Catalogue of Drawings by Francesco Borromini

The research project "General inventory of the drawings of Francesco Borromini (1599-1667)" is institutionally and as regards content closely connected to the exhibition directed by the Graphische Sammlung Albertina Vienna and the Bibliotheca Hertziana (Max-Planck-Institut) Rome on the occasion of the 400th anniversary of the Italian architect Francesco, Borromini. The exhibition will be shown from 15th of December 1999 to 21st of February 2000 at the Palazzo delle Esposizioni in Rome and from 12th of April to 25th of June 2000 in the Albertina in Vienna. A German and an Italian version of the exhibition catalogue will be published by the Italian publishers Elemond, Milan. The same publishers will also take responsibility for the publication of the General inventory of the drawings of Francesco Borromini that will be published only in Italian. To register the visual and the textual specification of the General inventory there has been developed a specific data bank that will also be at the Albertina collection`s disposal after the publication of the inventory. The inventory will be published as book and on CD-ROM and will include all known drawings by Borromini (960 pieces app.) in picture, essential data and scientific commentary by various authors. It will be published in occasion of the inauguration of the exhibition in Rome.

The project grew from an exhibition ("Francesco Borromini" Rome-Vienna 1999-2000), in which the most prominent experts from Europe and America took part. Co-ordinated by the project-manager, the approximately thousand preserved original drawings of the great roman baroque architect and his close aides were to be completely recorded and scientifically presented. For this aim, a picture data-bank was installed and burned upon CD to be offered to the specialists involved. To the single specialists was given the task of working on single buildings; they were to write short monographs on the buildings as well as critically examine the drawings after testing their appurtenance. The synergetic effect of this procedure as a word-wide interconnected team-work resulted in a really exponentially increase of our knowledge. Many questions of appurtenance, of exact determination of the object represented, of the position of single drawings within the projecting process as well as many other questions could be resolved, or at least be re-formulated by connecting the partial informations flowing together at the project management. As thus our level of knowlodge was constantly increasing, not only a high level of flexibility of scientific administration was required, but also again and again additional research in archives on single themes that hitherto commanded only insufficient attention by the researchers on Borromini. The project P 13356-ARS financed by the FWF made it possible to accomplish these central tasks of the research program. The project`s direct collaborators had to do independant scientific research as well as to perform especially difficult and highly responsible tasks for the above mentioned co-ordination. During work in archives some hitherto unknown original drawings were found, but especially important were the insight won into the procedures of planning and building. Among the drawings newly detected by the project is among others to be mentioned an hitherto unknown project for the facade of the Lateran basilica. With the aid of original drawings in possession of the Albertina, until now not utilized, it was possible to reconstruct an unrealized project for the sacristy of St. Peter`s as well as a project for a facade for the Roman monastery church S. Carlo alle Quattro Fontane, and to present them in three-dimensional virtual reality. After the collection of material was completed and the mayor part of the contributions received, the critical revision of the computerized data-base and a clear and sensible re-ordination was indicated. A structural concept for sequence and grouping of the monographic texts and commentaires to the drawings was established - valid already for a future printing. 973 originals were identified (including those Borromini`s closest aides), pertaining on a total of 48 building projects. Commentaries on 721 drawings and monographs on 35 buildings (672 pages of manuscript all together) have already been received, mainly in a redactionally finished form. For technical reasons outside the influence of the project management, it was hitherto impossible to insert the corrections proposed by external collaborators into the main eletronic files. This and the redactional standardization of the still missing contributions will occupy the collaborator in the next months with the financial aid of the Bibliotheca Hertziana (Max-Planck- Gesellschaft), that contributed to the exhibition- and research-project from the very beginning.