Villa Pliniana, lago di Como: committenza, progettazione e contesto di un’architettura

the paper proposes an analysis of the construction process as well as the reality of Villa Pliniana on the Como lake, providing some new archival information and a series of remarks, useful to discuss its position in the architectural production of the second half of Cinquecento in Lombardy, and the issues related to its design authorship. In comparison with previous literature, the roles of actors are better documented and the pre-existent structures, which have been incorporated in the new project and conditioned the geometry of the building, have been defined. the strength of the project is acknowledged in the ingenuity of the court facing the lake through the loggia, although some weaknesses of the architecturalcomposition are also pointed out, which confirm as the author a practitioner like Giovanni Antonio Piotti, more likelythan a cultivated architect. In order to support the proposed reasoning on authorship, new data are provided also regarding other buildings from the same period and region, such as the Jesuit church in Como and the “teatro delle acque” in Della Croce garden, riva San Vitale.