle, Huntingdonshire’, Country Life, 5, 12, 19, and 26 December 1968, pp. 1280ft.; Galilei’s authorship of the east portico has recently been rejected (Simon Thurley, ‘Kimbolton Castle, Huntingdon, Cambridgeshire’, Country Life, 30 March 2006, 13, pp. 66–71).

15 For John, second Viscount Molesworth, see Ingamells, John, A Dictionary of British and Irish Travellers in Italy, 1701–1800 (New Haven and London, 1997), p. 666 Google Scholar; see also n. 21.

16 Crino, Anna Maria, Fatti e figure del Seicento anglo-toscano. Documenti inediti sui rapporti letterari, diplomatici, culturali fra Toscana e Inghilterra (Florence, 1957)Google Scholar; Cochrane, Eric, Florence in the Forgotten Centuries, 1527–1800. A History of Florence and the Florentines in the Age of the Grand Dukes (Chicago and London, 1973), p. 232.Google Scholar

17 John Viscount Molesworth, Turin, 15 January 1721, to Antonio Maria Salvini (Florence, Biblioteca Marucelliana, MS A/75, f. 13).

18 On Newton, see Costa, Giuseppe, ‘Un avversario di Addison e Voltaire: John Shebbeare alias Battista Angeloni SJ. Contributo allo studio dei rapporti italo-britannici da Salvini a Baretti’, Atti dell’Accademia delle Scienze di Torino, II Classe di scienze morali, storiche e filologiche, 99 (1964-65), pp. 564761 Google Scholar (on Newton, pp. 725–26); Ingamells, A Dictionary of British and Irish Travellers, pp. 705–06.

19 Costa, ‘Un avversario di Addison’, p. 738.

20 He published his ideas under the name Pritamio, Lamindo, Riflessioni sopra il Buon Gusto intorno le scienze e le Arti (Venice, 1708)Google Scholar; Vecchi, Alberto, ‘La nuova Accademia Letteraria d’ItaliaAtti del Convegno Internazionale di Studi Muratoriani, Modena 1972), 5 vols (Florence, 1975-79)Google Scholar, 5, Accademie e cultura. Aspetti storici tra Sei e Settecento (Florence, 1979), pp. 39–72.

21 Sir Henry Newton, London June 1712, to A. M. Salvini (Florence, Biblioteca Marucelliana, MS A/175, f. 186).

22 A Funeral Elegy on the … death of R. Molesworth, who departed this life, on … the 23d of May, 1725 (Dublin 1725); Stewart, M. A., ‘John Smith and the Molesworth Circle’, Eighteenth-Century Ireland, 2 (1987), pp. 89102 Google Scholar; Raynor, David R., ‘Hutcheson’s Defence Against a Charge of Plagiarism’, Eighteenth-Century Ireland, 2 (1987), pp. 17781 Google Scholar; MacPArland, ‘New Junta’; Klein, Lawrence E., Shaftesbury and the Culture of Politeness. Moral Discourse and Cultural Politics in Early Eighteenth-Century England (New York, 1994)CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Hayton, David W., ‘Robert Molesworth (1656–1725)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (Oxford, 2004), (http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/18901)Google Scholar; McKane, Fiona, Landscape Design in Eighteenth-Century Ireland. Mixing Foreign Trees with the Natives (Cork, 2004), pp. 946.Google Scholar

23 Letters from the Right Honourable the late Earl of Shaftesbury, to Robert Molesworth Esq (London, 1721).

24 Klein, Shaftesbury, p. 16.

25 Wright, Gillian, ‘The Molesworths and Arcadia: Italian Poetry and Whig Constructions of Liberty 1702–28’, Forum for Modern Language Studies, 39.2 (April 2003), pp. 12235 CrossRefGoogle Scholar; the mathematician and philosopher A. Conti (1677–1749) came to London in 1715 to meet Isaac Newton; the latter proposed him for membership of the Royal Academy. Conti knew Baron Kielmannsegg, who introduced him to the Royal Family ( Gronda, G., ‘Antonio Conti’, Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani, 28 (1983), pp. 35259)Google Scholar. Galilei owned books by Rolli and Conti.

26 Bucholz, R. O., The Augustan Court: Queen Anne and the Decline of Court Culture (Stanford, 1993).Google Scholar

27 Lord Molesworth to Alessandro Galilei, 30 June 1719 (Florence, Archivio di Stato, Carte Galilei, filza 21, f. 10).

00 John Molesworth, Turin 4 June 1721, to Alessandro Galilei (Florence, Archivio di Stato, Carte Galilei, filza 21, f. 38).

28 Although the ‘Letter’ was only published later, Galilei must have known it first hand through the Molesworths ( Downes, Kerry, ‘The Publication of Shaftesbury’s “Letter concerning Design”‘, Architectural History, 27 (1984), pp. 51922)CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Klein, Shaftesbury; Carey, Daniel, Locke, Shaftesbury and Hutcheson. Contesting Diversity in the Enlightenment and Beyond (Cambridge, 2006), pp. 98149.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

29 See, for example, Sicca, Cinzia, ‘The Architecture of the Wall: Astylism in the Architecture of Lord Burlington’, Architectural History, 32 (1989), pp. 83101 Google Scholar; Lord Burlington. Architecture, Art and Life, ed. Toby Barnard and Jane Clark (London and Rio Grande, 1995); Worsley, Giles, Classical Architecture in Britain. The Heroic Age (New Haven and London, 1995)Google Scholar; McParland, ‘Sir Thomas Hewett’.

30 Lord Molesworth to Alessandro Galilei, 11 July 1719 (Toesca, ‘Galilei’, 215, doc. 15).

31 Lord Molesworth to Lady Molesworth, 13 October 1716 (Toesca, ‘Galilei’, 211, doc. 6a).

32 For a summary, see The Commission for Building Fifty Neiv Churches. The Minute Books 1711–27. A Calendar, ed. M. H. Port (London, 1986); Colvin, Howard, ‘Fifty New Churches’, Architectural Review, 107 (March 1950), pp. 18996 Google Scholar; Downes, y, Nicholas Hawksmoor (London, 1959), pp. 15683 Google Scholar; Downes, Baroque Architecture, pp. 98–105; The Queen Anne Churches: A Catalogue of the Papers in Lambeth Palace Library of the Commission for Building Fifty New Churches in London and Westminster 1711–1759, compiled by E. G. W. Bill, with an introduction by Howard Colvin (London, 1979); Friedman, Terry, James Gibbs (New Haven and London, 1984)Google Scholar; Jeffery, Paul, ‘Unbuilt Gibbs: a Fresh Look at his Designs for the 1711 Act Church Commissioners’, The Georgian Group Journal, 4 (1994), pp. 1119 Google Scholar; Jeffery, Paul, ‘The Commissioner Models for the Fifty New Churches: Problems of Identity and Attribution’, The Georgian Group Journal, 5 (1995), pp. 8196, 13536.Google Scholar

33 Jeffery, Paul, The City Churches of Sir Christopher Wren (London, 1996)Google Scholar.

34 Florence, Archivio di Stato, Carte Galilei, filza 14, fasc. 2; Toesca, ‘Galilei’, pp. 202–04, figs 7–12.

35 Lord Molesworth to Lord Stanhope, London, 5 October 1717 (Kent Archives Offices, U1590/C9/35). My sincere thanks to Sir Howard Colvin for the transcription of this letter given to me in 1972.

36 Toesca, ‘Galilei’, pp. 203, 206, doc. 18, wrongly took Lord Stanhope to be the Lord Chancellor mentioned in Hewett’s letter. Thomas Parker, created Lord Macclesfield in 1716, was appointed Lord Chancellor on 12 May 1718; Stanhope was then Secretary of State.

37 Waterhouse, Ellis K., ‘Rome in 1733’, Italian Studies, 17 (1962), pp. 4849.Google Scholar

38 Florence, Archivio di Stato, Carte Galilei, filza 14, fasc. 1, f. 328.

39 Florence, Archivio di Stato, Carte Galilei, filza 14, fasc. 1, f. 317 (Toesca, ‘Galilei’, pp. 202–04, fig. 8).

40 Florence, Archivio di Stato, Carte Galilei, filza 14, fasc. 1, f. 316 (Toesca, ‘Galilei’, pp. 202–04, fig. 7.

41 London; Victoria & Albert Museum, Drawing Collection, D.96.1891 (Colvin, ‘Fifty New Churches’, pl. 194m; Downes, Kerry, Hawksmoor (London, 1969), pp. 9193.Google Scholar

42 Whinney, Margaret, Wren (London, 1971), p. 53.Google Scholar

43 Florence, Archivio di Stato, Carte Galilei, filza 14, fasc. 1, f. 325 (Toesca, ‘Galilei’, p. 204, fig. 9).

44 Florence, Archivio di Stato, Carte Galilei, filza 14, fasc. 1, f. 319 (Toesca, ‘Galilei’, p. 204, fig. 12).

45 Florence, Archivio di Stato, Carte Galilei, filza 14, fasc. 1, f. 318 (Toesca, ‘Galilei’, p. 204, fig. 11).

46 Crest, Carlo, L’architettura del Seicento a Firenze (Rome, 1990).Google Scholar

47 Silvani’s designs are preserved in the Uffizi collection, Uff. A 2918 and A 2919, and were identified by Coffey, Caroline, ‘The Projects of Pietro da Cortona and Silvani for the Church of San Firenze in Florence’, Die Kunst des Barock in der Toskana, ed. Keutner, Hellmut (Munich, 1976), pp. 23441.Google Scholar

48 Florence, Archivio di Stato, Carte Galilei, filza 14, fasc. 1, f. 323V; the reconstruction was drawn by Gerd Heise.

49 Migne, , Patrologiae Graecae, 44 (Turnholt, 1959), p. 1094, n. 1.Google Scholar

50 Galilei’s groundplan reconstruction resembles to some extent that of a Roman temple (third century) in the city centre, destroyed in the seventeenth century, but known through prints and drawings ( Lugli, G., I monumenti antichi di Roma e suburbi, 3 (Rome, 1938), pp. 23133.Google Scholar

51 Galilei’s reconstruction illustrated the edition of a Latin translation from a Greek manuscript in the Florentine Biblioteca Laurenziana, published by Caracciolus, Johannes Bapt., Sancti Patris Nostri Gregorii Episcopi Nyssae Epistolae septem (Florence, 1731)Google Scholar. The first proofs of the engravings are in the Florentine Biblioteca Marucelliana (Stampe, p. 101, nn. 52 and 55; signed: ‘Alexander Galilei S.mi M.D. Etruriae Archit. delin.’ and ‘Ferd. Rugg. Archit. sul.’). They were first published without identification by Bardeschi, Marco Dezzi, ‘Archeologismo e neoumanesimo nella cultura architettonica fiorentina sotto gli ultimi Medici’, Barock in der Toskana, pp. 24567 Google Scholar. A modern archeological reconstruction is almost identical ( Restle, M., Studien zur frühbyzantinischen Architektur Kappadokiens (Vienna, 1979), pp. 7585).Google Scholar

52 Florence, Archivio di Stato, Carte Galilei, filza 14, fasc. 1, f. 327.

53 Florence, Archivio di Stato, Carte Galilei, filza 14, fasc. 1, f. 329.

54 Alessandro Galilei to his brother Filippo, London, 19 February 1717 (Toesca, ‘Galilei’, p. 207, doc. 3).

55 Toesca, ‘Galilei’, pp. 197–99; Kerry Downes, Baroque Architecture, pp. 43–49; McParland, ‘New Junta’.

56 Downes, English Baroque, pp. 46–47.

57 Alessandro Galilei to his brother Filippo, London, 19 February 1717 (Toesca, ‘Galilei’, p. 207, doc. 3).

58 For Hewett, see Colvin, Howard, A Biographical Dictionary of British Architects (New Haven, 1995), pp. 29293 Google Scholar; and especially McParland, ‘New Junta’, pp. 21–26; McParland, ‘Edward Lovett Pearce and the New Junta for Architecture’, in Barnard and Clark, Lord Burlington, pp. 151–66.

59 Stanhope accompanied the king to Hanover in July 1716; a few weeks later Galilei began to make his designs. The king returned to London in March 1717 ( Newman, Aubrey, The Stanhopes of Chevening, a Family Biography (London, 1969), p. 57 Google Scholar).

60 Hatton, Ragnhild, George I (London, 1978).Google Scholar

61 Alessandro Galilei to his brother Filippo, London, 10 June 1717 (Toesca, ‘Galilei’, p. 209, doc. 4).

62 Kent Archives Office, U1590/C9/35 (Colvin, Dictionary, pp. 384–85; McParland, ‘New Junta’.

63 Thomas Hewett to Alessandro Galilei, 13 July 1719 (Toesca, ‘Galilei’, p. 216, doc. 18,; McParland, ‘New Junta’.

64 McParland, ‘New Junta’.

65 Ibid.

66 Toesca, ‘Galilei’, pp. 197–200, fig. 1; McParland, ‘New Junta’. There is also a written statement by Galilei, in English and Italian, justifying the choice of the site (‘on the highest part and in the best air of all the town’) and a proposal to finance the building, entitled ‘Reflection upon the Scituation [sic] of the Royal Palace’ (Florence, Archivio di Stato, Carte Galilei, filza 21, f. 417: Toesca, ‘Galilei’, pp. 210–11, doc. 5).

67 The Banqueting House is shown as a rectangular structure south of the ripetta. Some of these features are referred to in Daniel Defoe’s description of a scheme for a royal palace (A Tour through the Whole Island of Great Britain (London, 1724–26), letter V).

68 Kanayama, Hirosama, ‘Paolo Falconieri e il suo modello di Palazzo Pitti del 1681’, Pietro da Cortona: atti del convegno internazionale Roma-Firenze 1997, ed. Frommel, Christoph L. (Milan, 1998), pp. 38589 Google Scholar; Fara, Amelio, ‘Bernardo Buontalenti, il palazzo, il giardino e la piazza Pitti fino all’Ottocento’, Palazzo Pitti, la reggia rivelata (Florence, 2003), pp. 35759.Google Scholar

69 Alessandro Galilei to his brother Filippo, London, 17 February 1717 (Toesca, ‘Galilei’, p. 207, doc. 3).

70 Thomas Hewett to Alessandro Galilei, Shireoaks, 13 July 1719 (Toesca, ‘Galilei’, p. 216, doc. 18).

71 Toesca, ‘Galilei’, pp. 200–01; Downes, Baroque Architecture, pp. 83–84.

72 Toesca, ‘Galilei’, pp. 200–01, fig. 4.

73 Florence, Archivio di Stato, Carte Galilei, filza 14, fasc. 1, f. 315V.

74 Lord Molesworth to Alessandro Galilei, Breckdenstown, 30 June 1719 (Florence, Archivio di Stato, Carte Galilei, filza 21, f. 10).

75 Craig, Glin and Cornforth, ‘Castletown’, pp. 722ff., 798ff., 885ff., with entire building history.

76 Alessandro Galilei, undated draft, most probably to Senatore Cerretani in Florence (Toesca, ‘Galilei’, p. 213, doc. 10).

77 See n. 74.

78 Craig, Glin and Cornforth, ‘Castletown’; McParland, Public Building, pp. 224–25.

79 Toesca, ‘Galilei’, p. 220, doc. 27; Craig, Glin and Cornforth, ‘Castletown’, p. 724; Craig, Maurice, ‘Sir Edward Lovett Pearce’, Bulletin of the Irish Georgian Society, 17 (1974), pp. 1014 Google Scholar; Craig, Maurice, ‘Sir Edward Lovett Pearce’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (Oxford, 2004)Google Scholar, see www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/21688.

80 Craig, Glin and Cornforth, ‘Castletown’.

81 The overall length of Castletown as executed is c. 410 ft (125 m). The main block is 142 ft long (43.3 m), 60 ft high (18.3 m), and the two office buildings are 90 ft long (27.45 m).

82 Craig has already drawn attention to this (see n. 13).

83 Edward McParland has argued (oral communication) that the expression ‘palace’ could not refer to a country seat but only to plans for a royal palace. This is a good suggestion. One should perhaps take into account that Galilei was writing this letter in English, and for him a country seat would be a palace; but he knew English very well. At the moment we must leave this open to discussion.

84 Huntingdon, County Record Office, Manchester Papers, DDM/1A/N0. 1, mounted on canvas, signed ‘A.G.’, inscribed on verso: ‘Front of Castle’. First published by Whistler, Laurence, The Imagination of Sir John Vanbrugh and his Fellow Artists (London, 1954), p. 140, fig. 49Google Scholar. Whistler attributed the details to N. Hawksmoor; Pevsner, Nikolaus, The Buildings of England, Cambridgeshire (Harmondsworth, 1954), pp. 27879 Google Scholar, as copy after Vanbrugh; Downes, Baroque Architecture, p. 82, as Galilei; Oswald, ‘Kimbolton’, fig. 4; Lees-Milne, James, English Country Houses, Baroque 1685;-1715 (London, 1970), p. 106, fig. 169.Google Scholar

85 Downes, Baroque Architecture; Oswald, ‘Kimbolton’; Thurley, ‘Kimbolton Castle’.

86 Croft-Murray, Edward, ‘Giovanni Antonio Pellegrini at Kimbolton’; Apollo (1962), pp. 11924.Google Scholar

87 Terry Friedman and Derek Linstrum, ‘Country Houses Through Georgian Eyes’, Country Life, 1 March 1973, pp. 268–70.

88 The Duke of Manchester to Alessandro Galilei, 29 June 1719 (Florence, Archivio di Stato, Carte Galilei, filza 21, f. 12–12V; Toesca, ‘Galilei’, p. 214, doc. 12).

89 As the traveller’s notes of 1724 (see note 87) and 1727 (Thurley, ‘Kimbleton’, p. 68) were still referring to windows, these may have been closed up later.

90 At the end of June 1719 Manchester wrote to Galilei about Kimbolton: ‘The Front next the Town is finished and what you designed over the Gate looks very well’ (see n. 88). Since he describes this as ‘the Front next the Town’, he must be referring to the west facade which had recently been remodelled by Vanbrugh. Galilei’s contribution to this was a crowning feature (over the entrance in the middle of the facade) which enclosed the earl’s coat of arms. A sketch for this is in the Florentine Archivio di Stato, Carte Galilei, filza 14, fasc. 1, f. 356. This addition was removed in the nineteenth century.

91 Quotation from a letter of Vanbrugh’s (Whistler, Imagination, p. 133.

92 Thurley, ‘Kimbolton’, p. 68.

93 Bradley, Richard, The gentleman and gardeners kalendar, directing what is necessary to be done every month in the kitchen-garden, fruit-garden, nursery … green-house and flower garden. To which is added the design of a green-house, by Seignior Galilei of Florence (London, 1718)Google Scholar; see Henrey, Blanche, British Botanical and Horticultural Literature before 1800 (London, 1975), 2, pp. 437ff.Google Scholar

94 Lord Pembroke had informed the Tuscan Grand Duke Cosimo III, at the end of 1715, about this new machine; the Grand Duke was very interested and Galilei was asked to send a description of this ‘fire-engine’ to Florence (Florence, Archivio di Stato, Mediceo, vol. 4222, Lettere).

95 Friedman, Terry, ‘Galilei’s Greenhouse’, Garden History, 7 (1979), 3, pp. 1928 CrossRefGoogle Scholar, thought that Galilei’s greenhouse published by Bradley was the design for Cannons. A rough sketch for a greenhouse exists among Galilei’s Florentine papers, f. 252 ( Tagliolini, Alessandro, ‘Alessandro Galilei’s Project for a Greenhouse’, Journal of Garden History, 6 (1986), 3, pp. 26569 CrossRefGoogle Scholar).

96 McParland, ‘New Junta’; Arciszewska, ‘Leoni’, misunderstands Galilei’s position in London as a complete failure.

97 ‘A Treatise of Architecture and the Use and Manner of building and where it begun’ (Florence, Archivio di Stato, Carte Galilei, filza 21, ff. 421–49). Corrections in another hand have been made on the first page. See Malservisi, Franca, ‘Il trattato bilingue di Alessandro Galilei’, Quaderni di storia dell’architettura e restauro, 4/5 (1990/91), pp. 8996.Google Scholar

98 John Viscount Molesworth to Alessandro Galilei, London, 13 January 1726 (Florence, Archivio di Stato, Carte Galilei, filza 21, fasc. 1, ff. 189–90; Toesca, ‘Galilei’, 220, doc. 26f.; Worsley, Heroic Age, p. 114).

99 Lisci, Leonardo Ginori, I palazzi di Firenze, 2 vols (Florence, 1972), 1, pp. 30913.Google Scholar

100 See n. 12.

101 Kieven, Elisabeth, ‘Überlegungen zu Architektur und Ausstattung der Cappella Corsini’, L’architettura da Clemente XI a Benedetto XIV. Pluralità di tendenze, ed. Debenedetti, Elisa (Rome, 1989 Google Scholar) (Studi sul Settecento Romano, 5); Napoleone, Caterina, La cappella Corsini nella basilica romana di San Giovanni in Laterano (Milan, 2001).Google Scholar

102 London, Victoria & Albert Museum, Norris-Sketchbook, 95-A-17, E 1467.

103 Prey, Pierre de La Ruffinière Du, John Soane: the Making of an Architect (Chicago, 1982), pp. 12223, n. 45.Google Scholar

104 Nairn, Ian and Pevsner, Nikolaus (revised by Cherry, Bridget), Surrey, 2nd edn (Harmondsworth, 1971), p. 252 Google Scholar. A drawing of the entrance hall, destroyed by fire in 1936, was sold at Sotheby’s on 17 May 1984 (lot 111) and is now in the Canadian Centre for Architecture, Montreal.

105 See n. 37.