Editing Leon Battista Alberti (section)

==Contributions and cultural influence==
[[File:Tempio malatestiano, ri, facciata, capitello.JPG|thumb|Detail of the façade of [[Tempio Malatestiano]]]]
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 (graphical)|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, ''[[:it:De statua|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, {{lang|la|[[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]] 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 during 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 [[Andrea Mantegna|Mantegna]], [[Piero della Francesca]], and [[Fra Angelico]]. 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 a skilled composer of [[Latin]] verse:  a comedy he wrote when twenty years old, entitled ''Philodoxius'', would later deceive the younger [[Aldus Manutius]], who edited and published it as the genuine work of 'Lepidus Comicus'.

[[File:Toscana24te.jpg|thumb|The upper storey of [[Santa Maria Novella]]]]
[[File:Santa Maria Novella (Florence) - 0851.jpg|thumb|One of the giant scrolls at Santa Maria Novella]]
* He has been credited with being the author, or alternatively, the designer of the [[woodcut]] illustrations, of the ''[[Hypnerotomachia Poliphili]]'', a strange [[fantasy]] novel.<ref>Liane Lefaivre, ''Leon Battista Alberti's Hypnerotomachia Poliphili'', Cambridge: MIT Press, 1997</ref>
* 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 [[cryptography|cryptographer]] by the standard of his day and invented the first [[polyalphabetic cipher]], which is now known as the [[Alberti cipher]], and machine-assisted encryption using his [[Alberti Cipher Disk|Cipher Disk]]. 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 classical times. Cryptography historian [[David Kahn (writer)|David Kahn]] called 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".{{cite book |author=David Kahn |title=The codebreakers: the story of secret writing |url=https://archive.org/details/codebreakerssto00kahn |url-access=registration |publisher=MacMillan |location=New York |year=1967}}
* 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]]. 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. 
* 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 [[Roman Catholic Church|church]] of [[Florence]], and thus – perhaps – had the leisure to devote himself to this art, but this is only speculation. Vasari also agreed with this.<ref name=Vasari/>
* He was interested in the drawing of [[map]]s and worked with the [[astronomer]], astrologer, and [[cartographer]] [[Paolo Toscanelli]].
* In the domain of Aesthetics Alberti is recognized for his definition 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".<ref>De Pictura, book III: Ergo semper quae picturi sumus, ea a natura sumamus, semperque ex his quaeque pulcherrima et dignissima deligamus.</ref>
* 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."<ref>Brosi, p. 254</ref>