Tommaso Temanza and Gaspare Negri

Newly Discovered Correspondence and the Earliest Drawings of the Euphrasian Basilica

Abstract

Seminario Patriarcale and Biblioteca del Museo Correr in Venice preserve correspondence between Tommaso Temanza, architect, civil and military engineer, and art chronicler, and Gaspare Negri, who first served as the bishop of Novigrad and then of Poreč. Correspondence contains hitherto unknown information and expands our knowledge about Temanza, Bishop Negri, their relationship, and their environment. In addition to the letters, Seminario Patriarcale di Venezia also preserves a list of illustrations with five drawings of the cathedral indicated and an exhaustive record of their elements for each of the sheets. The same collection preserves two of the indicated five drafts, which the author has identified as work of Temanza’s assistant Bernardo Silvestri based on a copy of the former’s letter. The collection also preserves a sketch made by Tommaso Temanza, which most likely served as a template for Silvestri’s drawing, now lost. The drawings by Silvestri and Temanza were made in 1753, which makes them the oldest known depictions of the Poreč cathedral.