BIANCHI, ANDREA. – Missionary and architect, b. in 1677 in northern Italy (at Chiampo near Vicenza?), he entered the Society of Jesus in Rome in 1716 as a coadjutor brother and departed that same year for Paraguay. Subsequently assigned to the colleges of Buenos Aires and Córdoba (Tucumán), he d. in the latter city on 25 December 1740. A skilled architect, he drew up the plans for and directed the construction of various churches in Córdoba (El Pilar, S. Francesco...) and worked on the cathedrals of Córdoba and Buenos Aires, mostly with his confrère, the Milanese Giambattista Primoli. His name is often found Hispanized as Blanqui.
BIBL.: M. Solá, Historia del arte hispano-americano, Barcelona 1935, p. 256; G. Furlong, Arquitectos argentinos durante la dominación hispánica, Buenos Aires 1946, pp. 149–91.