Theories and Approaches in Fortifications Design: the Figure of Gaspare Beretta (1620-1703)

If we take a look at the past, among the main modalities of transmission of artistic, scientific and technical knowledge (alongside with manuscripts and printed treatises and with respect to the various ‘precepts’ and to all librarian production) we would have found also various professional figures. This is even truer with regard to the formation and dissemination of knowledge among military engineers, who used to be real “living vehicles” (due to the nature of their work) in national and international cultural systems (Viganò 2009). This is also true for what concern that circumscribed set of knowledge of geometrical-mathematical theories, including their application to the codes of architectural Representation and Design. This ‘ongoing’ research aims to investigate the example of the military engineer Gaspare Beretta (Milan 1620-1703), whose theoretical production both on architectural graphic and on various applications of Geometry is still unpublished. With the aim of developing the relationship between geometry, architecture and the transmission of knowledge to these connections, we will go through his practices of the regular fortress tracing on “paper and ground”.