GUARINI, GUARINO

born Jan. 17, 1624, Modena, Duchy of Modena died March 6, 1683, Milan also called Camillo Guarini Italian architect, priest, mathematician, and theologian whose designs and books on architecture made him a major source for later Baroque architects in Central Europe and North Italy. Guarini was in Rome during 163947 when Francesco Borromini was most active. Later he taught in Modena, Messina, and Paris and finally, in 1666, went to Turin, where he stayed for the greater part of the remainder of his life. While in Turin in the service of the dukes of Savoy, Guarini built (or furnished designs for) at least six churches and chapels, five palaces, and a city gate; published six books, two on architecture and four on mathematics and astronomy; and sent palace designs to the Duke of Bavaria and the Margrave of Baden. In San Lorenzo (166887) and Santa Sindone (166790) in Turin, Guarini, working on a centralized plan, converted domes to an open lacework of interwoven masonry arches. Santa Sindone was damaged by fire in 1997. Guarini's longitudinal churchesof which the most spectacular was Santa Maria della Divina Providenza, in Lisbon, destroyed by earthquake in 1755with their veiled light sources and interwoven spaces served as models for much of the church development in Central Europe. The Palazzo Carignano, Turin (1679), is Guarini's masterpiece of palace design. With its billowing facade, its magnificent curved double stair, and its astonishing double dome in the main salon, it well deserves to be acclaimed the finest urban palace of the second half of the 17th century in Italy. Guarini's principal architectural treatise, Architettura Civile, was published posthumously in Turin in 1737.