Leon Battista Alberti: Master Builder of the Italian Renaissance - Tapa dura

Leon Battista Alberti (1404-72) was one of the most original, creative and exciting figures of the Italian Renaissance. He wrote the first modern treatise on painting, the first modern manual of classical architecture and a powerful set of 'dialogues' about the patrician families that dominated his home city of Florence. He rediscovered the forgotten aesthetics of classical architecture and described, in incomparably vivid terms, the artistic revolution in Florence that began what we now callthe Renaissance. He made spectacular advances in the art of painting and in engineering, and as an architect he was responsible for some of the most exciting buildings in Italy.

Anthony Grafton is Dodge Professor of History at Princeton University. His last book was 'The Footnote: A Curious History'. He is also writing a study of the original Doctor Faustus for Penguin.