Antonio Ferramolino da Bergamo, un ingegnere militare nel Mediterraneo di Carlo V

Thirty years already went by since the publication of major monographic contributions by Guido Tadini on the complex and fascinating figure of Antonio Ferramolino from Bergamo, certainly one of the most distinguished military engineers at the service of the Spanish monarchy in the Mediterranean in the early sixteenth century. Although the most recent studies, particularly those on the engineer Pietro Antonio Tomasello from Padua, his predecessor, have partially reduced the "pioneering" role in the process of enhancement of Sicilian defenses that historiography had attributed to him, the figure of Ferramolino undoubtedly still presents many points of interest. His long professional activity, documented for at least three decades, with a very wide scope of action - from the Venetian territories, to the Republic of Ragusa and Sicily, from Malta to north African strongholds -, certain aspects of his character, including an unprejudiced behavior that led him to combine design responsibility and intervention as a building contractor in the same building site, are all elements to consider, especially in light of new documentary acquisitions, for an update of his biographical profile.