Gasparo (Della) Vecchia, Architecture, and Russia

In the manuscript Architektura cyvilnaja (written in Venice in 1699), “Gasparo Vecchia” is mentioned by the Russian prince G.F. Dolgorukov as the author of a selection of Palladio’s and other famous architects’ texts, which were the sources Dolgorukov drew upon when writing his work. To my knowledge, Gasparo (Della) Vecchia has neither so far been properly identified nor his role studied in detail; in this paper, I try to shed some light on his relationship with Dolgorukov’s text by analysing a manuscript penned by the Italian artist and entitled Breve trattato d’architettura civile, here investigated for the first time. I shall argue that in Venice Della Vecchia continued to be involved with Russians for some time: a letter dated 1715 and addressed to Peter the Great contains his proposal for a garden with didactic ends, thereby demonstrating that Della Vecchia was fully aware of the tsar’s interests and goals.