The so-called Vasari/Mariette album and Niccolò Gaddi’s graphic collection
From 10 to 12 September 2026, the National Central Library of Florence and the Uffizi Department of Prints and Drawings will host the international conference
The conference explores the history and reconstruction of the celebrated volume of architectural drawings that belonged to Niccolò Gaddi (1537–1591), a key figure in late sixteenth-century Florence. Bringing together curators, academics and leading scholars from prestigious institutions around the world, the event will comprise six sessions of papers, a study session at the GDSU, an evening lecture and a concluding roundtable discussion.
Experts will examine the album’s provenance — from the collections of Pierre-Jean Mariette and Séroux d’Agincourt to its entry into the Uffizi in 1798 — as well as the controversial attribution to Vasari and the sophisticated graphic layout of masterpieces by Bramante, the Sangallo family and Scamozzi, among many others.
The conference offers an important opportunity to rediscover Gaddi’s intellectual vision and to reflect on the fundamental transition from private collecting to the collections of the public museum.
The event is funded by the University of St Andrews, the Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF) and the Society for Renaissance Studies (SRS), and organised in collaboration with ETH Zürich and the University of Notre Dame.
