On the subject of architecture a number of seminal texts for the history of the discipline have been selected for this exhibition.
The volumes presented are among the most important historical texts on the history and theory of architecture. They are some of the first texts in which theoretical reflections on the art of building are elaborated, with the endeavour of systematising it, establishing the basic concepts and dealing with the problems of the professional practice.
The chosen specimens, all endowed with numerous illustration of outstanding quality, witness the substantial and typological evolution of the treatise over the centuries.
The exhibit opens with Vitruvius, the only Latin writer of architecture whose work has reached us and a model of knowledge throughout the Renaissance. The works of Barbaro and Baldi are respectively a translation and a lexicographic study and they testify to Vitruvius' interest and fortune in the Renaissance.
Leon Battista Alberti was the first Renaissance writer of treatises, who theorized the three major arts (painting, sculpture and architecture) by tackling both technical and aesthetic issues. Here his treatise is presented here in the Italian translation by Cosimo Bartoli.
The treatises of Vignola and Scamozzi were written between the second half of the sixteenth century and the beginning of the seventeenth century respectively. Rich in innovative ideas, they are examples of two different concepts of architecture - a practical and a classic one.
