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 Introduction 1. Francesco Guicciardini, Maxims and Reflections, trans. Mario Domandi (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1965), 69.“Se voi osservate bene, vedrete che di età in età, non solo si mutano e modi del parlare e i vocaboli, gli abiti del vestire, gli ordini dello edificare, della cultura e cose simili, ma quello che è più, e gusti ancora, in modo che uno cibo che è stato in prezzo in una età è spesso stimato manco nell’altro.” Idem, Ricordi, intro. and comm. Emilio Pasquini (Milan: Garzanti, 1975), 91. 2. As Emanuella Scarano Lugnani points out, there were five redactions of Guicciardini’s Ricordi. The first two date back to 1512; the third, from around 1525; the fourth, from 1528; and the fifth, from 1530. Guicciardini e la crisi del Rinascimento (Rome and Bari: Laterza, 1973), 61. 3. Leon Battista Alberti, On the Art of Building in Ten Books, trans. Joseph Rykwert, Neil Leach, and Robert Tavernor (Cambridge, MA, and London: MIT, 1990), 18. 4. For works on building and architecture that preceded Alberti’s, see Caroline van Eck,“The Structure of ‘De re aedificatoria’ Reconsidered,” Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians 57, no. 3 (1998): 280–297. 5. On the reception of Vitruvius’s treatise among humanists in the Quattrocento , see Hubertus Günther,“Alberti, gli umanisti contemporanei e Vitruvio,” Leon Battista Alberti: Architettura e cultura. Atti del Convegno internazionale, Man tova 16–19 novembre 1994 (Florence: L.S. Olschki, 1999), 33–44. 6. Alberti, On the Art of Building in Ten Books, 10. 7. “No building of the ancients that had attracted praise, wherever it might be,but I immediately examined it carefully,to see what I could learn from it.Therefore , I never stopped exploring, considering, and measuring everything, and comparing the information through line drawings, until I had grasped and understood fully what each had to contribute in terms of ingenuity or skill.”Ibid., 6.1.154–155. 8. On this topic Arnaldo Bruschi defines Alberti’s architecture as “la costruzione di un nuovo ‘codice dell’architettura’ (generale; non solo linguistico, stilistico) fondato sulla Natura e sulla Ragione, rispetto al quale gli Antichi si 321 pongono, più che come modello da imitare, come esempio e come guida. Non dunque la restituzione di un’architettura veramente ‘antica’ ma la proposta di un’architettura almeno tendenzialmente ‘moderna’ che avesse tutta la dignità, la sapienza costruttiva ed espressiva, la logicità e la duttilità, la ricchezza e l’‘ornamento ’ di quella antica”(the construction of a new architectural code [general, not only linguistic, stylistic] based on Nature and Religion, against which the ancients stand more as example and guide than as a model to imitate. The new code is not the return to ancient architecture, rather, it is at least a proposal for what is potentially modern and possessing the dignity,wisdom,and expressivity of construction, the logic and adaptability,the richness and the“ornament”of the ancient).“Sull’Alberti architetto,”Leon Battista Alberti: Architettura e cultura.Atti del Convegno internazionale , Mantova 16–19 novembre 1994 (Florence: L.S. Olschki, 1999), 24. 9. Naturally, Alberti was also concerned with establishing his own reputation and fame as an architect in the Florence that hailed Filippo Brunelleschi as the “father” of Renaissance architecture. To this end, see Marvin Trachtenberg, “An Observation on Alberti’s Choice of Antique Models: The Anxious Shadow of a Brunelleschian Anti-Canon,”Leon Battista Alberti: Architettura e cultura. Atti del Convegno internazionale, Mantova 16–19 novembre 1994 (Florence: L.S. Olschki, 1999), 71–77. 10. “There is no reason why we should follow their (other famous architects ’) design in our work, as though legally obliged; but rather, inspired by their example, we should strive to produce our own inventions, to rival, or, if possible to surpass the glory of theirs.”Alberti, On the Art of Building in Ten Books, 1.9.24. 11. See Alina A. Payne, The Architectural Treatise in the Italian Renaissance: Architectural Invention, Ornament, and Literary Culture (New York: Cambridge University Press, 1999), 73. 12. Alberti, On the Art of Building in Ten Books, 6.1.154. 13. Ibid. 14. Speaking of Vitruvius’s work, he writes:“His speech (was) such that the Latins might think that he wanted to appear Greek, while the Greeks would think that he babbled Latin. However, his text is evidence that he wrote neither Latin or Greek.” Ibid. 15. For an insightful analysis of Alberti’s poetic language, see Mario Martelli, “La lingua poetica di Leon Battista Alberti,” Leon Battista Alberti...

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