Giocondo, Fra (c. 1433–1515)

Italian architect. He worked in both Italy and France, often as an architectural adviser, and was also responsible for garden design (at Naples and Blois). In his native Verona he worked on the Palazzo del Consiglio 1476–88, in Naples 1489–93 he was responsible for fortifications, and in Paris he built the Pont Notre-Dame 1500–08.

As a young Franciscan friar he went to study archaeology in Rome, where he made an important collection of ancient inscriptions. From 1489–93 he was in Naples as architect to the duke of Calabria (afterwards King Alfonso II). He later designed the defences of Venice in about 1506, built city walls at Treviso in 1509, and drew up plans for the Brenta canal linking Treviso and Venice. Following the death of Bramante in 1514, he became supervisor at St Peter's in Rome, sharing the post with Raphael and Giuliano da Sangallo.

Known for his edition of his 1511 edition of the treatise on architecture by the Roman architect Vitruvius, Giocondo was frequently consulted by other leading architects, and his collection of drawings of details of classical ruins in Rome was a valuable resource both to them and to his patrons.