«Nolite extollere in altum cornu vestrum». Ipotesi sul campanile della chiesa della Santissima Annunziata di Messina

This article addresses a series of hypothesis concerning the octagonal space indicated in Guarino Guarini’s drawings of the Church of the Santissima Annunziata in Messina in his Architettura Civile. The façade of the church was completed around 1660 by Guarino Guarini and presented a «prodigiously high» bell tower at the corner, which collapsed during the 1693 earthquake and was later rebuilt shorter. The entire church was destroyed during the 1908 earthquake. Guarini’s drawings published in his treatise suggest that there must have been an octagonal chapel with columns at the corners under the tower; perhaps it was the baptistery of the church. Alternatively, the octagon can be identified as the plan of the tower even if this is not shown in elevation. A comparison between the surviving material and previous knowledge of Guarini’s work suggests that at the time of his departure from Messina in 1662, the tower had not been built yet. However, a perspective section drawing of his next project, the church of Sainte-Anne-la-Royale, shows a bell tower similar to the one designed for Messina. It is therefore possible to assume that the development of the Annunziata bell tower had several overlapping bell cells with a spiral conical roof like the one in Paris.