Pietro Paolo Floriani

Pietro Paolo Floriani
Monument to Pietro Paolo Floriani erected in 2009 at Floriana, Malta
Born	26 April 1585 Macerata
Died	27 May 1638 Ferrara
Nationality	Italian

Pietro Paolo Floriani (1585–1638) was an Italian engineer and architect who designed military and theatrical buildings. He had an adventurous life and a multifaceted personality as he was also a man of arms and a literary figure.

Floriani was born on 26 April 1585 in the town of Macerata to Pompeo Floriani and Claudia Rotelli. In 1606 he married Maria Fedeli, but she died in 1608 while giving birth to their daughter Camilla. In 1608 he went to Crema where he was employed by the governor of the city Orazio del Monte. In 1611 he went to Pesaro, and by July 1612 he was already highly regarded among the gentlemen of Macerata.

In autumn 1612 Floriani settled in Madrid, Spain, where King Philip III commissioned him for a number of projects including to explore the fortifications of Algiers to plan a conquest of the city. In 1617 Floriani was sent to work for the Governor of Milan Pedro Álvarez de Toledo, who had begun an extensive defensive engineering program. Floriani spent about a year in Milan, and although the King of Spain invited him to return to the Algiers project, he declined as he had been commissioned by Archduke Leopold V to fortify the town of Brisach in Hungary. He then took part in strengthening the defences of Pressburg and Vienna. He was present at the Battle of White Mountain in 1620. Within the next couple of years he designed both military and non-military buildings in other cities including Altenburg, until he resigned as a military engineer in 1624.

He then had a successful military career and was eventually appointed as a warden in Castel Sant'Angelo in December 1627. He then married Lucrezia Gardina, the widow of Lorenzo Costa. In early 1629 he was appointed by Carlo Barberini and so he went to Ferrara, and he also worked for Pope Urban VIII.