Costa E Silva Analysis

In 1812 Costa e Silva is called to go Brazil, leaving behind the works of Ajuda and Runa which never got to be completed. We will not linger on the work of Costa e Silva in Brazil, which will deserve detailed attention in due time. However, we would like to point out that an obelisk planned for a square in Rio among other commissioned works were there inexplicably halted which undoubtedly frustrated the architect. In Rio he forcibly teamed up with locally appointed Public and Royal architects such as Silva Moniz, engineer Santana and lieutenant-engineer J. M. da Silva, none of whom had his standing or expertise. Costa and Silva was called on to meet the demands of many works in progress and emergencies (e.g. Salvador landslides in 1813) until

The collection of architectural treatises that Costa e Silva assembled throughout his life draws a faithful picture of his aesthetic, theoretical and formal route. It comprises, for e.g. four editions of the essential treatise of Vitruvius. The oldest, from 1536, is the commentary by Gianbatista Caporali di Perugia. Also critical was Daniele Barbaro’s (1514-1570) famous commentary on I dieci dell'architettura libri di M. Vitruvius illustrated by Palladio, an edition of 1584. He owned the well known edition of Perrault’s, Italian translation dated Venice, 1747 and another from Naples 1758. Costa e Silva also possessed Alberti’s (a rare re-printing from 1550‘s dated 1565), Serlio’s, Labacco’s, Cataneo’s, Scamozzi’s, three editions of Vignola’s, and two Palladio’s treatises along with another two on the latter. In addition, we must also mention Bibiena’s, Pozzo’s and Rusconi’s treatises. From this series we can infer Costa e Silva’s interest in the study and collation of the great theorists of architecture such as Vitruvius (four editions, a rare one by Barbaro), Vignola (three) and Palladio (four books, two editions of his treatise, a book on Vicenza’s buildings and a drawings catalogue of the Roman baths. The inventory displays pressing bias towards the great classic treatises in particular Vitruvius and, of course, Palladio. In this regard, Costa e Silva’s sources are noticeably Italian in contrast with French cognates on architecture. In the records, we find only the Cours d'Architecture by Blondel (1771) and Les Plans et les Descriptions des Maisons de Campagne by Félibien (1707). By comparison the library of Eugenio dos Santos included, two editions of Vitruvius (one 1521 and Perrault’s, 1673), one of Serlio’s (only books I and II), Vignola’s, Palladio’s (2 volumes in a French edition annotated by Inigo Jones, 1726),