Antonio Manetti

Who was Antonio Manetti?

Antonio Manetti was an Italian mathematician and architect from Florence. He was also the biographer of the architect Filippo Brunelleschi.

He is particularly noted for his investigations into the site, shape and size of Dante's Inferno. Although Manetti never himself published his research regarding the topic, the earliest Renaissance Florentine editors of the poem, Cristoforo Landino and Girolamo Benivieni, reported the results of his researches in their respective editions of the Divine Comedy. Manetti is also famous for his short story, The Fat Woodcarver, which recounts a cruel practical joke devised by Brunelleschi.