Humanism and the Urban World: Leon Battista Alberti and the Renaissance City

by Caspar Pearson

In Humanism and the Urban World, Caspar Pearson offers a profoundly revisionist account of Leon Battista Alberti’s approach to the urban environment as exemplified in the extensive theoretical treatise De re aedificatoria ( On the Art of Building in Ten Books ), brought mostly to completion in the 1450s, as well as in his larger body of written work. Past scholars have generally characterized the Italian Renaissance architect and theorist as an enthusiast of the city who envisioned it as a rational, Renaissance ideal. Pearson argues, however, that Alberti’s approach to urbanism was far more complex―that he was even “essentially hostile” to the city at times. Rather than proposing the “ideal” city, Pearson maintains, Alberti presented a variety of possible cities, each one different from another. This book explores the ways in which Alberti sought to remedy urban problems, tracing key themes that manifest in De re aedificatoria. Chapters address Alberti’s consideration of the city’s possible destruction and the city’s capacity to provide order despite its intrinsic instability; his assessment of a variety of political solutions to that instability; his affinity for the countryside and discussions of the virtues of the active versus the contemplative life; and his theories of aesthetics and beauty, in particular the belief that beauty may affect the soul of an enemy and thus preserve buildings from attack.

Genres: History

280 pages, Hardcover

First published August 12, 2011

Reviews

[blythe · Rating 3 out of 5]

technically a dnf at page 150, just not fully related to my topic

[Reid Powers · Rating 3 out of 5]

Pearson is effective, in an intellectual sense, in this revisionist look at renaissance great Leon Battista Alberti and that man's views on architecture and city planning. Pearson's deft use of primary sources helps to build and refine his argument, and from an academic standpoint this is a great piece of research.

Alberti is a fascinating figure in his own right--I was already a big fan of some of his work (the facade of Santa Maria Novella in Florence, designed in large part by Alberti, is stunning and is one of my favorites in the world), and I learned quite a bit about his personal philosophy and his outlook on cities and urban life in general. Especially interesting to me are Alberti's ethical views and how he thought that city living reshaped the moral framework of its residents.

Despite all this, however, Pearson's writing is unbearably dry and not a lot of fun to get through. I typically don't mind academic-style writing, within reason, but I admit that this book was a slog to read.