Giovanni Battista Falda

Etcher (1643 - 1678)

Giovanni Battista Falda (Valduggia, 7 December 1643 - Rome, 22 August 1678) was an Italian engraver, who documented architecture and urban planning in Rome in the second half of the seventeenth century.

Born in the province of Vercelli, he soon showed inclination and ability for drawing. He was then placed in the workshop of a local painter, and then, at the age of 14, sent to Rome to an uncle who reported him to Gian Lorenzo Bernini. However, in the formation and subsequent activity of the young Falda, the meeting with Giovanni Giacomo de Rossi and the apprenticeship in his printing office are more important. From De Rossi the adolescent Falda acquired "urban" education and trade, and with his mentor he worked practically all his short life.

He died at the age of thirty-five, probably of tumor, and was buried in Santa Maria della Scala.