Gerolamo Frigimelica Roberti

Biography

Born in Padua to a father who had married into the noble Robert family, thus gaining a title of Count for his son. Gerolamo acquired a broad humanist education and from 1691 to 1720 was curator of the public library of Padua and admitted as member to its Accademia galileiana di scienze, lettere ed arti or Accademia dei Ricovrati.

In 1721, he moved to

He is known for having produced an initial plan in 1716 for Villa Pisani at Stra, however, the densely detailed design, with a central pavilion cramped with columns, was rejected by the patron Alvise Pisani. The design for the central pavilion seemed more apt for a Venetian Palazzo. Instead a more sober, Neoclassical design was adopted after his death by Francesco Maria Preti.^[1]

Also important to Frigimelica was his work as a

He worked in a style of opera seria similar to Apostolo Zeno, Francesco Silvani, and Adriano Morselli. His libretti consisted of five acts and were about historic and mythologic subjects, and were called tragedies or tragic-comedies. he also wrote the text for seven musical oratorios, performed between 1697 and 1702. He died in Modena.^[2]

His relationship to Antonio Frigimelica Roberti, an 18th-century academic, or Francesco Frigimelica il Vecchio, a painter, is unclear.

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