BEVIGNATE (BEVIGNATE). - Benedictine, architect, b. at Perugia around 1240, d. perhaps a nonagenarian. In 1277 he is mentioned together with Nicola and Giovanni Pisano, sculptors, and Boninsegna, hydraulic engineer, in the inscription of the fountain of Perugia, of which he is called builder (structor).
Around 1290 he was at Orvieto for the construction of the Duomo, and was still working there in 1295 as opera and in 1300 as master builder. In 1305 he was at Perugia in charge of the buildings of the Comune. Among the architects of the thirteenth century, the figure of B. acquires clear definition through documentary evidence and through the precise judgment that may be made of him on the basis of his works. The balanced relationships of mass in the Perugian fountain, the bold structures of the Orvieto Duomo, upon whose construction he certainly worked, even though the design of the building was not his, and finally the elegant forms of the church of S. Francesco at Gubbio, attributed to him with almost absolute certainty, place B. among the foremost architects of his time. He interpreted the new Gothic forms in a free spirit, harmonizing and grafting them onto the solid stock of the most genuine local Romanesque tradition.