The elevation of the west façade of San Petronio in Bologna was completed by John Soane during his scholarship in Italy between 1778 and 1780. Just as his predecessors abroad, Soane sought material which he might eventually publish upon his return to England and establish himself before the public as a widely travelled architect. Although the project did not materialise, Soane's preliminary drawings for it survive and one such scheme involved the Italian renaissance and baroque architectural projects for the church of San Petronio. The idea of a publication along these lines originated from Tommaso Temanza's life of Palladio contained in a series of brief biographies entitled Vite dei piùcelebri architetti e scultori Veneziani (Venice, 1778). On the basis of what Soane had read or had heard by word of mouth he knew what to expect and at the archives of San Petronio when he arrived there around the end of September 1779. Soane was set to trace nine of the San Petronio drawings; three by Palladio, and the rest divided up between the various projects of Baldassare Peruzzi, Giulio Romano, Vignola and Girolamo Rainaldi. This copy after Giulio is the largest most impressive of the group.