GIOCONDO, FRA'. - Giovanni da Verona, a Dominican known as fra' G., architect, b. at Verona around 1433, d. at Rome on 1 July 1515. An eminent figure in the Renaissance of northern Italy, he shone in architectural studies, establishing himself as a theoretician and designer of high worth.
Ancient written testimonies tend to limit his activity as a designer, attributing the Loggia del Consiglio of Verona to Daniele Banda, the Fondaco dei Tedeschi in Venice to Girolamo Tedesco, and the bridge of Notre-Dame over the Seine to two little-known French master builders. This does not dim the fame of G., entrusted to other works, such as the Palazzo di Poggio Reale in Naples, built during his stay in that city (1489-95), and the Castle of Gallon (built in the early years of the 16th century, when fra' G. was in France). Other works of his are: the military constructions, with radial bastions, that were designed to defend Padua and Treviso from the attacks of Maximilian; the hydraulic works, carried out in the same period (1506-1509) around the Brentella; the project, later modified and executed by Scarpagnino, for the building of the Rialto quarter; the 126 illustrations added - during his Neapolitan stay - to the architectural treatise of Francesco di Giorgio.
In 1514, Leo X summoned the architect to Rome to continue, after Bramante's death, alongside Raphael, the construction of St. Peter's (which, in fra' G.'s design, took the form of a Latin cross).
But his figure as a Renaissance man is represented, beyond the great works mentioned above, which proclaim him the initiator, the «father of Venetian architecture» (G. Fiocco), by the humanistic and epigraphic studies in which he distinguished himself worthily. In this field fra G. is owed the discovery and publication of the letters of Pliny, the publication of the Prodigi of G. Ossequente, the Acquedotti of Frontinus, the De re rustica of Cato, the Breviario of Roman history of Aurelius Victor, and the Commentari of G. Caesar (elegantly illustrated).