Editing Leon Battista Alberti (section)

==Publications==
{{further|Mathematics and architecture}}
Alberti considered mathematics as the foundation  of arts and sciences. "To make clear my exposition in writing this brief commentary on painting," Alberti began his treatise, ''Della Pittura'' (On Painting) dedicated to Brunelleschi, "I will take first from the mathematicians those things with which my subject is concerned."<ref>Leone Battista Alberti, On Painting, editor John Richard Spencer, 1956, p. 43.</ref>

''Della pittura'' (also known in Latin as ''[[De Pictura]]'') relied on the study classical [[optics]] to approach the  [[Perspective (graphical)|perspective]] in artistic and architectural representations.  Alberti was well-versed in the sciences of his age. His knowledge of [[optics]] was connected to the tradition of the ''Kitab al-manazir'' (''The Optics''; ''De aspectibus'') of the Arab polymath [[Alhazen]] ([[Ibn al-Haytham]], d. {{Circa|1041}}), which was transmitted by Franciscan optical workshops of the thirteenth-century ''Perspectivae'' traditions of scholars such as [[Roger Bacon]], [[John Peckham]], and [[Witelo]] (similar influences are also traceable in the third commentary of [[Lorenzo Ghiberti]], ''Commentario terzo'').<ref>[[Nader El-Bizri]], "A Philosophical Perspective on [[Alhazen]]’s [[Optics]]", ''Arabic Sciences and Philosophy'', vol. 15, issue 2 (2005), pp. 189–218 ([[Cambridge University Press]]).</ref>
[[File:The Archtitecture of Leon Battista Alberti title page.jpg|thumb|English title page of the first edition of Giacomo Leoni's translation of Alberti's ''De Re Aedificatoria'' (1452) - the book is bilingual, with the Italian version being printed on the left and the English version printed on the right]]
In both ''Della pittura'' and ''De statua'', Alberti stressed that "all steps of learning should be sought from nature".<ref name=kirjasto>{{cite web|url=http://www.kirjasto.sci.fi/alberti.htm |title=Leon Battista Alberti |website=Books and Writers (kirjasto.sci.fi) |first=Petri |last=Liukkonen |publisher=[[Kuusankoski]] Public Library |location=Finland |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150210175324/http://www.kirjasto.sci.fi/alberti.htm |archive-date=February 10, 2015 |url-status=dead }}</ref> 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".<ref name=kirjasto/> 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".<ref name=kirjasto/> 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 spent considerable time studying its ancient sites, ruins, and arts. His detailed observations, included in his {{lang|la|[[De re aedificatoria]]}} (1452, ''On the Art of Building''),<ref name=DeRe>Alberti, Leon Battista. On ''the Art of Building in Ten Books''. Trans. Leach, N., Rykwert, J., & Tavenor, R. Cambridge: The MIT Press, 1988</ref> were inspired by the essay ''De architectura'' written by the Roman architect and engineer [[Vitruvius]] ([[floruit|fl.]] 46–30 BC). Alberti's work was the first architectural treatise of the Renaissance. It covered a wide range of subjects, from history to town planning, from engineering to the [[aesthetics]]. {{lang|la|De re aedificatoria}}, a large and expensive book, was not published until 1485, after which it became a major reference for architects.<ref>Center for Palladian Studies in America, Inc., [http://www.palladiancenter.org/predecessors.html Palladio's Literary Predecessors] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181217055656/http://www.palladiancenter.org/predecessors.html |date=2018-12-17 }}</ref> However, the book was written "not only for craftsmen but also for anyone interested in the noble arts", as Alberti put it.<ref name=DeRe/> 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]] 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.<ref name=kirjasto/> 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".<ref name=kirjasto/> ''Momus'', written between 1443 and 1450, was a notable comedy about the Olympian deities. It has been considered as a [[roman à clef]]—[[Jupiter (mythology)|Jupiter]] has been identified in some sources as Pope Eugenius IV and Pope Nicholas V. Alberti borrowed many of its characters from [[Lucian]], 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.