La situazione territoriale e difensiva umbro-marchigiana nella relazione dell’architetto militare e ceramista Cipriano Piccolpasso

In the vast territories of central Italy, characterized by municipal and seigniorial fragmentations as well as by violent struggles between important urban centers and smaller towns, the Papal State has long attempted to cancel the particularism of the free municipalities and the power of the local lordships until it has reaffirmed its sovereignty by unifying, at the end of the sixteenth century, its political-administrative management and converting the whole of Umbria into a simple province of the Apostolic See. In this prolonged and tumultuous historical situation, constant attention was required to the safeguard of the lands of relevance, to the protection of the borders and to the surveillance of the defensive systems. Over time, among the many experts sent by the pontiffs to frequently carry out the necessary inspection missions, the figure of Cipriano Piccolpasso stands out, an eclectic personage originally from Casteldurante (now Urbania) near Urbino, whose professional industriousness was spread across many sectors, from military architecture to his activities as a ceramist, designer, cartographer and writer. In addition to revealing an extraordinary talent in the decoration of majolica, expressed in a specific extensive treatise, the artist shows particular interest in war art, so much so that in 1558 he was appointed Superintendent of the fortress of Perugia and, a few years later, charged with carrying out the reconnaissance of the cities, castles and fortresses included in the territory of Perugia and of strengthening the defenses of the urban centers of the Papal Adriatic. The account of the enterprise is concretized in the writing The plans and portraits of the cities and lands of Umbria subject to the government of Perugia, in which the detailed narratives are accompanied by numerous plans and views of the inspected areas, portrayed by Piccolpasso himself.