Diana Gisolfi

The Rule, the Bible, and the Council: The Library of the Benedictine Abbey at Praglia Diana Gisolfi

The Rule, the Bible, and the Council focuses on the decoration of a Benedictine library conceived and executed within a few years of the conclusion of the Council of Trent. The Abbey at Praglia, near Padua, commissioned work from Paolo Veronese and Tintoretto as well as Battista Zelotti. The authors reconstruct the 16th-century library room using physical, on-site evidence, extant documents concerning the furnishings, measurements of the paintings, and early descriptions to re-create with computer technology the room furnished and decorated in 1562 -- ca. 1570. Zelotti's 24 paintings on canvas for the Library at Praglia show a sensitive and clear articulation of the doctrinal intent planned by the erudite Benedictine patrons.