Alberti's

It is cited frequently in Alberti's De pictura and would be translated into Italian by Alberti's protégé, Cristofero Landino (see Grayson's translation of De pictura, 98n12).

Architecture and Memory: The Renaissance Studioli of Federico da Montefeltro 2008

When the library was recataloged toward the end of the 15th century, Alberti's manuscript was placed alongside Aegidius Romanus's De regimine principe, Thomas Aquinas's Physiognomia, and Gregory the Great's Moralia in Job. back

Architecture and Memory: The Renaissance Studioli of Federico da Montefeltro 2008

See also Alberti's analogy of the city-house/house-city in Art of Building, 1.9.23. back

Architecture and Memory: The Renaissance Studioli of Federico da Montefeltro 2008

Likewise, Alberti's insistence on the importance of music for an architect reflects the ethical sentiments of Boethius (also depicted at Urbino), who urged that music is concerned with both speculative truth and morality and that "the soul of the universe is united by musical concord."

Architecture and Memory: The Renaissance Studioli of Federico da Montefeltro 2008

Martin Kemp has described Alberti's (h) istoria as roughly equivalent to what later academic theorists would call 'history painting,' that is to say, a human narrative drawn from some significant secular or Christian story.

Architecture and Memory: The Renaissance Studioli of Federico da Montefeltro 2008

In addition to the illusionistic depth provided by the intarsia and paintings, which prevent the chamber from feeling too "close," the arrangement of multiple doors provides ample ventilation, consistent with Alberti's suggestion that a room be prepared for summer conditions, since it is more difficult to cool than to heat a space.

Architecture and Memory: The Renaissance Studioli of Federico da Montefeltro 2008

The mnemonic role of architectural ornament casts a different light on Alberti's seemingly contradictory discussion of concinnitas, whereby an architectural construct is conceived as an irreducible whole, yet structure is distinguished from ornament.

Architecture and Memory: The Renaissance Studioli of Federico da Montefeltro 2008

Centering on the structure's exterior, Alberti's recommendations included an objection to the patron's desire for round windows in the cupola.

Architecture and Memory: The Renaissance Studioli of Federico da Montefeltro 2008

The tradition of ut pictura poesis, described in Horace's Art of Poetry, and Aristotle's mimesis historia, the imitation of human events discussed in Poetics, is embedded in Alberti's articulation of istoria.

Architecture and Memory: The Renaissance Studioli of Federico da Montefeltro 2008

Themes of reconciliation and universal harmony, such as Alberti's concinnitas and Cusa's coincidentia oppositorum, were counterposed to a litany of crises in faith, politics, and scholarship.

Architecture and Memory: The Renaissance Studioli of Federico da Montefeltro 2008