Born in
Bologna, Orlandi joined the city’s
Carmelite convent of San Martino. Here he undertook research in art history and was made a member of the
Accademia Clementina. The first edition of his
Abecedario pittorico was published in Bologna in 1704. This was a biographical dictionary covering, according to its author, some four thousand painters, sculptors and architects. Although the work would later be criticised for its inaccuracies, Lanitra Walker describes it in the
Dictionary of Art Historians as having been ‘the most complete resource for information on artists during the 18th century.’ ==References==