The course aims to provide the student with an in-depth knowledge and a critical understanding of Early Modern architectural history. In particular: periodization, issues and problems from the fifteenth to the mid-eighteenth century, notions of architectural literature, recognition and critical understanding of selected buildings/projects and architect's careers. The analysis of significant architectures built between the fifteenth and the first half of the eighteenth century may be done through the study of different aspects: architect, client, form, structure, program, design, construction, physical and political context, historiography; together with the analysis of sites of special architectural, social or political interest (such as Pienza, Urbino, the capital cities of the Seventeenth century, Versailles ...) and of structure-architectures (such as domes, a theme that runs throughout the period, from S. Maria del Fiore, to St. Peter's, to the Chapel of the Holy Shroud).

General knowledge of architectural history and theory for the Early modern period; ability to correctly identify and place architectural production in space and time, using an appropriate specific vocabulary.
Knowledge of the methods of historical analysis of architectural heritage.
Knowledge and understanding of the cultural, social, economic urban transformations for the concerned period.
Ability to identify historical sources and to use them correctly.
Ability to organize and correctly interpret data collected by historical analysis at different scales.

General knowledge of Italian and European Early modern history is a prerequisite. The course also requires a general knowledge of art history (at high school level) for the Ancient and Early modern periods. As the course is in the third year of the Bachelor Degree, the basic architectural vocabulary (parts of buildings, building elements, primary forms in the history of architecture, architectural orders) is also taken for granted.

The course, delivered in English, is an introduction to the history of Western architecture from 1420 to 1750: from the Italian Quattrocento, to a selection of themes and examples ranging from the XVI to the XVIII century, with an expanding geographical focus, in time, from Italy to Europe. The detailed syllabus will be found on the site of the course: it will change slightly from year to year, within the general frame stated above. The aim of the lessons is to provide the student with a solid cultural and historical background on the architecture of the period, and also to expand his vocabulary and critical approach to architecture in general.

The course, delivered in English, is mainly based on classroom lectures. Day trips in nearby cities (e.g., Milan, Vicenza) are optional, and offered as an opportunity; open air lessons in Turin within the ordinary course timetable are mandatory. One or more individual exercises, to turn in and discuss during the course, are part of the program (e.g., analysis of an architectural order). Taking notes is mandatory; students are encouraged to draw / sketch, during trips and in the classroom.

There is no single mandatory textbook. However, some "classical" texts, available in the Biblioteca Centrale di Architettura, are recommended; they can be read partly or as a whole, and used as guides into more selected readings. Additional bibliography, references to websites, and readings are given throughout the course and will be partly available for download from the course website.
J. Summerson, The Classical Language of Architecture, Cambridge, MIT, 1963 [1st. ed; later editions are available]
The Renaissance : from Brunelleschi to Michelangelo : the representation of architecture, edited by Henry A. Millon and Vittorio Magnago Lampugnani, London, Thames and Hudson, 1994 (esp. the essays by A. Bruschi and C. L. Frommel)
R. Wittkower, Idea and Image. Studies in the Italian Renaissance, London, Thames and Hudson, 1978 (esp. Michelangelo's Biblioteca Laurenziana, p.11-72; see also J. Ackerman, The Architecture of Michelangelo, Harmondsworth, Penguin, 1970).
P. Murray, The Architecture of the Italian Renaissance, London, Thames and Hudson, 1986 (revised third ed., first ed. 1963)
W. Lotz, Architecture in Italy 1500-1600, New Haven, London, Yale University Press, 1995
R. Wittkower, Art and Architecture in Italy, 1600-1750, Penguin, Harmondsworth, 1973 revised ed.
R. Pommer, Eighteenth-century architecture in Piedmont : the open structures of Juvarra, Alfieri, Vittone, New York / London, Univ. Press, 1967

The final exam will be taken individually. It aims to assess the learning of the topics discussed during the course and covered in the required readings; it can be carried out in oral, written and oral, or written form. The three modes will share both the structure and the purpose of ascertaining: (a) knowledge of specific topics in the history of Early modern Architecture, (b) the understanding of periodization and chronology (c) the ability to discuss and recognize, through the use of images, specific examples among those analyzed during the lectures.