Francesco Talenti (''c''. 1300 – aft. 1369) was a Tuscan architect and sculptor who worked mainly in

Florence Florence ( ; ) is the capital city of the Italy, Italian region of Tuscany. It is also the most populated city in Tuscany, with 362,353 inhabitants, and 989,460 in Metropolitan City of Florence, its metropolitan province as of 2025. Florence ...

after 1351. He is mentioned working at

Orvieto Cathedral Orvieto Cathedral () is a large 14th-century Roman Catholic cathedral dedicated to the Assumption of the Virgin Mary and situated in the town of Orvieto in Umbria, central Italy. Since 1986, the cathedral in Orvieto has been the episcopal seat ...

in 1325. In the 1350s he completed the two middle storeys of

Giotto's Campanile Giotto's Campanile (, also , ) is a free-standing campanile (bell tower) that is part of the complex of buildings that make up Florence Cathedral on the Piazza del Duomo in Florence, Italy. Standing adjacent to the Basilica of Santa Maria del ...

, and two doorways, the Porta dei Cornacchini and the Porta del Campanile, respectively in the north and south sides of the Florentine ''Duomo''. In 1351 he succeeded

Andrea Pisano Andrea Pisano (Pontedera 12901348 Orvieto) also known as Andrea da Pontedera, was an Italian sculptor and architect. Biography Pisano initially learned the trade of a goldsmith. He later became an apprentice of Mino di Giovanni, about 1300, a ...

as director of works of the cathedral. The cathedral's famous dome is first mentioned in 1357, but opinions differ whether Talenti was responsible for its inclusion or not. Talenti enlarged its structure by redesigning the apses and prolonging the nave, making the church the largest ever built in Europe so far.

References

*Flavio Boggi, "Talenti, Francesco", in Medieval Italy: An Encyclopedia, vol. 2, ed. Christopher Kleinhenz (Routledge, 2004), 1068. {{DEFAULTSORT:Talenti, Francesco Architects from Florence 14th-century Italian architects 14th-century Italian sculptors Italian male sculptors Year of death unknown Year of birth uncertain 14th-century people from the Republic of Florence