Ingenieros itinerantes: el caso de la familia Sesti

Abstract

Efficiency and maintenance of the defensive apparatus was systematically entrusted to engineers-architects, often involved in tasks very different from each other. In the case of the dominions of the Hispanic monarchy, technicians were committed to the idea of interacting with urban issues on a large territorial scale. The necessary interventions to ensure the defences efficiency of the territories determined the periodic displacement of the military technicians from strength to strength, involved in new missions that responded to the priorities of the cities, aiming at improve their fortifications. This contribution tries to construct or make known new biographical data on the technicians who participated in the fortifications sponsored by the Habsburgs. The archival sources shed new light on the figure and activity of Milanese engineer Giovanni Paolo Sesti and that of his son, Giovanni Battista, technicians specialized in military works between Italy and Spain.