Leon Battista Alberti
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Leon Battista Alberti (; 14 February 1404 – 25 April 1472) was an Italian Renaissance humanist author, artist, architect, poet,
priest A priest is a religious leader authorized to perform the sacred rituals of a religion, especially as a mediatory agent between humans and one or more deities. They also have the authority or power to administer religious rites; in partic ...
,
linguist Linguistics is the scientific study of human language. It is called a scientific study because it entails a comprehensive, systematic, objective, and precise analysis of all aspects of language, particularly its nature and structure. Lingu ...
, philosopher, and cryptographer; he epitomised the nature of those identified now as
polymaths A polymath ( el, πολυμαθής, , "having learned much"; la, homo universalis, "universal human") is an individual whose knowledge spans a substantial number of subjects, known to draw on complex bodies of knowledge to solve specific pro ...
. He is considered the founder of Western cryptography, a claim he shares with
Johannes Trithemius Johannes Trithemius (; 1 February 1462 – 13 December 1516), born Johann Heidenberg, was a German Benedictine abbot and a polymath who was active in the German Renaissance as a lexicographer, chronicler, cryptographer, and occultist. He is co ...
. Although he often is characterized exclusively as an architect, as James Beck has observed, "to single out one of Leon Battista's 'fields' over others as somehow functionally independent and self-sufficient is of no help at all to any effort to characterize Alberti's extensive explorations in the fine arts". Although Alberti is known mostly for being an artist, he was also a mathematician of many sorts and made great advances to this field during the fifteenth century. The two most important buildings he designed are the churches of San Sebastiano (1460) and Sant'Andrea (1472), both in Mantua. Alberti's life was described in
Giorgio Vasari Giorgio Vasari (, also , ; 30 July 1511 – 27 June 1574) was an Italian Renaissance Master, who worked as a painter, architect, engineer, writer, and historian, who is best known for his work '' The Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculp ...
's ''
Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculptors, and Architects ''The Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculptors, and Architects'' ( it, Le vite de' più eccellenti pittori, scultori, e architettori), often simply known as ''The Lives'' ( it, Le Vite), is a series of artist biographies written by 16th-ce ...
''.


Biography


Early life

Leon Battista Alberti was born in 1404 in
Genoa Genoa ( ; it, Genova ; lij, Zêna ). is the capital of the Italian region of Liguria and the sixth-largest city in Italy. In 2015, 594,733 people lived within the city's administrative limits. As of the 2011 Italian census, the Province of ...
. His mother was Bianca Fieschi. His father, Benedetto Alberti, was a wealthy Florentine who had been exiled from his own city, but allowed to return in 1428. Alberti was sent to boarding school in Padua, then studied law at
Bologna Bologna (, , ; egl, label= Emilian, Bulåggna ; lat, Bononia) is the capital and largest city of the Emilia-Romagna region in Northern Italy. It is the seventh most populous city in Italy with about 400,000 inhabitants and 150 different na ...
.Melissa Snell,
Leon Battsta Alberti
', About.com: Medieval History.
He lived for a time in
Florence Florence ( ; it, Firenze ) is a city in Central Italy and the capital city of the Tuscany region. It is the most populated city in Tuscany, with 383,083 inhabitants in 2016, and over 1,520,000 in its metropolitan area.Bilancio demografico ...
, then in 1431 travelled to Rome, where he took holy orders and entered the service of the papal court. During this time he studied the ancient ruins, which excited his interest in architecture and strongly influenced the form of the buildings that he designed.''The Renaissance:a Illustrated Encyclopedia'', Octopus (1979) Alberti was gifted in many ways. He was tall, strong, and a fine athlete who could ride the wildest horse and jump over a person's head. He distinguished himself as a writer while still a child at school, and by the age of twenty had written a play that was successfully passed off as a genuine piece of Classical literature. In 1435 he began his first major written work, '' Della pittura'', which was inspired by the burgeoning pictorial art in Florence in the early fifteenth century. In this work he analysed the nature of painting and explored the elements of perspective, composition, and colour. In 1438 he began to focus more on architecture and was encouraged by the Marchese Leonello d'Este of Ferrara, for whom he built a small
triumphal arch A triumphal arch is a free-standing monumental structure in the shape of an archway with one or more arched passageways, often designed to span a road. In its simplest form a triumphal arch consists of two massive piers connected by an arch, cr ...
to support an equestrian statue of Leonello's father. In 1447 Alberti became architectural advisor to Pope Nicholas V and was involved in several projects at the Vatican.


First major commission

His first major architectural commission was in 1446 for the facade of the Rucellai Palace in Florence. This was followed in 1450 by a commission from Sigismondo Malatesta to transform the Gothic church of San Francesco in Rimini into a memorial chapel, the Tempio Malatestiano. In Florence, he designed the upper parts of the facade for the Dominican church of
Santa Maria Novella Santa Maria Novella is a church in Florence, Italy, situated opposite, and lending its name to, the city's main railway station. Chronologically, it is the first great basilica in Florence, and is the city's principal Dominican church. The chu ...
, famously bridging the nave and lower aisles with two ornately inlaid scrolls, solving a visual problem and setting a precedent to be followed by architects of churches for four hundred years.Joseph Rykwert, ed., ''Leon Baptiste Alberti'', Architectul Design, Vol 49 No 5-6, London In 1452, he completed '' De re aedificatoria'', a treatise on architecture, using as its basis the work of
Vitruvius Vitruvius (; c. 80–70 BC – after c. 15 BC) was a Roman architect and engineer during the 1st century BC, known for his multi-volume work entitled '' De architectura''. He originated the idea that all buildings should have three attribut ...
and influenced by the archaeological remains of Rome. The work was not published until 1485. It was followed in 1464 by his less influential work, ''De statua'', in which he examines sculpture. Alberti's only known sculpture is a self-portrait medallion, sometimes attributed to
Pisanello Pisanello (c. 1380/1395c. 1450/1455), born Antonio di Puccio Pisano or Antonio di Puccio da Cereto, also erroneously called Vittore Pisano by Giorgio Vasari, was one of the most distinguished painters of the early Italian Renaissance and Quatt ...
. Alberti was employed to design two churches in
Mantua Mantua ( ; it, Mantova ; Lombard and la, Mantua) is a city and '' comune'' in Lombardy, Italy, and capital of the province of the same name. In 2016, Mantua was designated as the Italian Capital of Culture. In 2017, it was named as the Eur ...
, San Sebastiano, which was never completed and for which Alberti's intention can only be speculated upon, and the Basilica of Sant'Andrea. The design for the latter church was completed in 1471, a year before Alberti's death, but was brought to completion and is his most significant work.


Alberti as artist

As an artist, Alberti distinguished himself from the ordinary craftsman educated in workshops. He was a
humanist Humanism is a philosophical stance that emphasizes the individual and social potential and agency of human beings. It considers human beings the starting point for serious moral and philosophical inquiry. The meaning of the term "human ...
who followed
Aristotle Aristotle (; grc-gre, Ἀριστοτέλης ''Aristotélēs'', ; 384–322 BC) was a Greek philosopher and polymath during the Classical period in Ancient Greece. Taught by Plato, he was the founder of the Peripatetic school of ...
and Plotinus, and part of the rapidly expanding entourage of intellectuals and artisans supported by the courts of the princes and lords of the time. As a member of noble family and as part of the Roman
curia Curia (Latin plural curiae) in ancient Rome referred to one of the original groupings of the citizenry, eventually numbering 30, and later every Roman citizen was presumed to belong to one. While they originally likely had wider powers, they came ...
, Alberti had special status. He was a welcomed guest at the Este court in
Ferrara Ferrara (, ; egl, Fràra ) is a city and ''comune'' in Emilia-Romagna, northern Italy, capital of the Province of Ferrara. it had 132,009 inhabitants. It is situated northeast of Bologna, on the Po di Volano, a branch channel of the main stream ...
, and in Urbino he spent part of the hot-weather season with the soldier-prince
Federico III da Montefeltro Federico da Montefeltro, also known as Federico III da Montefeltro KG (7 June 1422 – 10 September 1482), was one of the most successful mercenary captains (''condottieri'') of the Italian Renaissance, and lord of Urbino from 1444 (as Duke fr ...
. The Duke of Urbino was a shrewd military commander, who generously spent money on the
patronage Patronage is the support, encouragement, privilege, or financial aid that an organization or individual bestows on another. In the history of art, arts patronage refers to the support that kings, popes, and the wealthy have provided to artists su ...
of art. Alberti planned to dedicate his
treatise A treatise is a formal and systematic written discourse on some subject, generally longer and treating it in greater depth than an essay, and more concerned with investigating or exposing the principles of the subject and its conclusions." Tre ...
on architecture to his friend. Among Alberti's smaller studies, pioneering in their field, were a treatise in
cryptography Cryptography, or cryptology (from grc, , translit=kryptós "hidden, secret"; and ''graphein'', "to write", or '' -logia'', "study", respectively), is the practice and study of techniques for secure communication in the presence of adv ...
, '' De componendis cifris'', and the first Italian
grammar In linguistics, the grammar of a natural language is its set of structural constraints on speakers' or writers' composition of clauses, phrases, and words. The term can also refer to the study of such constraints, a field that includes doma ...
. With the Florentine cosmographer Paolo Toscanelli he collaborated in astronomy, a close science to geography at that time, and he produced a small Latin work on geography, ''Descriptio urbis Romae'' (''The Panorama of the City of Rome''). Just a few years before his death, Alberti completed ''De iciarchia'' (''On Ruling the Household''), a dialogue about Florence during the
Medici The House of Medici ( , ) was an Italian banking family and political dynasty that first began to gather prominence under Cosimo de' Medici, in the Republic of Florence during the first half of the 15th century. The family originated in the Mu ...
rule. Having taken holy orders, Alberti never married. He loved animals and had a pet dog, a mongrel, for whom he wrote a
panegyric A panegyric ( or ) is a formal public speech or written verse, delivered in high praise of a person or thing. The original panegyrics were speeches delivered at public events in ancient Athens. Etymology The word originated as a compound of gr ...
(''Canis''). Vasari describes Alberti as "an admirable citizen, a man of culture... a friend of talented men, open and courteous with everyone. He always lived honourably and like the gentleman he was."Vasari, ''The Lives of the Artists'' Alberti died in Rome on 25 April 1472 at the age of 66.


Publications

Alberti regarded mathematics as a starting point for the discussion of art and the sciences. "To make clear my exposition in writing this brief commentary on painting," Alberti began his treatise, ''Della Pittura'' (On Painting) that he dedicated to Brunelleschi, "I will take first from the mathematicians those things with which my subject is concerned." ''Della pittura'' (also known in Latin as '' De Pictura'') relied on its scientific content on classical
optics Optics is the branch of physics that studies the behaviour and properties of light, including its interactions with matter and the construction of instruments that use or detect it. Optics usually describes the behaviour of visible, ultrav ...
in determining perspective as a geometric instrument of artistic and architectural representation. Alberti was well-versed in the sciences of his age. His knowledge of
optics Optics is the branch of physics that studies the behaviour and properties of light, including its interactions with matter and the construction of instruments that use or detect it. Optics usually describes the behaviour of visible, ultrav ...
was connected to the handed-down long-standing tradition of the ''Kitab al-manazir'' (''The Optics''; ''De aspectibus'') of the Arab polymath
Alhazen Ḥasan Ibn al-Haytham, Latinized as Alhazen (; full name ; ), was a medieval mathematician, astronomer, and physicist of the Islamic Golden Age from present-day Iraq.For the description of his main fields, see e.g. ("He is one of the prin ...
(
Ibn al-Haytham Ḥasan Ibn al-Haytham, Latinized as Alhazen (; full name ; ), was a medieval mathematician, astronomer, and physicist of the Islamic Golden Age from present-day Iraq.For the description of his main fields, see e.g. ("He is one of the pr ...
, d. c. 1041), which was mediated by Franciscan optical workshops of the thirteenth-century ''Perspectivae'' traditions of scholars such as
Roger Bacon Roger Bacon (; la, Rogerus or ', also '' Rogerus''; ), also known by the scholastic accolade ''Doctor Mirabilis'', was a medieval English philosopher and Franciscan friar who placed considerable emphasis on the study of nature through emp ...
,
John Peckham John Peckham (c. 1230 – 8 December 1292) was Archbishop of Canterbury in the years 1279–1292. He was a native of Sussex who was educated at Lewes Priory and became a Friar Minor about 1250. He studied at the University of Paris under ...
, and
Witelo Vitello ( pl, Witelon; german: Witelo; – 1280/1314) was a friar, theologian, natural philosopher and an important figure in the history of philosophy in Poland. Name Vitello's name varies with some sources. In earlier publications he was q ...
(similar influences are also traceable in the third commentary of
Lorenzo Ghiberti Lorenzo Ghiberti (, , ; 1378 – 1 December 1455), born Lorenzo di Bartolo, was an Italian Renaissance sculptor from Florence, a key figure in the Early Renaissance, best known as the creator of two sets of bronze doors of the Florence Baptistery ...
, ''Commentario terzo''). In both ''Della pittura'' and ''De statua'', Alberti stressed that "all steps of learning should be sought from nature". The ultimate aim of an artist is to imitate nature. Painters and sculptors strive "through by different skills, at the same goal, namely that as nearly as possible the work they have undertaken shall appear to the observer to be similar to the real objects of nature". However, Alberti did not mean that artists should imitate nature objectively, as it is, but the artist should be especially attentive to beauty, "for in painting beauty is as pleasing as it is necessary". The work of art is, according to Alberti, so constructed that it is impossible to take anything away from it or to add anything to it, without impairing the beauty of the whole. Beauty was for Alberti "the harmony of all parts in relation to one another," and subsequently "this concord is realized in a particular number, proportion, and arrangement demanded by harmony". Alberti's thoughts on harmony were not new—they could be traced back to Pythagoras—but he set them in a fresh context, which fit in well with the contemporary aesthetic discourse. In Rome, Alberti had plenty of time to study its ancient sites, ruins, and objects. His detailed observations, included in his '' De re aedificatoria'' (1452, ''On the Art of Building''),Alberti, Leon Battista. On ''the Art of Building in Ten Books''. Trans. Leach, N., Rykwert, J., & Tavenor, R. Cambridge: The MIT Press, 1988 were patterned after the ''De architectura'' by the Roman architect and engineer
Vitruvius Vitruvius (; c. 80–70 BC – after c. 15 BC) was a Roman architect and engineer during the 1st century BC, known for his multi-volume work entitled '' De architectura''. He originated the idea that all buildings should have three attribut ...
(
fl. ''Floruit'' (; abbreviated fl. or occasionally flor.; from Latin for "they flourished") denotes a date or period during which a person was known to have been alive or active. In English, the unabbreviated word may also be used as a noun indicatin ...
46–30 BC). The work was the first architectural treatise of the Renaissance. It covered a wide range of subjects, from history to town planning, and engineering to the philosophy of beauty. ''De re aedificatoria,'' a large and expensive book, was not fully published until 1485, after which it became a major reference for architects. However, the book was written "not only for craftsmen but also for anyone interested in the noble arts", as Alberti put it. Originally published in Latin, the first Italian edition came out in 1546. and the standard Italian edition by Cosimo Bartoli was published in 1550. Pope Nicholas V, to whom Alberti dedicated the whole work, dreamed of rebuilding the city of Rome, but he managed to realize only a fragment of his visionary plans. Through his book, Alberti opened up his theories and ideals of the Florentine Renaissance to architects, scholars, and others. Alberti wrote ''I Libri della famiglia''—which discussed education, marriage, household management, and money—in the Tuscan dialect. The work was not printed until 1843. Like
Erasmus Desiderius Erasmus Roterodamus (; ; English: Erasmus of Rotterdam or Erasmus;''Erasmus'' was his baptismal name, given after St. Erasmus of Formiae. ''Desiderius'' was an adopted additional name, which he used from 1496. The ''Roterodamus'' w ...
decades later, Alberti stressed the need for a reform in education. He noted that "the care of very young children is women's work, for nurses or the mother", and that at the earliest possible age children should be taught the alphabet. With great hopes, he gave the work to his family to read, but in his autobiography Alberti confesses that "he could hardly avoid feeling rage, moreover, when he saw some of his relatives openly ridiculing both the whole work and the author's futile enterprise along it". ''Momus'', written between 1443 and 1450, was a notable comedy about the Olympian deities. It has been considered as a roman à clef
Jupiter Jupiter is the fifth planet from the Sun and the largest in the Solar System. It is a gas giant with a mass more than two and a half times that of all the other planets in the Solar System combined, but slightly less than one-thousand ...
has been identified in some sources as Pope Eugenius IV and Pope Nicholas V. Alberti borrowed many of its characters from
Lucian Lucian of Samosata, '; la, Lucianus Samosatensis ( 125 – after 180) was a Hellenized Syrian satirist, rhetorician and pamphleteer who is best known for his characteristic tongue-in-cheek style, with which he frequently ridiculed supersti ...
, one of his favorite Greek writers. The name of its hero, Momus, refers to the Greek word for blame or criticism. After being expelled from heaven, Momus, the god of mockery, is eventually castrated. Jupiter and the other deities come down to earth also, but they return to heaven after Jupiter breaks his nose in a great storm.


Architectural works

Alberti did not concern himself with the practicalities of building, and very few of his major works were brought to completion. As a designer and a student of Vitruvius and of ancient Roman remains, he grasped the nature of column and lintel architecture, from the visual rather than structural viewpoint, and correctly employed the Classical orders, unlike his contemporary,
Brunelleschi Filippo Brunelleschi ( , , also known as Pippo; 1377 – 15 April 1446), considered to be a founding father of Renaissance architecture, was an Italian architect, designer, and sculptor, and is now recognized to be the first modern engineer, ...
, who used the Classical column and pilaster in a free interpretation. Among Alberti's concerns was the social effect of architecture, and to this end he was very well aware of the cityscape. This is demonstrated by his inclusion, at the Rucellai Palace, of a continuous bench for seating at the level of the basement. Alberti anticipated the principle of street hierarchy, with wide main streets connected to secondary streets, and buildings of equal height. In Rome he was employed by Pope Nicholas V for the restoration of the
Roman aqueduct The Romans constructed aqueducts throughout their Republic and later Empire, to bring water from outside sources into cities and towns. Aqueduct water supplied public baths, latrines, fountains, and private households; it also supported mining o ...
of
Acqua Vergine Acqua Vergine is one of several Roman aqueducts that deliver pure drinking water to Rome. Its name derives from its predecessor Aqua Virgo, which was constructed by Marcus Vipsanius Agrippa in 19 BC. Its terminal castellum is located at the Ba ...
, which
debouch In hydrology, a debouch (or debouche) is a place where runoff from a small, confined space discharges into a larger, broader body of water. The word is derived from the French verb ''déboucher'' (), which means "to unblock, to clear". The term ...
ed into a simple basin designed by Alberti, which was swept away later by the Baroque
Trevi Fountain The Trevi Fountain ( it, Fontana di Trevi) is an 18th-century fountain in the Trevi district in Rome, Italy, designed by Italian architect Nicola Salvi and completed by Giuseppe Pannini and several others. Standing high and wide, it is the lar ...
. In some studies, the authors propose that the
Villa Medici in Fiesole The Villa Medici is a patrician villa in Fiesole, Tuscany, Italy, the fourth oldest of the villas built for the Medici family. It was built between 1451 and 1457. It is part of the UNESCO World Heritage Site inscribed as Medici Villas and Gar ...
might owe its design to Alberti, not to Michelozzo, and that it then became the prototype of the
Renaissance The Renaissance ( , ) , from , with the same meanings. is a period in European history marking the transition from the Middle Ages to modernity and covering the 15th and 16th centuries, characterized by an effort to revive and surpass ideas ...
villa A villa is a type of house that was originally an ancient Roman upper class country house. Since its origins in the Roman villa, the idea and function of a villa have evolved considerably. After the fall of the Roman Republic, villas became s ...
. This hilltop dwelling, commissioned by Giovanni de' Medici,
Cosimo il Vecchio Cosimo di Giovanni de' Medici (27 September 1389 – 1 August 1464) was an Italian banker and politician who established the Medici family as effective rulers of Florence during much of the Italian Renaissance. His power derived from his wealth ...
's second son, with its view over the city, may be the very first example of a Renaissance villa: that is to say it follows the Albertian criteria for rendering a country dwelling a "villa suburbana". Under this perspective the Villa Medici in Fiesole could therefore be considered the "muse" for numerous other buildings, not only in the Florence area, which from the end of the fifteenth century onward find inspiration and creative innovation from it.


Tempio Malatestiano, Rimini

The Tempio Malatestiano in Rimini (1447, 1453–60)
Franco Borsi Franco Borsi (1925-2008) was an Italian architect and architectural historian. He was professor of history of architecture at the University of Florence, and wrote on Giovanni Michelucci, Leon Battista Alberti, Gian Lorenzo Bernini and Donato Bram ...
. ''Leon Battista Alberti''. New York: Harper & Row, (1977)
is the rebuilding of a Gothic church. The facade, with its dynamic play of forms, was left incomplete.


Façade of Palazzo Rucellai

The design of the façade of the
Palazzo Rucellai Palazzo Rucellai is a palatial fifteenth-century townhouse on the Via della Vigna Nuova in Florence, Italy. The Rucellai Palace is believed by most scholars to have been designed for Giovanni di Paolo Rucellai by Leon Battista Alberti betwe ...
(1446–51) was one of several commissions for the Rucellai family. The design overlays a grid of shallow pilasters and cornices in the Classical manner onto rusticated masonry, and is surmounted by a heavy cornice. The inner courtyard has
Corinthian Corinthian or Corinthians may refer to: *Several Pauline epistles, books of the New Testament of the Bible: **First Epistle to the Corinthians **Second Epistle to the Corinthians **Third Epistle to the Corinthians (Orthodox) *A demonym relating to ...
columns. The palace set a standard in the use of Classical elements that is original in civic buildings in Florence, and greatly influenced later palazzi. The work was executed by
Bernardo Rosselino Bernardo di Matteo del Borra Gamberelli (1409 Settignano – 1464 Florence), better known as Bernardo Rossellino, was an Italian Renaissance sculptor and architect, the elder brother of the sculptor Antonio Rossellino. As a member of the secon ...
.


Santa Maria Novella

At
Santa Maria Novella Santa Maria Novella is a church in Florence, Italy, situated opposite, and lending its name to, the city's main railway station. Chronologically, it is the first great basilica in Florence, and is the city's principal Dominican church. The chu ...
, Florence, between (1448–70) the upper facade was constructed to the design of Alberti. It was a challenging task, as the lower level already had three doorways and six
Gothic Gothic or Gothics may refer to: People and languages *Goths or Gothic people, the ethnonym of a group of East Germanic tribes **Gothic language, an extinct East Germanic language spoken by the Goths **Crimean Gothic, the Gothic language spoken b ...
niches containing tombs and employing the polychrome marble typical of Florentine churches, such as
San Miniato al Monte San Miniato al Monte (St. Minias on the Mountain) is a basilica in Florence, central Italy, standing atop one of the highest points in the city. It has been described as one of the finest Romanesque structures in Tuscany and one of the most scenic ...
and the
Baptistery of Florence The Florence Baptistery, also known as the Baptistery of Saint John ( it, Battistero di San Giovanni), is a religious building in Florence, Italy, and has the status of a minor basilica. The octagonal baptistery stands in both the Piazza del D ...
. The design also incorporates an ocular window that was already in place. Alberti introduced Classical features around the portico and spread the polychromy over the entire facade in a manner that includes Classical proportions and elements such as pilasters, cornices, and a pediment in the Classical style, ornamented with a sunburst in tesserae, rather than sculpture. The best known feature of this typically aisled church is the manner in which Alberti has solved the problem of visually bridging the different levels of the central nave and much lower side aisles. He employed two large scrolls, which were to become a standard feature of church facades in the later Renaissance, Baroque, and
Classical Revival Neoclassical architecture is an architectural style produced by the Neoclassical movement that began in the mid-18th century in Italy and France. It became one of the most prominent architectural styles in the Western world. The prevailing style ...
buildings.


Pienza

Alberti is considered to have been the consultant for the design of the Piazza Pio II,
Pienza Pienza () is a town and ''comune'' in the province of Siena, Tuscany, in the historical region of Val d'Orcia. Situated between the towns of Montepulciano and Montalcino, it is considered the "touchstone of Renaissance urbanism". In 1996, UNESCO ...
. The village, previously called Corsignano, was redesigned beginning around 1459. It was the birthplace of Aeneas Silvius Piccolomini,
Pope Pius II Pope Pius II ( la, Pius PP. II, it, Pio II), born Enea Silvio Bartolomeo Piccolomini ( la, Aeneas Silvius Bartholomeus, links=no; 18 October 1405 – 14 August 1464), was head of the Catholic Church and ruler of the Papal States from 19 August ...
, in whose employ Alberti served. Pius II wanted to use the village as a retreat, but needed for it to reflect the dignity of his position. The piazza is a
trapezoid A quadrilateral with at least one pair of parallel sides is called a trapezoid () in American and Canadian English. In British and other forms of English, it is called a trapezium (). A trapezoid is necessarily a Convex polygon, convex quadri ...
shape defined by four buildings, with a focus on Pienza Cathedral and passages on either side opening onto a landscape view. The principal residence, ''Palazzo Piccolomini'', is on the western side. It has three stories, articulated by pilasters and entablature courses, with a twin-lighted
cross window A cross-window is a window whose lights are defined by a mullion and a transom, forming a cross.Curl, James Stevens (2006). ''Oxford Dictionary of Architecture and Landscape Architecture'', 2nd ed., OUP, Oxford and New York, p. 214. . The Late ...
set within each bay. This structure is similar to Alberti's
Palazzo Rucellai Palazzo Rucellai is a palatial fifteenth-century townhouse on the Via della Vigna Nuova in Florence, Italy. The Rucellai Palace is believed by most scholars to have been designed for Giovanni di Paolo Rucellai by Leon Battista Alberti betwe ...
in Florence and other later palaces. Noteworthy is the internal court of the palazzo. The back of the palace, to the south, is defined by
loggia In architecture, a loggia ( , usually , ) is a covered exterior gallery or corridor, usually on an upper level, but sometimes on the ground level of a building. The outer wall is open to the elements, usually supported by a series of columns ...
on all three floors that overlook an enclosed
Italian Renaissance garden The Italian Renaissance garden was a new style of garden which emerged in the late 15th century at villas in Rome and Florence, inspired by classical ideals of order and beauty, and intended for the pleasure of the view of the garden and the landsc ...
with ''
Giardino all'italiana The Italian garden (or giardino all'italiana () is best known for a number of large Italian Renaissance gardens which have survived in something like their original form. In the history of gardening, during the Renaissance, Italy had the most ...
'' era modifications, and spectacular views into the distant landscape of the
Val d'Orcia The Val d'Orcia or Valdorcia () is a region of Tuscany, central Italy, which extends from the hills south of Siena to Monte Amiata. Its gentle, cultivated hills are occasionally broken by gullies and by picturesque towns and villages such as Pie ...
and Pope Pius's beloved Mount Amiata beyond. Below this garden is a vaulted stable that had stalls for a hundred horses. The design, which radically transformed the center of the town, included a palace for the pope, a church, a town hall, and a building for the bishops who would accompany the Pope on his trips. Pienza is considered an early example of Renaissance urban planning.


Sant' Andrea, Mantua

The Basilica of Sant'Andrea,
Mantua Mantua ( ; it, Mantova ; Lombard and la, Mantua) is a city and '' comune'' in Lombardy, Italy, and capital of the province of the same name. In 2016, Mantua was designated as the Italian Capital of Culture. In 2017, it was named as the Eur ...
was begun in 1471, the year before Alberti's death. It was brought to completion and is his most significant work employing the
triumphal arch A triumphal arch is a free-standing monumental structure in the shape of an archway with one or more arched passageways, often designed to span a road. In its simplest form a triumphal arch consists of two massive piers connected by an arch, cr ...
motif, both for its facade and interior, and influencing many works that were to follow. Alberti perceived the role of architect as designer. Unlike
Brunelleschi Filippo Brunelleschi ( , , also known as Pippo; 1377 – 15 April 1446), considered to be a founding father of Renaissance architecture, was an Italian architect, designer, and sculptor, and is now recognized to be the first modern engineer, ...
, he had no interest in the construction, leaving the practicalities to builders and the oversight to others.


Other buildings

* San Sebastiano, Mantua, (begun 1458) the unfinished facade of which has promoted much speculation as to Alberti's intention * Sepolcro Rucellai in
San Pancrazio The basilica of San Pancrazio ( en, St Pancras; la, S. Pancratii) is a Roman Catholic ancient basilica and titular church founded by Pope Symmachus in the 6th century in Rome, Italy. It stands in via S. Pancrazio, westward beyond the Porta S ...
, 1467) * The Tribune for Santissima Annunziata, Florence (1470, completed with alterations, 1477)


Painting

Giorgio Vasari Giorgio Vasari (, also , ; 30 July 1511 – 27 June 1574) was an Italian Renaissance Master, who worked as a painter, architect, engineer, writer, and historian, who is best known for his work '' The Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculp ...
, who argued that historical progress in art reached its peak in
Michelangelo Michelangelo di Lodovico Buonarroti Simoni (; 6 March 1475 – 18 February 1564), known as Michelangelo (), was an Italian sculptor, painter, architect, and poet of the High Renaissance. Born in the Republic of Florence, his work was insp ...
, emphasized Alberti's scholarly achievements, not his artistic talents: "He spent his time finding out about the world and studying the proportions of antiquities; but above all, following his natural genius, he concentrated on writing rather than on applied work."
Leonardo Leonardo is a masculine given name, the Italian, Spanish, and Portuguese equivalent of the English, German, and Dutch name, Leonard Leonard or ''Leo'' is a common English masculine given name and a surname. The given name and surname originate ...
, who ironically called himself "an uneducated person" (''omo senza lettere''), followed Alberti in the view that painting is science. However, as a scientist, Leonardo was more empirical than Alberti, who was a theorist and did not have similar interest in practice. Alberti believed in ideal beauty, but Leonardo filled his notebooks with observations on human proportions, page after page, ending with his famous drawing of the
Vitruvian man The ''Vitruvian Man'' ( it, L'uomo vitruviano; ) is a drawing by the Italian Renaissance artist and scientist Leonardo da Vinci, dated to . Inspired by the writings by the ancient Roman architect Vitruvius, the drawing depicts a nude man in two s ...
, a human figure related to a square and a circle. In ''On Painting'', Alberti uses the expression "We Painters", but as a painter, or sculptor, he was a dilettante. "In painting Alberti achieved nothing of any great importance or beauty", wrote Vasari. "The very few paintings of his that are extant are far from perfect, but this is not surprising since he devoted himself more to his studies than to draughtsmanship." Jacob Burckhardt portrayed Alberti in ''The Civilization of the Renaissance in Italy'' as a truly universal genius. "And Leonardo Da Vinci was to Alberti as the finisher to the beginner, as the master to the dilettante. Would only that Vasari's work were here supplemented by a description like that of Alberti! The colossal outlines of Leonardo's nature can never be more than dimly and distantly conceived."Jacob Burckhardt in ''The Civilization of the Renaissance Italy'', 2.1, 1860. Alberti is said to appear in Mantegna's great frescoes in the
Camera degli Sposi The Camera degli Sposi ("bridal chamber"), sometimes known as the Camera picta ("painted chamber"), is a room frescoed with illusionistic paintings by Andrea Mantegna in the Ducal Palace, Mantua, Italy.. During the fifteenth century when the Came ...
, as the older man dressed in dark red clothes, who whispers in the ear of Ludovico Gonzaga, the ruler of Mantua. In Alberti's self-portrait, a large
plaquette A plaquette (, ''small plaque'') is a small low relief sculpture in bronze or other materials. These were popular in the Italian Renaissance and later. They may be commemorative, but especially in the Renaissance and Mannerist periods were oft ...
, he is clothed as a Roman. To the left of his profile is a winged eye. On the reverse side is the question, ''Quid tum?'' (what then), taken from
Virgil Publius Vergilius Maro (; traditional dates 15 October 7021 September 19 BC), usually called Virgil or Vergil ( ) in English, was an ancient Roman poet of the Augustan period. He composed three of the most famous poems in Latin literature: t ...
's ''Eclogues'': "So what, if Amyntas is dark? (''quid tum si fuscus Amyntas?'') Violets are black, and hyacinths are black."


Contributions

Alberti made a variety of contributions to several fields: * Alberti was the creator of a theory called "historia". In his treatise '' De pictura'' (1435) he explains the theory of the accumulation of people, animals, and buildings, which create harmony amongst each other, and "hold the eye of the learned and unlearned spectator for a long while with a certain sense of pleasure and emotion". '' De pictura'' ("On Painting") contained the first scientific study of perspective. An Italian translation of ''De pictura'' (''Della pittura'') was published in 1436, one year after the original Latin version and addressed Filippo Brunelleschi in the preface. The Latin version had been dedicated to Alberti's humanist patron, Gianfrancesco Gonzaga of Mantua. He also wrote works on sculpture, '' De statua''. * Alberti used his artistic treatises to propound a new humanistic theory of art. He drew on his contacts with early Quattrocento artists such as Brunelleschi, Donatello, and Ghiberti to provide a practical handbook for the renaissance artist. * Alberti wrote an influential work on architecture, '' De re aedificatoria'', which by the sixteenth century had been translated into Italian (by Cosimo Bartoli), French, Spanish, and English. An English translation was by
Giacomo Leoni Giacomo Leoni (1686 – 8 June 1746), also known as James Leoni, was an Italian architect, born in Venice. He was a devotee of the work of Florentine Renaissance architect Leon Battista Alberti, who had also been an inspiration for Andrea Pallad ...
in the early eighteenth century. Newer translations are now available. * Whilst Alberti's treatises on painting and architecture have been hailed as the founding texts of a new form of art, breaking from the Gothic past, it is impossible to know the extent of their practical impact within his lifetime. His praise of the ''Calumny of Apelles'' led to several attempts to emulate it, including paintings by Botticelli and Signorelli. His stylistic ideals have been put into practice in the works of Mantegna,
Piero della Francesca Piero della Francesca (, also , ; – 12 October 1492), originally named Piero di Benedetto, was an Italian painter of the Early Renaissance. To contemporaries he was also known as a mathematician and geometer. Nowadays Piero della Francesca i ...
, and
Fra Angelico Fra Angelico (born Guido di Pietro; February 18, 1455) was an Italian painter of the Early Renaissance, described by Vasari in his '' Lives of the Artists'' as having "a rare and perfect talent".Giorgio Vasari, ''Lives of the Artists''. Pengu ...
. But how far Alberti was responsible for these innovations and how far he was simply articulating the trends of the artistic movement, with which his practical experience had made him familiar, is impossible to ascertain. * He was so skilled in
Latin Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power of the ...
verse that a comedy he wrote in his twentieth year, entitled ''Philodoxius'', would later deceive the younger
Aldus Manutius Aldus Pius Manutius (; it, Aldo Pio Manuzio; 6 February 1515) was an Italian printer and humanist who founded the Aldine Press. Manutius devoted the later part of his life to publishing and disseminating rare texts. His interest in and preserv ...
, who edited and published it as the genuine work of 'Lepidus Comicus'. * He has been credited with being the author, or alternatively, the designer of the
woodcut Woodcut is a relief printing technique in printmaking. An artist carves an image into the surface of a block of wood—typically with gouges—leaving the printing parts level with the surface while removing the non-printing parts. Areas that ...
illustrations, of the ''
Hypnerotomachia Poliphili ''Hypnerotomachia Poliphili'' (; ), called in English ''Poliphilo's Strife of Love in a Dream'' or ''The Dream of Poliphilus'', is a book said to be by Francesco Colonna. It is a famous example of an incunable (a work of early printing). The wor ...
'', a strange
fantasy Fantasy is a genre of speculative fiction involving Magic (supernatural), magical elements, typically set in a fictional universe and sometimes inspired by mythology and folklore. Its roots are in oral traditions, which then became fantasy ...
novel. * Apart from his treatises on the arts, Alberti also wrote: ''Philodoxus'' ("Lover of Glory", 1424), ''De commodis litterarum atque incommodis'' ("On the Advantages and Disadvantages of Literary Studies", 1429), ''Intercoenales'' ("Table Talk", c. 1429), ''Della famiglia'' ("On the Family", begun 1432), ''Vita S. Potiti'' ("Life of St. Potitus", 1433), ''De iure'' (On Law, 1437), ''Theogenius'' ("The Origin of the Gods", c. 1440), ''Profugorium ab aerumna'' ("Refuge from Mental Anguish",), ''Momus'' (1450), and ''De Iciarchia'' ("On the Prince", 1468). These and other works were translated and printed in Venice by the humanist Cosimo Bartoli in 1586. * Alberti was an accomplished cryptographer by the standard of his day and invented the first polyalphabetic cipher, which is now known as the
Alberti cipher The Alberti Cipher, created in 1467 by Italian architect Leon Battista Alberti, was one of the first polyalphabetic ciphers. In the opening pages of his treatise ' he explained how his conversation with the papal secretary Leonardo Dati about a re ...
, and machine-assisted encryption using his
Cipher Disk A cipher disk is an enciphering and deciphering tool developed in 1470 by the Italian architect and author Leon Battista Alberti. He constructed a device, (eponymously called the Alberti cipher disk) consisting of two concentric circular plate ...
. The polyalphabetic cipher was, at least in principle (for it was not properly used for several hundred years) the most significant advance in cryptography since before Julius Caesar's time. Cryptography historian David Kahn entitles him the "Father of Western Cryptography", pointing to three significant advances in the field that can be attributed to Alberti: "the earliest Western exposition of cryptanalysis, the invention of polyalphabetic substitution, and the invention of enciphered code". * According to Alberti, in a short autobiography written c. 1438 in Latin and in the third person, (many but not all scholars consider this work to be an autobiography) he was capable of "standing with his feet together, and springing over a man's head." The autobiography survives thanks to an eighteenth-century transcription by
Antonio Muratori Antonio is a masculine given name of Etruscan origin deriving from the root name Antonius. It is a common name among Romance language-speaking populations as well as the Balkans and Lusophone Africa. It has been among the top 400 most popular male ...
. Alberti also claimed that he "excelled in all bodily exercises; could, with feet tied, leap over a standing man; could in the great cathedral, throw a coin far up to ring against the vault; amused himself by taming wild horses and climbing mountains". Needless to say, many in the Renaissance promoted themselves in various ways and Alberti's eagerness to promote his skills should be understood, to some extent, within that framework. (This advice should be followed in reading the above information, some of which originates in this so-called autobiography.) * Alberti claimed in his "autobiography" to be an accomplished musician and organist, but there is no hard evidence to support this claim. In fact, musical posers were not uncommon in his day (see the lyrics to the song ''Musica Son'', by Francesco Landini, for complaints to this effect.) He held the appointment of canon in the metropolitan
church Church may refer to: Religion * Church (building), a building for Christian religious activities * Church (congregation), a local congregation of a Christian denomination * Church service, a formalized period of Christian communal worship * C ...
of
Florence Florence ( ; it, Firenze ) is a city in Central Italy and the capital city of the Tuscany region. It is the most populated city in Tuscany, with 383,083 inhabitants in 2016, and over 1,520,000 in its metropolitan area.Bilancio demografico an ...
, and thus – perhaps – had the leisure to devote himself to this art, but this is only speculation. Vasari also agreed with this. * He was interested in the drawing of
map A map is a symbolic depiction emphasizing relationships between elements of some space, such as objects, regions, or themes. Many maps are static, fixed to paper or some other durable medium, while others are dynamic or interactive. Although ...
s and worked with the
astronomer An astronomer is a scientist in the field of astronomy who focuses their studies on a specific question or field outside the scope of Earth. They observe astronomical objects such as stars, planets, natural satellite, moons, comets and galaxy, g ...
, astrologer, and
cartographer Cartography (; from grc, χάρτης , "papyrus, sheet of paper, map"; and , "write") is the study and practice of making and using maps. Combining science, aesthetics and technique, cartography builds on the premise that reality (or an im ...
Paolo Toscanelli. * In terms of Aesthetics Alberti is one of the first defining the work of art as imitation of nature, exactly as a selection of its most beautiful parts: "So let's take from nature what we are going to paint, and from nature we choose the most beautiful and worthy things".


Works in print

* '' De Pictura'', 1435. ''On Painting'', in English, ''De Pictura'', in Latin, ; ''Della Pittura'', in Italian (1804
434 __NOTOC__ Year 434 ( CDXXXIV) was a common year starting on Monday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. At the time, it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Aspar and Areobindus (or, less frequently, year 1187 '' ...
. * ''Momus,'' Latin text and English translation, 2003 * ''De re aedificatoria'' (1452, Ten Books on Architecture). Alberti, Leon Battista. De re aedificatoria. On the art of building in ten books. (translated by Joseph Rykwert, Robert Tavernor and Neil Leach). Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press, 1988. .
Latin, French and Italian editions
and i
English translation
* '' De Cifris'' A Treatise on Ciphers (1467), trans. A. Zaccagnini. Foreword by David Kahn, Galimberti, Torino 1997. * * "Leon Battista Alberti. On Painting. A New Translation and Critical Edition", Edited and Translated by
Rocco Sinisgalli Rocco Sinisgalli (born 1947) is an Italian art historian, writer and architectural theoretician. Early life Sinisgalli was born in Gallicchio, in the province of Potenza and was educated in an Italian classical Liceo. He received a degree ...
, Cambridge University Press, New York, May 2011, ,
books.google.de
* ''I libri della famiglia'', Italian edition * "Dinner pieces". A Translation of the ''Intercenales'' by David Marsh. Center for Medieval and Early Renaissance Studies, State University of New York, Binghamton 1987. * "Descriptio urbis Romae. Leon Battista Alberti's Delineation of the city of Rome". Peter Hicks, Arizona Board of Regents for Arizona State university 2007.


Legacy

Borsi states that Alberti's writings on architecture continue to influence modern and contemporary architecture stating: "The organicism and nature-worship of Wright, the neat classicism of van der Mies, the regulatory outlines and anthropomorphic, harmonic, modular systems of Le Corbusier, and Kahn's revival of the 'antique' are all elements that tempt one to trace Alberti's influence on modern architecture."


In popular culture

* Leon Battista Alberti is a major character in
Roberto Rossellini Roberto Gastone Zeffiro Rossellini (8 May 1906 – 3 June 1977) was an Italian film director, producer, and screenwriter. He was one of the most prominent directors of the Italian neorealist cinema, contributing to the movement with films such ...
's three-part television film ''
The Age of the Medici ''The Age of the Medici'', originally released in Italy as ''L'età di Cosimo de Medici'' (''The Age of Cosimo de Medici''), is a 1973 3-part TV series about the Renaissance in Florence, directed by Roberto Rossellini. The series was shot in Engl ...
'' (1973), with the third and final part, ''Leon Battista Alberti: Humanism'', centering on him, his works (such as
Santa Maria Novella Santa Maria Novella is a church in Florence, Italy, situated opposite, and lending its name to, the city's main railway station. Chronologically, it is the first great basilica in Florence, and is the city's principal Dominican church. The chu ...
), and his thought. He is played by Italian actor Virginio Gazzolo.The Criterion Collection
The Age of the Medici (1973) , The Criterion Collection
/ref> * Mentioned in the 1994 film ''
Renaissance Man A polymath ( el, πολυμαθής, , "having learned much"; la, homo universalis, "universal human") is an individual whose knowledge spans a substantial number of subjects, known to draw on complex bodies of knowledge to solve specific pro ...
'' or ''Army Intelligence'' starring
Danny DeVito Daniel Michael DeVito Jr. (born November 17, 1944) is an American actor, comedian, and filmmaker. He gained prominence for his portrayal of the taxi dispatcher Louie De Palma in the television series ''Taxi'' (1978–1983), which won him a Gold ...
. * Mentioned in the 2004 book ''
The Rule of Four :''This article relates to the 2004 novel. For the legal practice, see Rule of four''. The Rule of Four is a novel written by the American authors Ian Caldwell and Dustin Thomason, and published in 2004. Caldwell, a Princeton University graduate ...
'' by
Ian Caldwell Ian Mackinnon Caldwell is an American novelist known for co-authoring the 2004 novel '' The Rule of Four''. His second book, ''The Fifth Gospel'', was published in 2015. Personal life Caldwell was born and raised in Fairfax County, Virginia dur ...
and
Dustin Thomason Dustin Thomason (born 1976) is an American writer and producer who co-authored the ''New York Times'' bestselling historical fiction novel '' The Rule of Four'' with Ian Caldwell. Novels Thomason began his career as a novelist. He is a co-autho ...


Notes


References



Magda Saura, "Building codes in the architectural treatise De re aedificatoria,"

''Third International Congress on Construction History'', Cottbus, May 2009.

http://hdl.handle.net/2117/14252


Further reading

* Clark, Kenneth. "Leon Battista Alberti: a Renaissance Personality." ''History Today'' (July 1951) 1#7 pp 11-18 online *
Francesco Borsi Franco Borsi (1925-2008) was an Italian architect and architectural historian. He was professor of history of architecture at the University of Florence, and wrote on Giovanni Michelucci, Leon Battista Alberti, Gian Lorenzo Bernini and Donato Bram ...
, ''Leon Battista Alberti. Das Gesamtwerk''. Stuttgart 1982 * Günther Fischer, ''Leon Battista Alberti. Sein Leben und seine Architekturtheorie''. Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft Darmstadt 2012
Fontana-Giusti, Korolija Gordana, "The Cutting Surface: On Perspective as a Section, Its Relationship to Writing, and Its Role in Understanding Space" ''AA Files'' No. 40 (Winter 1999), pp. 56–64 London: Architectural Association School of Architecture.

Fontana-Giusti, Gordana. "Walling and the city: the effects of walls and walling within the city space", ''The Journal of Architecture'' pp 309–45 Volume 16, Issue 3, London & New York: Routledge, 2011.
* * Anthony Grafton, ''Leon Battista Alberti. Master Builder of the Italian Renaissance''. New York 2000 *
Mark Jarzombek Mark Jarzombek (born 1954) is a United States-born architectural historian, author and critic. Since 1995 he has taught and served within the History Theory Criticism Section of the Department of Architecture at MIT School of Architecture and P ...

“The Structural Problematic of Leon Battista Alberti's De pictura”
Renaissance Studies 4/3 (September 1990): 273–285. * Michel Paoli, Leon Battista Alberti, Torino 2007 * ''Les'' Livres de la famille'' d'Alberti, Sources, sens et influence'', sous la direction de Michel Paoli, avec la collaboration d'Elise Leclerc et Sophie Dutheillet de Lamothe, préface de Françoise Choay, Paris, Classiques Garnier, 2013. * Manfredo Tafuri, ''Interpreting the Renaissance: Princes, Cities, Architects'', trans. Daniel Sherer. New Haven 2006. *
Robert Tavernor Robert Tavernor (born 1954) is an English Emeritus Professor of Architecture and Urban Design at the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE), and founding director of the Tavernor Consultancy in London. He is an architecture his ...
, On Alberti and the Art of Building. New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 1998. . * Vasari, ''The Lives of the Artists'' Oxford University Press, 1998. * Wright, D.R. Edward
"Alberti's De Pictura: Its Literary Structure and Purpose"
Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes, Vol. 47, 1984 (1984), pp. 52–71. LA) Leon Battista Alberti, De re aedificatoria, Argentorati, excudebat M. Iacobus Cammerlander Moguntinus, 1541. * (LA) Leon Battista Alberti, De re aedificatoria, Florentiae, accuratissime impressum opera magistri Nicolai Laurentii Alamani. Leon Battista Alberti, Opere volgari. 1, Firenze, Tipografia Galileiana, 1843. * Leon Battista Alberti, Opere volgari. 2, Firenze, Tipografia Galileiana, 1844. * Leon Battista Alberti, Opere volgari. 4, Firenze, Tipografia Galileiana, 1847. * Leon Battista Alberti, Opere volgari. 5, Firenze, Tipografia Galileiana, 1849. * Leon Battista Alberti, Opere, Florentiae, J. C. Sansoni, 1890. * Leon Battista Alberti, Trattati d'arte, Bari, Laterza, 1973. * Leon Battista Alberti, Ippolito e Leonora, Firenze, Bartolomeo de' Libri, prima del 1495. * Leon Battista Alberti, Ecatonfilea, Stampata in Venesia, per Bernardino da Cremona, 1491. * Leon Battista Alberti, Deifira, Padova, Lorenzo Canozio, 1471. * Leon Battista Alberti, Teogenio, Milano, Leonard Pachel, circa 1492. * Leon Battista Alberti, Libri della famiglia, Bari, G. Laterza, 1960. * Leon Battista Alberti, Rime e trattati morali, Bari, Laterza, 1966. * Albertiana, Rivista della Société Intérnationale Leon Battista Alberti, Firenze, Olschki, 1998 sgg. * Franco Borsi, Leon Battista Alberti: Opera completa, Electa, Milano, 1973; Giovanni Ponte, Leon Battista Alberti: Umanista e scrittore, Tilgher, Genova, 1981; * Paolo Marolda, Crisi e conflitto in Leon Battista Alberti, Bonacci, Roma, 1988; * Roberto Cardini, Mosaici: Il nemico dell'Alberti, Bulzoni, Roma 1990; * Rosario Contarino, Leon Battista Alberti moralista, presentazione di Francesco Tateo, S. Sciascia, Caltanissetta 1991; * Pierluigi Panza, Leon Battista Alberti: Filosofia e teoria dell'arte, introduzione di Dino Formaggio, Guerini, Milano 1994; * Cecil Grayson, Studi su Leon Battista Alberti, a cura di Paola Claut, Olschki, Firenze 1998; * Stefano Borsi, Momus, o Del principe: Leon Battista Alberti, i papi, il giubileo, Polistampa, Firenze 1999; Luca Boschetto, Leon Battista Alberti e Firenze: Biografia, storia, letteratura, Olschki, Firenze 2000; * Alberto G. Cassani, La fatica del costruire: Tempo e materia nel pensiero di Leon Battista Alberti, Unicopli, Milano 2000; * Elisabetta Di Stefano, L'altro sapere: Bello, arte, immagine in Leon Battista Alberti, Centro internazionale studi di estetica, Palermo 2000; * Rinaldo Rinaldi, Melancholia Christiana. Studi sulle fonti di Leon Battista Alberti, Firenze, Olschki, 2002; * Francesco Furlan, Studia albertiana: Lectures et lecteurs de L.B. Alberti, N. Aragno-J. Vrin, Torino-Parigi 2003; * Anthony Grafton, Leon Battista Alberti: Un genio universale, Laterza, Roma-Bari 2003; D. Mazzini, S. Martini. Villa Medici a Fiesole. Leon Battista Alberti e il prototipo di villa rinascimentale, Centro Di, Firenze 2004; * Michel Paoli, Leon Battista Alberti 1404–1472, Parigi, Editions de l'Imprimeur, 2004, , ora tradotto in italiano: Michel Paoli, Leon Battista Alberti, Bollati Boringhieri, Torino 2007, 124 p. + 40 ill., . * Anna Siekiera, Bibliografia linguistica albertiana, Firenze, Edizioni Polistampa, 2004 (Edizione Nazionale delle Opere di Leon Battista Alberti, Serie «Strumenti», 2); * Francesco P. Fiore: La Roma di Leon Battista Alberti. Umanisti, architetti e artisti alla scoperta dell'antico nella città del Quattrocento, Skira, Milano 2005, ; Leon Battista Alberti architetto, a cura di Giorgio Grassi e Luciano Patetta, testi di Giorgio Grassi et alii, Banca CR, Firenze 2005; * Restaurare Leon Battista Alberti: il caso di Palazzo Rucellai, a cura di Simonetta Bracciali, presentazione di Antonio Paolucci, Libreria Editrice Fiorentina, Firenze 2006, ; * Stefano Borsi, Leon Battista Alberti e Napoli, Polistampa, Firenze 2006; * Gabriele Morolli, Leon Battista Alberti. Firenze e la Toscana, Maschietto Editore, Firenze, 2006.ù * F. Canali, "Leon Battista Alberti "Camaleonta" e l'idea del Tempio Malatestiano dalla Storiografia al Restauro, in Il Tempio della Meraviglia, a cura di F. Canali, C. Muscolino, Firenze, 2007. * F. Canali, La facciata del Tempio Malatestiano, in Il Tempio della Meraviglia, a cura di F. Canali, C. Muscolino, Firenze, 2007. * V. C. Galati, "Ossa" e "illigamenta" nel De Re aedificatoria. Caratteri costruttivi e ipotesi strutturali nella lettura della tecnologia antiquaria del cantiere del Tempio Malatestiano, in Il Tempio della Meraviglia, a cura di F. Canali, C. Muscolino, Firenze, 2007. * Alberti e la cultura del Quattrocento, Atti del Convegno internazionale di Studi, (Firenze, Palazzo Vecchio, Salone dei Dugento, 16-17-18 dicembre 2004), a cura di R. Cardini e M. Regoliosi, Firenze, Edizioni Polistampa, 2007. * AA.VV, Brunelleschi, Alberti e oltre, a cura di F. Canali, «Bollettino della Società di Studi Fiorentini», 16–17, 2008. * F. Canali, R Tracce albertiane nella Romagna umanistica tra Rimini e Faenza, in Brunelleschi, Alberti e oltre, a cura di F. Canali, «Bollettino della Società di Studi Fiorentini», 16–17, 2008. * V. C. Galati, Riflessioni sulla Reggia di Castelnuovo a Napoli: morfologie architettoniche e tecniche costruttive. Un univoco cantiere antiquario tra Donatello e Leon Battista Alberti?, in Brunelleschi, Alberti e oltre, a cura di F. Canali, «Bollettino della Società di Studi Fiorentini», 16–17, 2008. * F. Canali, V. C. Galati, Leon Battista Alberti, gli 'Albertiani' e la Puglia umanistica, in Brunelleschi, Alberti e oltre, a cura di F. Canali, «Bollettino della Società di Studi Fiorentini», 16–17, 2008. * G. Morolli, Alberti: la triiplice luce della pulcritudo, in Brunelleschi, Alberti e oltre, a cura di F. Canali, «Bollettino della Società di Studi Fiorentini», 16–17, 2008. * G. Morolli, Pienza e Alberti, in Brunelleschi, Alberti e oltre, a cura di F. Canali, «Bollettino della Società di Studi Fiorentini», 16–17, 2008. * Christoph Luitpold Frommel, Alberti e la porta trionfale di Castel Nuovo a Napoli, in «Annali di architettura» n° 20, Vicenza 2008 leggere l'articolo; Massimo Bulgarelli, Leon Battista Alberti, 1404-1472: Architettura e storia, Electa, Milano 2008; * Caterina Marrone, I segni dell'inganno. Semiotica della crittografia, Stampa Alternativa&Graffiti, Viterbo 2010; * S. Borsi, Leon Battista Alberti e Napoli, Firenze, 2011. * V. Galati, Il Torrione quattrocentesco di Bitonto dalla committenza di Giovanni Ventimiglia e Marino Curiale; dagli adeguamenti ai dettami del De Re aedificatoria di Leon Battista Alberti alle proposte di Francesco di Giorgio Martini (1450-1495), in Defensive Architecture of the Mediterranean XV to XVIII centuries, a cura di G. Verdiani, Firenze, 2016, vol.III. * V. Galati, Tipologie di Saloni per le udienze nel Quattrocento tra Ferrara e Mantova. Oeci, Basiliche, Curie e "Logge all'antica" tra Vitruvio e Leon Battista Alberti nel "Salone dei Mesi di Schifanoia a Ferrara e nella "Camera Picta" di Palazzo Ducale a Mantova, in Per amor di Classicismo, a cura di F. Canali «Bollettino della Società di Studi Fiorentini», 24–25, 2016. * S. Borsi, Leon Battista, Firenze, 2018.


External links


Albertian Bibliography on line

MS Typ 422.2. Alberti, Leon Battista, 1404–1472. Ex ludis rerum mathematicarum : manuscript, [14--].
Houghton Library, Harvard University.


"Learning from the City-States? Leon Battista Alberti and the London Riots"
Caspar Pearson,
Berfrois
', September 26, 2011 * Online resources for Alberti's buildings ** Alberti Photogrammetric Drawing

*
S. Andrea, Mantua, Italy
*

* Alberti's works online *

original Latin and Italian texts
English translation
*

on audio MP3 *

(printed in Rome in 1520), full digital facsimile, CAMENA Project *
''The Architecture of Leon Battista Alberti in Ten Books''
(printed in London in 1755), full digital facsimile, Linda Hall Library *
Works of Alberti
book facsimiles via archive.org {{DEFAULTSORT:Alberti, Leone Battista Leon Battista Alberti 1404 births 1472 deaths 15th-century Genoese people 15th-century Italian Roman Catholic priests 15th-century Latin writers 15th-century philosophers 15th-century Italian architects 15th-century Italian painters 15th-century Italian poets 15th-century Italian sculptors 15th-century Italian mathematicians Italian Renaissance architects Italian Renaissance humanists Italian Renaissance painters Italian Renaissance writers Architectural theoreticians Italian architecture writers Italian medallists Italian philosophers Italian male painters Italian male poets Italian male sculptors Linguists from Italy Catholic philosophers Artist authors Pre-19th-century cryptographers 15th-century antiquarians