ABSTRACT
The splendid exhibition of architectural drawings shown in Florence and Washington in 1988 raised a number of interesting issues in relation to the San Lorenzo façade project—both traditional ones of dating the sequence of designs, and methodological ones of how best to approach the study of sheets of paper containing architectural drawings. The approach adopted by the catalogue 1 is particularly welcome for its even-handed and unpartisan tone, for its open-mindedness about sequence and reluctance to assume a priori a strict linearity of projects, and for its clear and meticulous discussion of the exact differences of overall design and architectural detail between each of the projects documented in the surviving drawings. Inevitably, however, there are some differences of opinion about individual drawings, consideration of which may lead to a clarification of some issues in the complex history of the façade project. To review this history in detail would be beyond the scope of this publication, 2 and I shall therefore limit myself to reflections on a few crucial drawings.
