Bartolomeo Campi (died 1573), was an Italian renaissance artist, goldsmith, armourer, and military engineer from Pesaro, who worked at the courts of Urbino and France.
Pietro Aretino commended his early works.[1] Bartolomeo Campi worked for Guidobaldo II della Rovere, Duke of Urbino. In 1546, he made the Duke a suit of armour in all'antica, ancient Roman style, now held by the Royal CollectioninMadrid. He signed the cuirass "BARTOLOMEUS CAMPI", recording it as a year's worth of work made by continuous labour in two months.[2]Apair of stirrups in the Victoria and Albert Museum including similar decoration of damascened vine leaf tendrils are thought to have been made by his workshop, although these are signed "ACF" rather than "BC Fecit".[3]
Bartolomeo Campi designed costume for court festivals in Urbino and for Guidobaldo della Rovere's marriage to Vittoria Farnese in January 1548.[4] According to Guidobaldo del Monte, Bartolomeo also designed an automaton for the Duke's dinner table, a silver tortoise with a shell that opened to deliver toothpicks to the guests.[5]
In April 1554, the Duke of Urbino recommended Bartolomeo's skills to Ercole II d'Este, Duke of Ferrara and Henry II of France for his innovations in artillery.[6] After a short period in Siena, where he was wounded, and Venice, Bartolomeo worked at the French court from 1557 to 1562.[7]
In January 1555, Bartolomeo, or his brother Giacomo di Bernardino Campi, demonstrated a novel cannon in Paris for Henry II that could be easily dismantled in sections for transport.[8] Campi's gun was described by the English diplomat, Nicholas Wotton. Sent from the "duke of Urbin", it had a longer range and greater power than a conventional brass cannon of the same size.[9]
^James G. Mann, 'An Embossed Visor of Guidobaldo II, Duke of Urbino', Burlington Magazine, 82:478 (January 1943), p. 15: Lettere di M. Pietro Aretino, 4 (Paris, 1609), p. 7.
^Stuart W. Pyhrr & José-A. Godoy, Heroic Armor of the Italian Renaissance: Filippo Negroli and His Contemporaries (Metropolitan Museum, 1998), p. 283.
^Angus Patterson, Fashion and Armour in Renaissance Europe: Proud Lookes and Brave Attire (London: V&A, 2009), p. 96.
^Carolyn Springer, Armour and Masculinity in the Italian Renaissance (University of Toronto, 2010), p. 87.
^Courtney Ann Roby, The Mechanical Tradition of Hero of Alexandria (Cambridge, 2023), p. 232: Courtney Roby, 'Moving Wood, Man Immobile: Hero's Automata at the Urbino Court', Guy Hedreen, Material World (Brill, 2021), pp. 108–132. doi:10.1163/9789004461376_007: Fermo Giovanni Motta, Villa Caprile: il tempio dei quattro elementi (Electa, 1998), p. 165.
^Angelo Angelucci, Documenti inediti per la storia delle armi da fuoco italiane, 1:1 (Turin, 1869), pp. 330–333 no. 61.
^James G. Mann, 'An Embossed Visor of Guidobaldo II, Duke of Urbino', Burlington Magazine, 82:478 (January 1943), p. 16.
^Sheila R. Richards, Secret Writing in the Public Records (London: HMSO, 1974), p. 11: James G. Mann, 'An Embossed Visor of Guidobaldo II, Duke of Urbino', Burlington Magazine, 82:478 (January 1943), p. 16.
^Herbert Van Scoy, Bernerd C. Weber, 'The Marriage of Mary Queen of Scots and the Dauphin', Scottish Historical Review, 31:111, Part 1 (April 1952), pp. 44, 47–8.
^Alphonse de Ruble, La première jeunesse de Marie Stuart (Paris, 1891), p. 157: Discours du grand et magnifique triumphe faict au mariage (Rouen, 1558).
^Herbert Van Scoy, Bernerd C. Weber, 'The Marriage of Mary Queen of Scots and the Dauphin', Scottish Historical Review, 31:111, Part 1 (April 1952), pp. 44, 47.
^Angelo Angelucci, Documenti inediti per la storia delle armi da fuoco italiane, 1:1 (Turin, 1869), p. 331 fn.
^Guy-Michel Leproux & Jean-Pierre Reverseau, 'Bartolomeo Campi à l'hôtel de Nesle', Documents d'histoire parisienne, 17 (2015), 17-30.
^Charles van den Heuvel, 'Bartolomeo Campi: A different method of designing citadels: Groningen and Flushing', Architetti e ingegneri militari italiani all'estero dal XV al XVIII secolo (Livorno, 1994), 153–67.
