building techniques; some studies also embrace the architecture of the nineteenth century and the Tuscan architecture of the first half of the twentieth century. The analysis of the rusticated facades of the Florentine palaces in the fifteenth century is the theme of the doctoral thesis, detailed in two papers in 1996 and 2007 and rearranged in a forthcoming book. Other interventions on the domestic architecture of the Florentine Renaissance concern the palazzo dello Strozzino, the Medici villa at Castello, the palazzo Pitti, the Antonio and Giuliano da Sangallo’s florentine house. Some papers are dedicated to the medicean monumental columns erected in the sixteenth century, and to the Renaissance systems for moving and lifting large monolithic stones.
Other studies concern the Badia of Fiesole, Tribolo, Vasari, Ammannati, Santi di Tito. In the book Nati sotto Mercurio (2011), written with Amedeo Belluzzi and Donata Battilotti and preceded by two papers on the same topic in a collective volume edited by Donatella Calabi (2008), he examines the shops, the markets and the merchants' houses in Florence in the fifteenth century. It is also being published a contribution on the use of masonry in the early works of Giulio Romano. Among the contributions regarding the nineteenth-century architecture are those on Karl Friedrich Schinkel, John Soane, Giuseppe Manetti, the Institute for Advanced Studies in Florence. The studies on the Tuscan architecture of the twentieth century concern Raffaello Brizzi, to whom is dedicated the volume of 2006, which collects some of his projects and designs; moreover the cinemas of Nello Baroni and the reconstruction of downtown Florence after the destruction of World War II, a topic discussed also in the book on the Santa Trinita bridge (2003), written with Amedeo Belluzzi

GIANLUCA BELLI

After the degree in architecture in Florence in 1988, he attended the School of Specialization for the Study and Restoration of Monuments of the University “La Sapienza” in Rome. In 1995 he obtained a Ph.D. in History of Architecture and Urban Planning at the University of Florence, and in 1996 a two-year post-doctoral grant. In the same university he became a researcher in History of Architecture in 1999, and associate professor in 2005. He teaches History of Architecture and History of Architectural Techniques in the University of Florence. He participated in many national and international conferences, exhibitions, scientific research projects CNR, MURST and PRIN; in 2008 coordinated a research grant about the basilica dell'Umiltà in Pistoia. The field of research concerns mainly the Italian architecture of the fifteenth and sixteenth century, explored through the history of