The drawing shows a cross-section of the Marciana Library façade on two levels.The drawing shows a cross-section of the façade on two levels. Through the front door, there are details of the inner vaults’ decoration and the front door’s full-length caryatid. The level above shows the inner structure as well as pews placed against the walls.

The Marciana Library was created in order to hold Bishop Bessarion donation of 750 codex and 250 manuscripts to the state-city of Venice. This donation took place in 1468, however the construction of the Marciana Library could only start in 1537 and was executed after Jacopo Sansovino's design (1486-1570). Although not finished in his lifetime, the Library is generally held to be Sansovino's architectural masterpiece, and it was praised by Andrea Palladio as 'the richest and most ornate building since ancient times' (Quattro libri dell'architettura, Venice, 1570).

Antonio Visentini (Venice, 21 Nov 1688 – Venice, 26 June 1782) was an Italian painter, engraver, architect and theorist. He was first known as a painter and trained with the Venetian history painter Giovanni Antonio Pellegrini (1675-1741). He became known as an engraver by the end of the 1720s when he was commissioned by Joseph Smith to produce engravings of Canaletto’s views of Venice. Visentini started working as an architect in 1731, and his first theoretical work, Libro di Architettura, which included Rococo-influenced drawings by Pier Antonio Morelli after Visentini’s ideas, was published in 1733.

His ideas on contemporary architecture derived from Antiquity and the work of Andrea Palladio (1508-80). Later however, Visentini developed neo-Palladian and anti-Baroque ideas. Visentini and his pupils executed numerous drawings of ancient and contemporary buildings intended to disseminate exemplary architecture. He participated to the foundation of the Venetian Academy in 1755, where he became a teacher of architectural perspective in 1772.