William of Volpiano practised at a period when the terms of architecture itself were under argument.
The record lists William of Volpiano as Italian monastic reformer and architect.
William of Volpiano was born at Isola San Giulio in 962. His recorded nationality is Italy.
Medieval construction was collective and slow - cathedrals outlasted the men who began them - and the master mason was a craftsman rather than an author.
He is recorded as architect.
Buildings outlast their architects and usually their purposes, which is what makes the discipline unforgiving.
That the work was built in Italy shaped it: climate, materials, planning law and who holds the budget all decide what can actually be built.
William of Volpiano died in 1031, aged 69. The buildings remain, still in use by people who never knew the name - which is the particular afterlife architecture offers.
