Edoardo Arborio Mella (18 November 1808 – 8 January 1884) was an Italian architect, restorer and scholar. Well known at the time for his ‘stylish’ restorations of medieval buildings in

Piedmont Piedmont ( ; ; ) is one of the 20 regions of Italy, located in the northwest Italy, Northwest of the country. It borders the Liguria region to the south, the Lombardy and Emilia-Romagna regions to the east, and the Aosta Valley region to the ...

,“ ��notissimo all’epoca per i suoi restauri ‘in stile’ a molti edifici medievali piemontesi.” he has been described as ‘one of the most representative protagonists of the

Gothic revival Gothic Revival (also referred to as Victorian Gothic or neo-Gothic) is an Architectural style, architectural movement that after a gradual build-up beginning in the second half of the 17th century became a widespread movement in the first half ...

in northern Italy’.Alexander Cambitoglou and Maurizio Harari
''The Italiote red-figured vases in the Museo Camillo Leone at Vercelli ''
Studia archaeologica, 85 (Rome: L’Erma di Bretscheider, 1997).

Biography

He was born in

Vercelli Vercelli (; ) is a city and ''comune'' of 46,552 inhabitants (January 1, 2017) in the Province of Vercelli, Piedmont, northern Italy. One of the oldest urban sites in northern Italy, it was founded, according to most historians, around 600 BC. ...

to Count Carlo Emanuele Arborio Mella, who for many years was mayor of Vercelli, and Vittoria Gattinara, daughter of Ludovico count of

Zubiena Zubiena is a ''comune'' (municipality) in the Province of Biella in the Italian region Piedmont, located about northeast of Turin and about southwest of Biella. Zubiena borders the following municipalities: Borriana, Cerrione, Magnano, Mongran ...

. He was educated first at home. From 1820 to 1827 he attended the Collegio-Convitto del Carmine in

Turin Turin ( , ; ; , then ) is a city and an important business and cultural centre in northern Italy. It is the capital city of Piedmont and of the Metropolitan City of Turin, and was the first Italian capital from 1861 to 1865. The city is main ...

, a

Jesuit The Society of Jesus (; abbreviation: S.J. or SJ), also known as the Jesuit Order or the Jesuits ( ; ), is a religious order (Catholic), religious order of clerics regular of pontifical right for men in the Catholic Church headquartered in Rom ...

-run boarding school then popular among the Piedmontese aristocracy, where he displayed a particular talent for mathematical subjects.. In 1834 he married Adele Clotilde Olgiati, daughter of Giuseppe Alessandro Olgiati. She died five years later in 1839, having given birth to three children: Carlo Alessandro, Maria Vittoria and Federico. The last of these became an architect and

archaeologist Archaeology or archeology is the study of human activity through the recovery and analysis of material culture. The archaeological record consists of Artifact (archaeology), artifacts, architecture, biofact (archaeology), biofacts or ecofacts, ...

and worked on various projects with his father. Mella's interest in

Gothic architecture Gothic architecture is an architectural style that was prevalent in Europe from the late 12th to the 16th century, during the High Middle Ages, High and Late Middle Ages, surviving into the 17th and 18th centuries in some areas. It evolved f ...

took him to

Switzerland Switzerland, officially the Swiss Confederation, is a landlocked country located in west-central Europe. It is bordered by Italy to the south, France to the west, Germany to the north, and Austria and Liechtenstein to the east. Switzerland ...

, France and Germany; there were further trips to

Monaco Monaco, officially the Principality of Monaco, is a Sovereign state, sovereign city-state and European microstates, microstate on the French Riviera a few kilometres west of the Regions of Italy, Italian region of Liguria, in Western Europe, ...

Constantinople Constantinople (#Names of Constantinople, see other names) was a historical city located on the Bosporus that served as the capital of the Roman Empire, Roman, Byzantine Empire, Byzantine, Latin Empire, Latin, and Ottoman Empire, Ottoman empire ...

Venice Venice ( ; ; , formerly ) is a city in northeastern Italy and the capital of the Veneto Regions of Italy, region. It is built on a group of 118 islands that are separated by expanses of open water and by canals; portions of the city are li ...

, Berlin,

Prague Prague ( ; ) is the capital and List of cities and towns in the Czech Republic, largest city of the Czech Republic and the historical capital of Bohemia. Prague, located on the Vltava River, has a population of about 1.4 million, while its P ...

Budapest Budapest is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns of Hungary, most populous city of Hungary. It is the List of cities in the European Union by population within city limits, tenth-largest city in the European Union by popul ...

Athens Athens ( ) is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns in Greece, largest city of Greece. A significant coastal urban area in the Mediterranean, Athens is also the capital of the Attica (region), Attica region and is the southe ...

and

Vienna Vienna ( ; ; ) is the capital city, capital, List of largest cities in Austria, most populous city, and one of Federal states of Austria, nine federal states of Austria. It is Austria's primate city, with just over two million inhabitants. ...

. He was responsible for the nineteenth-century restoration of the

Duomo ''Duomo'' (, ) is an Italian term for a church with the features of, or having been built to serve as a cathedral, whether or not it currently plays this role. The Duomo of Monza, for example, has never been a diocesan seat and is by definitio ...

Casale Monferrato Casale Monferrato () is a town in the Piedmont region of Northwest Italy, northwestern Italy, in the province of Alessandria. It is situated about east of Turin on the right bank of the Po River, Po, where the river runs at the foot of the Montfe ...

; the works began in 1857 and were completed in 1861. Subsequently, he worked on restorations at Rosignano Monferrato, Mirabello,

Villanova Monferrato Villanova Monferrato is a ''comune'' (municipality) in the Province of Alessandria in the Italy, Italian region Piedmont, located about east of Turin and about northwest of Alessandria and about south of Vercelli. Located in the plain to the lef ...

and of the church of Sant’Ilario in Casale. Mella's publications included treatises on geometry and architecture and monographs on medieval monuments. His obituary in the ''Salesian Bulletin'' of February 1884 points to two works of particular interest: ''Elementi di architettura archi-acuta o gotica'' (‘Elements of Ogival or Gothic Architecture’; 1857) and ''Elementi di architettura romano-bizantina, detta lombarda'' (‘Elements of the Romano-Byzantine Architecture called Lombard’, 1885).

Notes

:''The article originated as a translation o
this version
of its counterpart in the ''

Italian Wikipedia The Italian Wikipedia () is the Italian language, Italian-language edition of Wikipedia. This edition was created on 10 May 2001, and first edited on 11 June 2001. As of , it has articles and more than registered accounts. It is the -largest W ...

'', current on 14 August 2008.'' 1808 births 1884 deaths People from Vercelli 19th-century Italian architects Architects from Piedmont Gothic Revival architects {{italy-architect-stub