The Piedmont architect Bernardo Antonio Vittone is a complex personality who is not looked upon kindly by historiography.
For many years, certain entirely unfounded ‘facts’ about his life were accepted as truth. One of these maintains that his training
was divided between a period of study at the Accademia di San Luca in Rome and first-hand experience on a construction site
under the tutelage of his uncle, architect Giovanni Giacomo Plantery. A printed booklet, recently unearthed by the present author,
proves to the contrary that he attended a course in mathematics at university in Turin. Other than demanding a full critical revision
of Vittone’s life, this fact leads to new questions about how the University of Turin functioned in the eighteenth century and the
training of “Engineers/Architects” in Piedmont.
At the time that Vittone attended the university, the mathematics chair was held
by Abate Olivetano Ercole Corazzi from Bologna, who taught both at the University and the Institute of Science.
He was the
author of the booklet about a practical architecture exercise held at the end of the academic year and it is from that booklet that
we learn of the presence of Bernardo Antonio among the students, the importance of Ferdinando Galli Bibiena for young future
architects in Piedmont and finally details of the practical exercise, which took place in an active construction site.
