Biography

Italian draftsman, engraver, and publisher. Very little is known about his life. The son of painter Battista Franco, with whom he began his artistic training at the age of eleven, he worked as a painter, engraver, woodcutter, and dealer in graphics and books. For a while he studied in Bologna with Agostino Carracci. Possibly as a result of his study with Agostino Carracci, Franco published a collection of his own "facsimile font" figure studies in 1596, in which one or two human figures are positioned to form each of the letters of the alphabet.

In 1595 he took over his father's workshop and eventually became a well-known publisher. Although he was not documented as belonging to the booksellers' or printers' guilds, he is recorded in 1606 and again in 1619 as belonging to the painters' guild. Franco's determination to be recognized as an artist is reflected in his will, in which he refers to himself as a "designer."

Apart from his numerous works as an engraver and woodcutter, Franco also proved to be a pleasing portraitist.