Fra Giovanni Giocondo, who is is known…

Fra Giovanni Giocondo, who is is known to have been engaged from 1476 to 1488 in Verona on the Loggia del Consiglio, had worked as a engineer at Poggioreale in Naples around 1490.

Born in Verona around 1433, he had joined the Dominican Order at the age of eighteen and had been one of the many of this Order who promulgate the Renaissance.

Afterwards, however, he had left the Dominicans and entered the Franciscan Order.

Giocondo had begun his career as a teacher of Latin and Greek in Verona, where Julius Caesar Scaliger had been one of his pupils.

A learned archaeologist and a superb draftsman, the young priest had visited Rome, sketched its ancient buildings, written the story of its great monuments, and recorded, deciphered and explained many defaced inscriptions.

He has stimulated the revival of classical learning by making transcriptions of ancient manuscripts, one of which, completed in 1492, he presents to Lorenzo de' Medici.

Giocondo soon returns to his native town, where he builds bridges and planned fortifications for Treviso, acting as architect engineer, and head-builder during the construction.

In Verona, Giocondo designs the Palazzo del Consiglio for Maximilian I, Holy Roman Emperor.

It is considered one of the finest buildings in Verona and is famed for the decorations of its loggia.

Thomas de Quincey also attributes the church of Santa Maria della Scala to Giocondo.

He is then summoned to Venice, along with a number of other well-known architects, to discuss the protection of the lagoons against the rivers.

Giocondo's plan of altering the Brenta's bed and leading this river to the sea is accepted by the Venetians, and the undertaking is a complete success.